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kanhawk Dec 16, 2009 7:42 AM

With all the fascinating changes to Los Angeles over the years, I hope some day someone incorporates all these changes into a computer animation of the history of the city from it's beginnings to the present time with all the changes, the growth , the destruction, and even the change in terrain. I know that would be quite an undertaking requiring lots of data but I feel it would be well worth the effort for history buffs.

ethereal_reality Dec 17, 2009 2:01 AM

Below: The intersection of Figueroa & First Street in 1934.
This photograph is interesting on so many different levels (pun unintended).


http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/9...illfiguero.jpg
usc digital archive

ethereal_reality Dec 17, 2009 2:49 AM

Below is the Rossmere Apartments on Hope Street.


http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/5...merehadden.gif
usc or lapl


I vaguely remember reading that the Rossmere was home to dentist offices in it's waning years.
Please let me know if this is incorrect.






Below: Here is another view of the Rossmere.....looking NW from Second St. and Bunker Hill St.
At this point, I believe even the dentists are long gone.


http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/9...merein1959.png
Charles W. Cushman, Indiana University.

ethereal_reality Dec 17, 2009 3:05 AM

Below: The Carroll Apartments in 1960.


http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/469...illcarroll.jpg
Cal State





Below: The Stevens Apartments in 1960.


http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/836...illstevens.jpg
Cal State


I know these buildings were located in the Bunker hill area, but I lack their street address. :(

ethereal_reality Dec 17, 2009 3:20 AM

Below: The corner of 3rd & Beaudry in 1948.



http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/296...dry1948cal.jpg
cal state library

Beaudry Dec 17, 2009 6:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanhawk (Post 4609888)
With all the fascinating changes to Los Angeles over the years, I hope some day someone incorporates all these changes into a computer animation of the history of the city from it's beginnings to the present time with all the changes, the growth , the destruction, and even the change in terrain. I know that would be quite an undertaking requiring lots of data but I feel it would be well worth the effort for history buffs.

I had a sit down with a couple computer types a some months ago (over a bottle of High West 21-year-old rye). Our plans got more and more elaborate as the bottle got emptier, but the plan seems doable; the guys who build video game "worlds" could definitely recreate Old Los Angeles using topographies and vintage photographic records though, to be done with a degree of accuracy, it would entail a lot of guys with lots more photos and a lot more rye. It's an intriguing prospect and I hope to see it in my lifetime.

Beaudry Dec 17, 2009 6:26 AM

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/5...merehadden.gif
usc or lapl


I vaguely remember reading that the Rossmere was home to dentist offices in it's waning years.
Please let me know if this is incorrect.

Below: Here is another view of the Rossmere.....looking NW from Second St. and Bunker Hill St.
At this point, I believe even the dentists are long gone.

Where did you here there were dentists in there? I'm not saying that's not so, but it's the first I've heard of it, and I'd love to know where that info comes from. Check out more about the Rossmere here and here.

Beaudry Dec 17, 2009 6:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 4611225)
Below: The Carroll Apartments in 1960.


http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/469...illcarroll.jpg
Cal State





Below: The Stevens Apartments in 1960.


http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/836...illstevens.jpg
Cal State


I know these buildings were located in the Bunker hill area, but I lack their street address. :(

The Carroll was at 343 South Olive, that I know for sure; there was a Stevens Apts at 150 North Hill but also a Stevens Hotel at 321 South Grand. I'm wagering this is the Hill Street address but a real historian needs a time machine, dammit.

sopas ej Dec 17, 2009 9:01 AM

"They'll love it in Pomona."

The first time I saw the film "Sunset Boulevard," I thought that was a funny line when William Holden's Joe Gillis says that to Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond about the script she's working on. I thought "Pomona" was random. But apparently, prior to WWII, Pomona was considered to be a good area to test films, being that Pomona was primarily an agricultural town back then, and many Hollywood film makers thought that Pomona represented the rest of the US, attitude-wise. To this day, Pomona still hosts the annual Los Angeles County Fair. Of course now, Pomona is a very developed city, with its own "big city" problems of crime and gangs in some of its neighborhoods.

