Dark City.
 

Solitary men with nothing to do and no money to do it with...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8304/7...45037ff6_o.jpg
Skid row negatives, 1955 (1)

Killing time with a smoke and a story...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8443/7...12063266_o.jpg
Skid row negatives, 1955 (9)


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8312/7...c089d416_o.jpg
Skid row negatives, 1955 (8)


Skid row negatives, 28 January 1955. Rolli negatives made on East 5th Street.

USCdigital archive/Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection, 1950-1961

e_r: re the houses you recently posted: The Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood is--or was-- I think it has closed-- the site of D.F.'s house....

I think we've seen both the "Missionish" house and the Forrester house here before. The first is on Westmoreland or maybe Westchester near Olympic... the Forrester may be one of the ones we saw not all that long ago closer to downtown. I'll try to track them down.

I found this in the LAPL archives:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics20/00019925.jpg
LAPL

It just says, Inglewood, 1893, however.

The cupola is different but it's from almost the same angle. The windmill would be just out of frame to the right.

I also found these:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics20/00019928.jpg
LAPL

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics20/00019931.jpg
LAPL

Then here's this aerial from 1968 which says it's the Freeman House but I see no cupola at all.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics20/00019927.jpg
LAPL

And here is the same site today:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8174/7...3ce79c9e_h.jpg

Inexplicably, the house has been razed. Good old L.A.

Then I came across this great article:

Daniel Freeman Mansion
Previous Entry | Next Entry
By Sam Gnerre on July 27, 2011

http://www.insidesocal.com/history/a...x356-54056.jpgDaniel Freeman, left, was born on a farm in Ontario, Canada in 1837. After a brief career as a teacher, he decided to go to law school, passing the bar in 1864.

He married Catherine Grace Christie and would go on to have three children with her. His wife's tuberculosis required that the family moved to warmer weather, so they left Canada in 1873, settling first in Charleston and then Atlanta.

Freeman's readings suggested that the climate in California ultimately would be best for Catherine's health, so the family moved to Julian in San Diego for a time. Despite his attempts, Catherine died in 1874.

Through a series of transactions from 1881-1885, Freeman ended up owning two Southern California ranchos, the Rancho Sausal Redondo and the Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela.
Freeman first tried being a gentleman farmer, then raised barley, a cash crop, for a time. Ultimately, though, Freeman's greatest success would come in real estate. He became a central figure in the development of Inglewood through his Centinela-Inglewood Land Company.

Freeman's company caught the end of the great Los Angeles land boom of the 1880s, and he became a very wealthy man through subdivision and sale of his real estate holdings and through other ventures such as his Continuous Brick Kiln Co., which manufactured bricks for construction.

The Freeman family had been living in their ranch house, now known as the historic landmark the Centinela Adobe, when Daniel decided to build a mansion matching his growing status in the community.

The mansion was to be located on the property that would later become Daniel Freeman Hospital, on the west side of present-day Prairie Avenue between Manchester and Florence avenues. Freeman began planning the mansion in 1887, with construction and finishing of the grand structure taking place from July through September of 1888.



http://www.insidesocal.com/history/freemanmansionlc.jpg

The Daniel Freeman Mansion in Inglewood in 1970, shortly before it was demolished. Photo: Library of Congress.



Freeman used bricks from his brick company, as well as redwood he purchased when a boat carrying the lumber ran aground in Redondo Beach. He wanted the house to be a landmark, but he favored a sturdy wood and brick design over the more ostentatious Victorian houses more commonly built by the well-to-do during that period. The wood was carved with ornate designs, and there was a stained-glass window containing the family crest above one of the mansion's nine fireplaces.

Once the mansion was built, the Freemans began living there in style, entertaining high-class guests at balls complete with live orchestras. Freeman had become a prominent figure in Southern California; he was twice president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and was the first president of the exclusive men's group the California Club.

After his daughter Grace married Charles Howland in 1888, the couple continued to live in the Centinela Adobe. Her father sold his last interests in his ranchos in 1912, and lived peacefully in the mansion until his death in 1918.



http://www.insidesocal.com/history/freemancolumnlc.jpg

Looking out on vegetation from the porch at the Daniel Freeman Mansion in Inglewood in 1970. Photo: Library of Congress.



