Good morning all…I’m brand new to posting here although I joined back in early December. I’ve been going page by page through all the posts and love it. I have lived in the LA area all my life and at 71 I’ve seen lots of the places and things discussed on these pages so maybe I can help shed a little light on some.
The main thing that finally brought me out of the shadows was the house on 23rd. which got me wondering the same question, why is it blurred out. Many people don’t know that Bing Maps also has a street view and although not as extensive as Google it still can be a useful tool in comparing features. Also useful is the birds eye views which look from all four directions not just one.
I’m not ready to figure out yet how to post here (any instructions would be welcome) but if you go to Bing and check out the birds eye you can manipulate some of the views around between the most current shots and if you do it right you will see views of that house with the attic and roof burned out (looks like Detroit). Also a view looking down 23rd. from the west it appears that the house may be gone. So I think there was a fire and perhaps the house is no longer there. Why the owners would want it blurred out? Who knows.

I’m still fumbling around here, but as I mentioned before, I grew up in LA and in this instance, lived for 17 years less than a mile from this intersection. And I think it’s spot-on just as noted. One of my best friends in grade school lived in one of the oldest houses in the area just up Morton and I rode that Red Car up those tracks a number one times as a kid. So yeah I have no doubt that is the right place!
BTW, I'm not sure if my comment here is clear. I'm talking about the Morton Ave. and Echo Park Ave. picture here.

zippity do dah
 

Hi to 90004
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-w...736%2520AM.jpg

and Belmont Bob :-)

T2
90025 (née 90254, 90038)

I wonder how much of the city norishers lifetime zip codes would cover?

90026 from 1941 to 1963

Sanchez Street
 

Was this one ever identified? It's my long-lamented Sanchez Street. Partly demolished (short-sightedly), regretted at leisure. The freeways bowed to Ms Doheny and Brew 102 but not Sanchez. What an asset this would be today:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-N...837%2520PM.jpg
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Earl..._(Page_2).html

Left to right on the west side: Masonic Hall, Merced Theater, Pico House. The remains of the Garnier Block are on the east:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-4...546%2520PM.jpg
gsv

That's a hopeless gate. It doesn't even span the street.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i...859%2520PM.jpg

Thx!

in the old days before zip codes, the area was just Los Angeles zone 26

There’s something mysterious and fascinating about the backs of old building like these. I kind of expect something to jump out of one of those doors or windows and attack. Haha but it’s like here is life on the simple side with no frills…

90019 1982-2004
91030 2009-2011
90019 2012

HunterK has posted some wonderful photos of alleys and the exposed insides of downtown blocks. A favorite is of a single figure walking between tall brick walls with a graffiti progression on the fire-escape landings behind him. I can't find it at the moment. Maybe it's because of the kind of work I do, but I love back doors, service entrances and loading docks, the utilitarian sides of buildings as opposed to their public faces.

I too am old enough to remember the old numbering system. Where I live was Los Angeles 25. The telephone exchange was GRanite-0.

Zip Code Living...
 

Mr.Swink

90046 1998-2004
90005 2005-2010
90020 2010-Present

Please do! My grandfather's house is literally hundreds of yards from there and I would love to see what was there before his home.

yes, I grew up in Echo Park and spent many an hour at the lake, fishing or riding the little boats. If you should ever come on to photos of the original old big wood barn building that was at nearby Logan Street School, I might name my next grandchild after you. Hahaha..jk but I've been looking for a photo of the old place which was torn down around 1970 for a long time.

I should have posted this under ethereal_reality...but i'm still trying to figure all this out...

I only have two zip codes to my name - 90035 until late 1996; 90025 through the present.

This Hotel Pepper postcard started it all for me.
 

As I stated in another post, staying at the Park Plaza Hotel in 1986 as a kid made me fall in love with Los Angeles architecture. But about a decade ago a friend of mine, Roger, randomly sent me this post card of the Hotel Pepper. I thought I would try and find out if it still existed. So began my obsession with researching the architecture, history, lay out and photography of Los Angeles. I started out a decade ago looking at the LAPL archives and moved on to the USC and UCLA, doing the LA Conservancy Tours and reading blogs like the 1947 Project noir crime blog. But I opened a book today and came across the postcard that started it all.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...inla/photo.jpg
Photo by Mr. Swink

I remember when I finally found these images below of the Hotel Pepper online, it was like finding a hidden treasure.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...8at44527PM.png
USC Digital Collection
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...coll65/id/8256

But looking at the post card and photos today I realized I didn't know that the Hotel Pepper was that old (1905). I figured it was at least 10 years later just because of it size and location. This must have been a huge hotel way out in Westlake for it's day.

