Originally Posted by jumbo0 (Post 8049147)

I have some more before / after aerial photos, but resized a bit to fit better in this forum. Also, I have on my website some juxtapose's which is a nice script to slide over the photo to compare then with now. Since I can't post such codes here I give the link to my page where you can see them. Updates on the way! :)

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 8048384)

Thanks for the information Krell58. I had no idea.

(and you're right, I didn't see the upper branches of that whitewashed tree)

__

Originally Posted by Tourmaline (Post 8048435)

Bob's Air Mail Service . . . once more, with gusto?

1935 - Bob Spencer's Mobile Gas Station, Cochran and Wilshire (Seems a shame that those quaint/understated street lamps have disappeared from the street. :( Could that be "Bob" fiddling with the aircraft's nose?) )
http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...f25022493c.jpghttp://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...f25022493c.jpg

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson (Post 8049292)

Yowza, Jumbo! Your '44 image gives us a really superior aerial shot of...wait for it...Monkey Island! Thanks so much. Post the image. I'd never presume to short stop you. (I would really appreciate your permission to load a copy into my Flickr photo-stream, though.)

Boy those are both really nice images.

Originally Posted by Lojack (Post 8049564)

I was looking up street light info this weekend and found the lamps were called Wilshire Specials, and were only used along Wilshire Blvd.

The waterandpowermuseum site has a few more pictures of them on the start of the following page-http://waterandpower.org/museum/Earl...ts_Page_2.html

I then was curious and street viewed a bit of Wilshire, but the only section that I could find that still has them is the short stretch of Wilshire that runs through MacArthur Park.

https://goo.gl/maps/txwejEbDtW52
GSV

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 4564211)

:previous:

Yeah, all that sweet green icing flowing down. ;)

Apparently when Wilshire Blvd. was extended into downtown, a lot of buildings had to be demolished. The part of Wilshire east of MacArthur Park was always considered the less distinctive part, being that Wilshire was meant to be a grand boulevard but it originally only went west from MacArthur Park. Interestingly, it was intended NEVER to have a streetcar line going down it, it was meant to be a boulevard for autos. In the 1920s and 1930s, special double-decker open-top buses ran down Wilshire as public transportation, which is why some department stores were designed with 2nd-floor display windows like this one:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics46/00042959.jpg
lapl.org

It's kind of hard to see but this pic shows one of the special double-decker buses that used to run down Wilshire:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068433.jpg
lapl.org

Here's another shot of Wilshire and a double-decker bus, courtesy of the USC digital archive. Picture is from 1938:
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2...ledeckbusi.jpg

Wilshire and Bronson, 1931, from the USC digital archive:
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/365...ronson1931.jpg

Those "Wilshire Special" street lamps date from the late 1920s, I think, and originally went west from MacArthur Park to Fairfax. They stopped at Fairfax because originally, west of Fairfax was unincorporated County territory, so the City of LA had no jurisdiction there; I'm not sure when that parcel was annexed into the City. Those Wilshire Specials only exist now through Mac Arthur Park and a few miles east of there, and many of them are in bad shape, some really rusted. I assume they're made of cast iron like many old lamposts back then. It's hard to see but the corners of the lanterns are adorned with nude females.

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 4564211)

It's hard to see but the corners of the lanterns are adorned with nude females.

Originally Posted by Krell58 (Post 8046549)

The tree trunk is painted with white clay or slow lime. The tree extends above the painted area if you look closely.
Trees could be painted with the clay or lime for decoration or to protect the bark from sun scald or cracks.

Originally Posted by Fab Fifties Fan (Post 5466741)

Jean Porter as Darlene in 'Cry Danger' [1951]

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-i...s800/CD-04.jpg
[source: TCM]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 8045596)

:previous: This is great GW!

thank you, thank you, thank you.

(I'm still looking for a photograph of the Washington Building & Loan, but I havn't had any luck yet)

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 8050707)

Krell58, here's an example of poles painted purely for aesthetics, right?

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/pQMXbL.jpg
Sherman Way 1920, Owensmouth

__

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 8050744)

Ad found in the El Rodeo, 1909 (USC yearbook)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/rhBzqX.jpg
usc digital archive

Segnogram Press must have just moved to this location.

The 1909 city directory still has the press at 110 E. 4th St

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/3...922/5U7UW1.jpglapl

The 1719 Kane address shows up in the 1913 directory.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/3...922/dwB2WU.jpglapl

__

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge (Post 8050926)

Segnogram? As in A. Victor Segno? Cool old building, too!

Originally Posted by Lojack (Post 8050896)

The above aerial photo of the Coliseum reminded me about a question I have for a photo that was posted here many pages ago.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=17071

This photo is the only one I've seen that has an area of development to the east of the Coliseum on the Agricultural Park/Exposition Park grounds. Earlier photos of the construction show that as flat land, and later as in the aerial a few posts above, it was styled with the current loop with greenery. If the dates are accurate, that means this was only up for a few years, between 1922-1927. Any ideas on what it may have been? Looks substantial for a short term building cluster.

Originally Posted by BifRayRock (Post 7641573)