The Howlands divorced in the early 1920s, and Grace moved into the mansion. She lived a somewhat reclusive life there until her death in 1956 at the age of 86.

Before she died, Grace spent a great deal of time planning for the future of the estate. She traveled the country in search of an organization that could best carry out her plan for a hospital on the site, and settled on the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, deeding them nine acres of family property in 1942 expressly for the construction of a hospital.

Daniel Freeman Hospital, operated by the Carondelet order, opened on the site in 1954. The Sisters inherited the entire property following Grace's death. Two nearby streets, Grace Avenue and Howland Drive, were named in her honor.

No one lived at the mansion following Grace's death, but it was used by the hospital for a time to hold classes. Vandals kept stealing medical equipment from the abandoned house, though, and classes were discontinued. Despite security measures, homeless people would occasionally break in and live there, which led to fears that the historic mansion would be destroyed by fire. The stained glass window was stolen during this period, and never recovered.

By 1970, the disposition of the mansion had become a real issue, as the hospital wanted to use the land on which it stood. The Sisters offered to deed the structure to the city, providing that it be moved from hospital land. Because of the size of the mansion, though, this idea was deemed impractical.

So, in an unpopular decision in 1972, the Daniel Freeman Mansion was demolished to make room for expansion at Daniel Freeman Hospital.

Some parts of the home and its furnishings were saved and given to the Historical Society of Centinela Valley. The hand-carved door ended up being installed at Inglewood City Hall in June 1977.

Tenet Healthcare sold Daniel Freeman Hospital and nearby Centinela Hospital Medical Center to Prime Healthcare Services in 2007. Daniel Freeman Hospital closed first its emergency room and later the entire in-patient hospital shortly afterwards. Today, a variety of medical clinics and offices operate on the old Daniel Freeman property at 333 N. Prairie Avenue, but the hospital itself remains closed.



http://www.insidesocal.com/history/danielclosed.jpg

Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood has been closed for several years. Daily Breeze photo, July 2011.



Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

"Family History, Freeman Family Papers, CSLA-21," website, http://library.lmu.edu/specialcollec...s__CSLA-21.htm.

"Freeman Mansion reflects history and generosity," by Ray Ripton, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 1, 1967, Page CS1.

"Future Uncertain for Mansion With a Past," by Ray Ripton, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 11, 1970, Page CS1.

The History of Inglewood, by Gladys Waddingham, Historical Society of Centinela Valley, 1994.

Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, The Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/.

:previous: Excellent finds KevinW...I am duly impressed!
I had to cringe at that last aerial photograph...the lot remains..yet the magnificent house is gone. :(

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Another impressive residence...this time with crenellations.

http://imageshack.us/a/img528/1481/a...e1897wmark.jpg
ebay

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While looking up A.C. Freeman, I found this interesting article about a shooting competition in the Cahuenga Pass:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed..._0127_guns.jpg
LA Times

I liked the headlines:

Women prove themselves to be good shots during a target match in the Cahuenga Pass ... A.C. Freeman scores 22 out of a possible 25 at 50 yards with his rifle upside-down and the stock resting against his forehead ... An attorney attempts suicide ... A waitress is injured when she steps between two men who are fighting over her ... Chamberlain's Cough Remedy contains no opium, chloroform or any other harmful ingredient!

Another fine residence with crenellations. I have to wonder about the column on city property at the corner (I wish I knew the name of the streets)

http://imageshack.us/a/img803/522/aa...ssuehayaka.jpg
ebay



http://imageshack.us/a/img607/1893/a...ncesessue2.jpg
http://www.silentsaregolden.com/home...ehayakawa.html



below: Our man Sessue with none other than Anna May Wong.

http://imageshack.us/a/img687/9026/a...ssuewitham.jpg

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According to this website, Hawakawa built his "castle" at the corner of Franklin Avenue and Argyle Street in 1917. It was apparently torn down in 1956.