Notice the dirt roads and horse carriage in this detail...

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...8at43956PM.png
USC Digital Collection

Also the architecture is Spanish Revival/ Moorish. I know Moorish architecture was popular in Southern California because of it's connection with Spanish Architecture. And I know that the businesses and government in Southern California often pitched the area as a sun filled Mediterranean style get away. But I wonder if any one else knows if there are other reasons Moorish style architecture is so prevalent in Los Angeles area?

Moorish Details...

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...8at43717PM.png
USC Digital Collection

I guess the Hotel Pepper stood until 1966, at one time it was called the Wesley Terrace. This photo from 1964 by William Reagh is the Hotel on it's last legs and the first photo I researched on the LAPL digital archives all those years ago.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...pepper1964.jpg
LAPL Digital Archives
http://jpg2.lapl.org/spnb1/00017413.jpg

I mention William Reagh because any one who has researched the LAPL photo archives has seen some of his photographs. He shot tens of thousand of photos of Los Angeles for about 60 years. And he wasn't a "professional" He just did it. Today I went back up to Ocean View Ave after Ethereal Reality posted some 1890's photos that showed Ocean View Ave to see if I could find any pre-1900's architectural or oil well remnants from that period. I didn't but I found this...

Hidden on the other side of Ocean View Ave along 4th street is the Photographic Center named for Mr. Reagh.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...llianReagh.jpg
Photo by Mr. Swink

It's a big city but a small world.

So thanks to William Reagh for his photographic documents of Los Angeles and thanks to my friend Roger for sending that postcard all those years ago.

Here is a little article on Reagh...
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/20...ong_walk_1.php

After looking at all the great photos on 630 pages I think I’ve seen what may be the best!! The Hotel Pepper is just spectacular…Hotel Pepper at Seventh and Burlington, if it was still there in 1966, then I know I would have seen it many times since I used to drive down Seventh on my way to work in 1962. Too bad I didn't have a clue what was going to happen to all those wondeful old buildings.

Thank you Flyingwedge for the answer you gave re; Marchessault and Beaudry earlier on.

Lippincott House, Hollywood
 

Look e_r, Paradise Leased must have heard your November 2012 question about this house while he was sleeping and has finally woken and answered it:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-a...230%2520PM.jpg

"...Fabulous 1906 postcard view of Hollywood...It was taken from the parapet of the grand old Hotel Hollywood and is showing the view west of Highland towards La Brea (Plummer back then). The house marked with an “X” is at the corner of Hillside and Pine, today’s El Centro. The Mission/Dutch hybrid house in the immediate foreground was @ 135 Olive Drive, which by 1913 had been renumbered/renamed 1735 Orchid Avenue. It was one of early, early Hollywood’s show places and home to Hollywood realtor C.H. (Charles Howard) Lippincott and family. Born in Sherard, Illinois, Lippincott had been paymaster of the Rock Island and Peoria Railroad before seeking his fortunes in Hollywood in 1905. It was in that young community that he became one of its most prominent citizens. Lippincott joined all the right clubs and was a member of the Los Angles Country Club and the Jonathan Club. He was also an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Realty Board as well as being a member of the Commandry of the Knights Templar and the Al Malaikah Temple of the Shrine. In 1898, he had married the fetching Nellie M. Stephens, daughter of a founder of the Moline Plow Company. He died in 1931 @ 63 after an illness of several months. By that time, the Lippincotts had long moved away from the Olive house and over to 1853 North Harvard. Here’s a better view of the Olive house with Mrs. Lippincott and children in front of the home":

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-N...434%2520PM.jpg

http://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/

St Athanasius
 

One more pic of St Athanasius, now tucked into a more urban landscape:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-e...644%2520PM.jpg
waterandpower.org/museum

The last church services were held there on Christmas Day 1883.
It was demolished in 1891.

Anything else anyone would want to know about St Athanasius/St Paul's is here:
http://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/...und-cake-hill/

Very interesting article! I especially liked this superimposition at the end.

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/v...nd-spring1.png
Paradise Leased.

I'd love to see more then/now overlays like this. I wish I had the photoshop skill to do this sort of thing myself.