So for shits and giggles, I thought I'd post some old photos of Pomona.

Divided highway near Pomona, 1938
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1...ynearpomon.jpg
USC archive

Designed by Clifford A. Balch and Floyd E. Stanberry, Pomona's Fox Theater cost $350,000 to build. It included top-of-the-line customer comfort, state-of-the-art projection and sound systems, and was the first refrigerated air conditioned theater east of Los Angeles. Opened on Friday, April 24, 1931, the theater served as an English language movie house until 1977, at which time it switched to Spanish. In the late 1990s/early 2000s, it was used as a live venue for a concerts, which caused significant interior damage to the structure. After a costly restoration and upgrade, the theater reopened in early 2009.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00080/00080181.jpg
lapl.org

State Theater, built in 1940
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00080/00080196.jpg
lapl.org

Now in its 87th year, the L.A. County Fair is the largest county fair in the United States, with attendance topping one million people in every year but one since 1948, and generating a national economic impact of more than $250 million dollars. The Fair is held each September on 543 acres of fairgrounds known as Fairplex (L.A. County Fair, hotel and exposition complex), and is operated by the Los Angeles County Fair Association.
LA County Fair, ca. 1930s:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081987.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081998.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00082/00082007.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00082/00082011.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081989.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081997.jpg
lapl.org

Hot rods in Pomona, 1952
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/8...pomona1952.jpg
USC archive

OK Pomona is getting a little too provincial for me; time to head back to Los Angeles.

sopas ej Dec 17, 2009 9:26 AM

I went to the Farmers Market this weekend; it made me think to look up a few old photos of the Farmers Market.

These are from the USC archive:

1945
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/6418/dw1111914isla.jpg

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8265/dw01143isla.jpg


I did a quick glance and at first I thought this woman was Bette Davis. "I'd kiss ya but I just washed my hair."
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7231/dw101195isla.jpg

Los Angeles Past Dec 17, 2009 10:24 AM

Now we're getting close to home! My home, that is...

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 4611591)
Divided highway near Pomona, 1938
https://otters.net/img/lanoir/99atholt1938_sky.jpg
USC archive

That stretch of what was then Highway 99 (it was called Arroyo Avenue back then) is less than 1 mile as the crow flies from the house in the Covina hills where I grew up. Today, this is the San Bernardino Freeway (I-10) looking eastbound right before the Holt Ave. underpass. (That's the intersection with Holt Ave. just ahead in the photo above.) Unfortunately, the Street View of this intersection today is too murky to see any real detail, so I can't do a proper 'then-and-now'...

And the Fox Theatre - the photographer is standing on the northeast corner of Third and Garey with his back to the Mayfair Hotel, where my paternal grandmother had a beauty shop on the ground floor. (My dad - Edward Shannon, Jr. - graduated from Pomona High School in '32, the year after the Fox Theatre opened.)

-Scott

GaylordWilshire Dec 17, 2009 3:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 4611597)

I did a quick glance and at first I thought this woman was Bette Davis. "I'd kiss ya but I just washed my hair."
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7231/dw101195isla.jpg

Which reminds me of, "And after you kissed me, I used to wipe my mouth. Wipe my mouth!"

And speaking of Sunset Blvd and towns outside of LA--I'll never forget "I've got oil wells in Bakersfield, pumping, pumping, pumping!" (Norma pumping her leg up and down for emphasis)

Aside from all that --amazing pictures, all of them, from Pomona to Bunker Hill

Johnny Socko Dec 17, 2009 6:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past (Post 4611613)
Now we're getting close to home! My home, that is...



That stretch of what was then Highway 99 is less than 1 mile as the crow flies from the house in the Covina hills where I grew up. Today, this is the San Bernardino Freeway (I-10) looking eastbound right before the Holt Ave. underpass. (That's the intersection with Holt Ave. just ahead in the photo above.) Unfortunately, the Street View of this intersection today is too murky to see any real detail...