A quick search at Regional History sources on LAPL.org provides the data- with 2 possibilities - E.A. Forrester home either at no. or so. stretch of Lake Street- # is 1121 - this runs parallel and one block west of Alvarado- so either quite close to Echo Park Lake (though awfully hilly thereabouts for this estate) Or more likely several blocks south east of Macarthur Park- then a tony Westlake neighborhood----His firm was downtown on So.Spring St.--All this easily found in the 1909 City Directory - online---

:previous: Thank's for the information Handsome_Stranger and rick_m.

After viewing google maps..it looks as if Sessue Hayakawa's mansion was demolished for the Hollywood Freeway.
I'm a bit disappointed...I wanted to find a remnant of that stately column that stood on the corner. :(
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Here is another one..the John Barnes Miller residence.

http://imageshack.us/a/img88/4875/re...millernoad.jpg
unknown/found on an old cd of mine

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Finally got image of old state building pit to show up
 

Sorry about that. I'm a bit rusty at gettting my images to show up. Next I'll find the history of the second state building that is now just a pond in the middle of the pit.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8298/7...bdde4eb407.jpg
USC Digital Library: Photograph of the new Office Building No. 2 at the corner of Broadway and Second Street, facing north. The sign in the front of the building reads "State of California Office Building No. 2, State Division of Architecture." "New State Office building an example of economy. Legislature cut out the frills, kept the costs down." -- Examiner clipping attached to verso, dated 17 April 1960.

Picture of State Building #2 taken from the west lawn of STate Building #1 during construction 1960. Herald Examiner. I remember walking south on Broadway when this building sat empty waiting to be turned into a pit following its weaking by 1994 Northridge quake, correct?

It wasn't on Westmoreland or Westchester as I mentioned earlier I thought it might be-- couldn't find it in any previous posts here, but did find this pic in my files with these notes: "The Archie Freeman house (Dennis & Farwell 1903), noted in West Adams book [I guess I mean the Images of America one, which I don't have with me to check] as being at 1305 S. Gramercy--thought at first it was gone but it turned up at 1409 S. Gramercy, next door to the Stratton house at 1415, which is HCM 855. A.C. Freeman is son of Daniel Freeman see his house in Inglewood (dem)" Note the baby palm and what might be the same one today.

Here it is today:

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/6...0capture25.jpgGoogle SV


Notice the similarity to Dennis & Farwell's Wilson house at #7 Chester Place, also still standing:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4...2520AM.bmp.jpgLAPL

:previous: Excellent GayordWilshire! I didn't expect the house to still be standing.
also.. very interesting alanlutz...thanks for clarifying. I had my empty lots confused.
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Wooden apartment building at Toluca and Douglas Streets just north of 1st Street in Echo Park.

http://imageshack.us/a/img402/9549/a...asstreet19.jpg
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=71280




below: The apartment building today.

http://imageshack.us/a/img708/5794/a...asstreetto.jpg
google street view

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The 'Dick' Whittington Photography Studio. Anyone know where this was located?

http://imageshack.us/a/img51/4339/aadickw2.jpg
found on ebay

Naive me thought Mr. Whittington took all those photographs himself. Obviously not unless he was able to drive 4 cars at once. :)

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Have a SAFE Labor Day weekend everyone!

http://imageshack.us/a/img198/6752/a...eletonlapl.jpg
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=49114

http://imageshack.us/a/img507/6817/a...eletoninfo.jpg
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=49114

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This was at 3845 Wisconsin Street down by the Coliseum (now replaced)-- here's a bit about it from his 1985 obit in the Times:

"Whittington, a native of Los Angeles and a former USC student, first set up shop in a garage at his home near the USC campus. As business expanded, he converted the studio and home to a Tudor garden complex, complete with swimming pool for aquatic assignments.

"After World War II, during which his studios were under contract to the Navy, he moved closer to downtown Los Angeles, on West Olympic Boulevard, where the studio continues to stand."

The postwar studio was at 1501 W Olympic Blvd-- there's a brick building there now which may be the same as the studio that was standing in 1985--anyway, I'm posting a street view of it mainly because of the vine-covered subway entrance:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-R...743%2520PM.jpgGoogle Street View

I was born at Daniel Freeman several years before the mansion was razed. I guess I was too young to try and save it. Sorry.