Helms and Concrete
 

I grew up in the picfair area,and we use to go to helms property alot.they had an antique alley sort of thing.the neon sign was always there but never lit until maybe 5 years ago when they finished the culver/kirk douglas theatre.

as far as concrete,on my old street we had it(1400 block of spaulding)and from what i understand its always used on freeways because it lasts longer,and it continues to harden with age.the reason why you dont see tons of cracks in it is because of the "lines" that are put into the concrete before it dries.speaking of windsor park/country club area,did you know the la railway has tracks still covered up in that area.

charlie

There are covered-up LARy tracks all over town (or at least there were when I was living out there (been gone 12 1/2 years now)). You could see them on Pico, from Broadway (where the P line turned) until they abruptly ended just east of Flower St (where they were torn out for construction of the Metro Blue Line). Think I saw them on 6th St at Alvarado (the old 3 line). Basically, they were just covered up, and unless there was a big street project that required the street to be torn up completely (sewer lines, etc.), they remain for the most part.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018562.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018562.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059067.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059067.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...13758%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View
The Ducommun Metals & Supply Corporation, 4890 S. Alameda


The building shown above was built in 1941 and designed by the still-extant firm of Albert C. Martin. We've seen other A. C. Martin buildings here, ones as varied as St. Vincent's Church at Adams and Figueroa, the Million Dollar Theater, City Hall, and Water & Power buildings downtown, May Co. Miracle Mile, and, discussed most recently, the Eastland Shopping Center. Established in 1849 and referred to in some sources as California's oldest company, Ducommun has had an interesting history and exists to this day as Ducommun Incorporated of Long Beach: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...y-History.html

An historical chronology from the 1943 Renie Road atlas of L.A. City and County. It's interesting to me to note what events/dates were thought to be significant at the time...

https://otters.net/img/lanoir/chrono...ie1943-sky.jpg

^^^ I was looking over the list provided by Scott and noticed "1922 Union Stock Yards established".

Because of my Illinois roots, I have always been interested in various city's stock yards
Chicago was home to the largest stock yards in the world!!

It's very rare to come across a photograph of the Los Angeles Union Stock Yards.
I have a total of two photographs (and one I can not find in my files). :(

Below: This is my best photo of the Los Angeles Union Stock Yards. The photo is quite impressive as far as stock yards go.
I was certainly surprised to see such a magnificent dome-like structure.

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1...ockyardsun.jpg
unknown


Does anyone else have photos or information concerning the Los Angeles Union Stock Yards?

Three stages of the southwest corner of Grand and 2nd
 

http://jpg2.lapl.org/spnb1/00017414.jpgWilliam Reagh/LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/spnb1/00017414.jpg
The Minnewaska ca. 1964, newly decorated, according to the sign--
apparently in trendy windowless style.


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...84809%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View
Now


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...ROAD-popup.jpg
Diller Scofidio + Renfro/The New York Times http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...ROAD-popup.jpg
Coming soon


Today in The New York Times is a very good architectural review on the forthcoming Broad Art Foundation to rise at the southwest corner of Grand and 2nd, a block down from Disney Hall. It describes not only how the new building might work as museum space, but also gives a thoughtful overview of 21st-century Bunker Hill and how it relates (or doesn't relate) to the 1920s commercial district over on Broadway. Btw, worth repeating, I think, is what has been pointed out here before: that it could be argued that the destruction of what we hold dear here (old Bunker Hill) saved, in essence, much of the architecture of the Broadway business district. As I look at the sterile cityscape along Grand Avenue, I am at least grateful for that. I like the looks of the new Broad, but I don't know how far it and the rest of the area's starchitecture goes toward giving us the texture Bunker Hill once had. Well, I do know: Not very.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/ar...angeles&st=cse

Below: Here is a rare photo of the interior of the Minnewaska.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2415/...innewaskai.jpg
unknown





Below: An overlay map by vokoban on flickr.
(The Minnewaska is located at dead center)

For a much LARGER image hit the link below the photo, and click on ORIGINAL size.

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/3...ewaskahuge.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokoban...n/photostream/

Have you seen the fly-through video for the Broad Museum that was posted in the LA Times last week? I think it's kinda cool.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/cult...he-design.html

I'm actually very excited about this building/museum. True, Bunker Hill isn't like the Bunker Hill of old, but it's evolving into a cultural Acropolis of sorts.

These are both very great images, ethereal. The overlay map really puts it in perspective for me what was destroyed.


Grand Ave. looking south, Bunker Hill, 1960
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/4...054790isla.jpg
USC Archive

ethereal-- the overlay shot is fantastic. It really gives an idea of the density once there--imagine all the daily human activity. The Music Center, Disney Hall, and the new Broad are definitely better than the parking lot or bland skyscraper alternatives, but they will still lack the urban vitality of the old Bunker Hill, or of Broadway to the east, in terms of density. Grand will likely remain largely desolate for a long time. I'm all for culture, but sometimes if its institutions are too concentrated, culture can become forbidding. Btw, it never occurred to me that Disney Hall had any kind of flat roof.

