On the side of the building, it says "Furniture and Carpets" on the far side of the sign, and "Undertaking and Embalming" on the near side. I can see the connection between furniture and undertaking, but it seems like an odd combination of goods and services nonetheless. I would have found it rather disconcerting to shop for a chifferobe or étagère while someone's recently-departed loved one was possibly being embalmed in the back room.

The 'large, empty lot' is right there to the right in Hoss' photo. The houses between Macy Street and Clara Street were torn down in 1925. Think Bubonic Plague. Pics of the area being leveled have been posted on NLA. Look at the left edge of the school building and the viaduct tunnel. Their alignment indicates we're on the north side of Macy which runs down the left edge of the pic behind that fence. (Also notice no Vignes Street up here in 1921)

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3805/...4e5f0172_o.pngLos Angeles Baist, 1921, sheet 5

:previous:

I found this aerial view of Macy Street and Clara Street from 1938.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...l.jpg~original
Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

Great shot for our purposes. Houses gone ='large, empty lot'. And a good, if inadvertent, view of Wilson Packing (upper rightish) and the L.A. Pressed Brick Co. (upper left corner).

If you look at the front door area of the building, it appears that there are actually two doors, side by side. Maybe one was the undertakers and the other was the furniture store. Perhaps both run by either the same person or two family members.

An interesting note: the "Olathe Mirror" a paper from Olathe, Kansas dated April 10, 1919 has an ad for Ryan and Company, Furniture and Undertaking with the text reading "In our furniture department you will always find a nice assortment of furniture and rugs at the lowest possible price with good values"

There is no date on the picture we have so maybe the Ryans moved west in the next few years. 1919 was early for "chain stores"


UPDATE: Albert Ryan, born in Ohio in 1862, appears in the 1900 Census in Olathe, Kansas as an undertaker. He does not, however, show up in any directories or censuses in Los Angeles

What a beauty.
I found another view of the float
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...e/00101821.jpg lapl

In 1937 you could go see the new Daylight at Expo Park before the 1st day of service. That must've been fun:


http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...lle/3-9-37.jpg LAT 3-9-37

On March 21, 1937 at exactly 8:15 SP had dual christianing ceremonies before the northbound and southbound trains set off from LA and SF. In LA, Olivia de Havilland did the honors:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...obelle/002.jpg
from the book "4449 The Queen of Steam"

This would be the old SP Central depot.

Here it is leaving Central:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...elle/003_1.jpg Queen of Steam

The crew proudly posing at Central 3-21-37
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...obelle/004.jpg

11-15-37 ad for the train. I'm sure it was a thrill.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...e/11-15-37.jpg LAT

A Daylight near Lockheed
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...e/00085753.jpg LAPL

I got to pet the tame 4449 when it came to California for Railfair in 1999
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...obelle/005.jpg
Suitcase full of 1940s True Story and Daring Detective magazines. (I'm not kidding). According to the Queen of Steam book, the single-bulb Mars light was replaced by the double-bulb type in the 1950s.

4449 is I think the only surviving engine that's still painted in Daylight colors (most of the time). The other surviver I'm aware of is a single-light "war baby" in the St. Louis Museum of Transportation and doesn't do excusions like 4449.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...belle/4460.jpg
http://http://www.railarchive.net/ra...ges/sp4460.jpg

Sure enough, just as MichealRyerson said,Clara Street was the epicenter of the plague back in the 1920s.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...537/OHZZFR.jpg
this is from the early days of the thread.

"Grocery near Clara St. where first plague-infested rat was found."
__



Back to the gambling machines. What do you think they did with the machines after they busted them up?

My guess is that they buried them on the spot. Anyone have a metal detector?................... and a jackhammer.;)

__

:previous: Wow! That's you NCD?

http://imageshack.com/a/img540/990/59nltL.gif
courtesy of Tex Avery

__

I'm in love.

The 1924 plague's first deaths were at 742 and 741 Clara Street.

I've read that at least one of these homes escaped the orgy of urban renewal excused by the outbreak and lasted (by then owned by the city) until the 1950s.

Can anyone identify the house(s) in the aerial?

The raiload my father worked for, the Western Pacific, had 6 G4s built during WWII. They ran on the main line right behind our house in Elko, NV. My dad made a little step so I could look at the trains over our back fence.

http://www.bitsmasherpress.com/LANoir/G4.jpg

Cheers,

Earl

That is so sweet. It sounds like you had a wonderful father.

The original picture can also be found on rmyauctions.com, where the description says "1939 Slot Machines Destroyed by Government, 1000's of Games Piled Up to be Burned".

That's certainly what they did with them in Chicago, as can be seen in a short 1947 film clip at efootage.com.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...909/hN1NZr.jpg
google_maps

While I was in the Clara Street vicinity I crossed the river (in the google-mobile) and came across this building on the southwest corner of Aliso Street and Mission Road.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...673/tsNNuv.jpg
gsv

When I see a building like this I try to imagine what it looked like when first built, long before the graceful arches were bricked in.


It's even more interesting a bit further south on Mission Road.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...540/Dz9GuO.jpg
gsv


I probably wouldn't have bothered posting about it, but I noticed a clue to it's original owners on the Aliso Street frontage.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...673/mCI1q7.jpg
gsv



detail
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...905/L5cNuV.jpg
gsv

Think we can figure out the original purpose of this building with this one-letter clue?
__

Remember Ed Henry? He lived at 161 N. Mission Road, just a long block south of your mystery building w/arches. Ed responded to a post by PHX31 and it was his only post on the thread. Pg 703ish.

:previous:

I posted this picture back in post #18016. I thought I recalled a least one follow-up with color pictures, but maybe I'm just remembering my own research with GSV.

:previous: That's a great shot Hoss. I am surprised most of the arches were already filled in as early as 1944.


I enlarged the photo to try and read the name(s) on the building. -but I still can't make it out.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/540/GpOB4e.jpg
detail / lapl

161 N. Mission road
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...901/aveisI.jpg
gsv

:previous: I remember him now. I wonder what happened to him?

Interior of St. Josephs Catholic Church, 1960
 

http://www.califaztlan.org/LANoirPics/stjosephs.jpg

http://www.califaztlan.org/LANoirPics/stjosephs.jpg

Interior of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Los Angeles and 11th Streets, 1960. That's my mother and father being wed. Church was destroyed by fire c.1980.

According to Loopnet 333 N Mission Rd was built in 1920. There were many permits issued in the 1940s to California Mission Vintage (and/or Calif Mission Vintage Winery or Company). There are no permits prior to the 40s. It may have been addressed differently earlier. By 1951 the property is listed as a "factory" with a different owner.