Vokoban's page has some other interesting L.A. items, including these pics of a single building I'd trade both the Disney and the Broad for in a NY minute (as interesting and significant as they are):


http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...90545%20AM.jpg
Rod Taylor in Zabriskie Point, released in 1970--two years after the fall.


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...90454%20AM.jpg
Reimagined for This Gun For Hire (1942).

Recent posts - The Minnewaska, Broad, sterile cityscapes......

The problem, as I see it, is that after The War the smarty pants urban planners got their way and ruined the organic way that make cities become what they are.

One example - plazas. Just about every post-1960 skyscraper is surrounded by some useless, unvisited plaza. The intent, of course, was to reduce the mass of the building and to promote social interaction. You have a one-acre site? Your building's footprint can be no more than 40% of that, let's say. The rest must be given over to "public space" and the inevitably insipid "public art". How many public space areas on Bunker Hill do YOU know that you would consider lively places of interaction? It's a short list. The steps at US Bank Tower are kind of cool. Beyond that I'm drawing a blank.

There was social interaction in the past of course, when buildings like the Richfield were built cheek by jowl. It just spilled onto the sidewalks. (Take a walk down present-day Broadway to see what I mean). Planner-types HATED this. They wanted the suburban office-park look. The Suburban office park model CAN work - in the suburbs. Not downtown.

What we got was the worst of both worlds.

This is not limited to LA of course. My least-favored part of Manhattan is centered on 6th Avenue Midtown. Huge skyscrapers surrounded by boundless prairies of plazas. This is New York? It could just as well be Anycity, USA.

GaylordWilshire recently posted several photos of the clock from the old county courthouse.


Below: Here is the clock in situ.


http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/5...ingcourtho.jpg
unknown










http://img573.imageshack.us/img573/7...hingbegins.jpg
unknown

Demolition begins on the Los Angeles County Courthouse, 1932.

I'm hopeless......
 

Some nice ...in fact VERY nice..contemporary aerials of Downtown, plus Harbor, MDR, Beverly Hills, etc.

Very first pic of the thread......what is my eye drawn towards?.............


........The Figueroa, of course!



http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=187288

And as far as the Ritz-Carlton goes..........it looks like the thing is about ready to explode.

Here is an image from a stereoscope slide I found on ebay.


Below: The Downey Block 1887

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/2812/sblock1880s.jpg
ebay



Above: I like the arcade-like structure in the center of the photo.It looks large enough to accommodate a horse and buggy.
It is almost like a porte cochere on the front of the building instead of on the side where you usually find a porte cochere.



Below: I tried to heighten the details by using black and white.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/254...k1880scopy.jpg
img

the areas you mention ive seen some "peakings" or "trackcrack".when they tore down the big blue bus/mta loop,all the tracks were still there and seeing that was kinda cool.i still dont know why they tore down the sears building next door,i always liked that building,its been an empty lot for about 3 years now.

On the Travel Channel Ghost Adventures is exploring the Pico House.
(it's on right now)

Various locations of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange.



The 2nd Stock Exchange was in the Tajo/Taho Building at 307 W. First Street. (I LOVE this photograph)

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/3...jobldg307w.jpg
usc digital archive



http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/805...me307wfirs.jpg
usc digital archive


Below: Info on the back of the above photograph.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/179...ndhometajo.jpg
usc digital archive




Below: The 4th home of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange at 123 S. Broadway.

http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/4...me123sbroa.jpg
usc digital archive




Below: The 5th home of the Stock Exchange in the Southwest Building on the east side of Broadway between 1st and 2nd Street.
The Chamber of Commerce was also located in this 1903 building.


http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1...me1151sbro.jpg
usc digital archive





Below: The 7th home of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange at 639 S. Spring St.


http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/615...me639sspri.jpg
usc digital archive





Below: The Los Angeles Stock Exchange. (this photo is from 1954)


http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6...exchange19.jpg
usc digital archive


If you were keeping tabs.....I am missing the 1st, 3rd, and 6th location of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange.




post script: There could be many mistakes in this post.
I tried to double check my information and I found more questions than answers.

Here is an example....read the comments below the photograph.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7294653@N07/3196364990/

:previous:

Great Stock Exchange pics, ethereal. In the first, I noticed the semaphore signal--don't remember seeing one with that little roof over it before.... Also, it appears that the Savoy Garage surrounds the back of the building, with two entrances. And what is the domed building in the second shot?

First location of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange: The Yosemite Building, 115 South Broadway.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...59260daa_o.jpg
USC Archive, Los Angeles Examiner Prints Collection, late 1920's - 1961

that's the old los angeles times building

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics04/00011935.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics04/00011935.jpg

a 1925 aerial showing the times building and the tajo/taho building directly across the street, (broadway), along with the surrounding area. the intersection of 1st and broadway certainly had a lot more character back then than it does today

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics26/00047858.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics26/00047858.jpg


here's a then and now of the 1st image

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5165/...59acefe6_b.jpg


E_R, really great photos of the stock exchange history!:)