WOW, thanks for identifying the location of that photo, Scott! I'm very glad you did, because the company I work for is located in the small office park at Holt Ave & the North side of the 10 fwy. In the 1938 photo, the building site would be at the top of the small hill at the NE corner of Holt & Hwy 99. Today, the the Holt Ave offramp for the Westbound 10 cuts through a part of that hill.

ethereal_reality Dec 17, 2009 7:05 PM

I agree, great photos sopas_ej. I never ventured out to Pomona
so it was nice to see the photographs.

In your 1st photo of the Farmers Market I was confused at first.
I could see Gilmore Field in the distance, and yet I wondered what the
other building was with Gilmore painted on it.



So I googled it...
and found out there was both a Gilmore Field AND a Gilmore Stadium.


Missing photo. sorry
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8259/11fmslide2.jpg
unknown



Missing photo. sorry
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6...restadium2.jpg
I believe the 3rd large building in the distance is the Pan Pacific Auditorium.

In the past when I saw glimpses of the stadium, I thought it was Fairfax High School's football/track field.
Forgive my ignorance, (it's been awhile since I lived in L.A.)......but isn't Fairfax High School also in this area?

_

Los Angeles Past Dec 17, 2009 7:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny Socko (Post 4612039)
WOW, thanks for identifying the location of that photo, Scott! I'm very glad you did, because the company I work for is located in the small office park at Holt Ave & the North side of the 10 fwy. In the 1938 photo, the building site would be at the top of the small hill at the NE corner of Holt & Hwy 99. Today, the the Holt Ave offramp for the Westbound 10 cuts through a part of that hill.

It's a small world! :cheers: It was interesting to me to discover that Holt crossed Arroyo Ave. (Hwy. 99) at street level. Did not know! Also interesting to see that little lemon grove on the adjacent hill (it was lemons, not oranges). That was still there when our family moved into our new house in December, 1959 (50 years ago this coming Saturday, as a matter of fact). Actually that little grove was still there even into the late-'70s. Me and my buddies used to drive their dune buggy on that hill where your office park is now!

-Scott

Los Angeles Past Dec 17, 2009 7:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 4611597)

That looks a lot like my mother! She used to go to Farmer's Market a lot when I was little. I hated Hated HATED that place! I can still bring to mind the smell of Farmer's Market even 40+ years later. Ack! :yuck:

ethereal_reality Dec 17, 2009 7:57 PM

Fremont Hotel at 4th & Olive.


http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/5...hotelatfou.jpg
usc digital archive


Missing photos. I'll try and replace them.



Below: Y.M.C.A. at 207 Fort St.


http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8...fortst1900.jpg
usc digital archive






Below: Another view of the Y.M.C.A. along with the California Bank Building at Fort (now Broadway) and 2nd Street in 1899


http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8...iforniaban.jpg
usc digital archive






Below: California Club Building at 5th & Hill.


http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/3...niaclubbld.jpg
usc digital archive

ethereal_reality Dec 17, 2009 8:06 PM

Downtown 1952



http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/3...nmap195053.jpg

Johnny Socko Dec 17, 2009 9:35 PM

(Very) Historic Map Resource
 
Here's another great map resource that a friend tipped me off to. It predates the "noir" era by decades-to-centuries, but I thought it would be appreciated here.

Anybody who searches historic maps on the internet is probably familiar with the Dave Rumsey Collection. The only problem was that the collection's website had a mediocre user interface (not as horrible as Hypercities, but still).

Well, now the Dave Rumsey Collection has a new site that has the entire map collection referenced to Google Earth. Although there is only one Southern California map (William Hammond Hall, 1880), it's definitely worth a look.

And if you haven't done so already, do yourself a favor and check out Hypercities. Los Angeles Past posted a very useful how-to on navigating that site. It still gives me fits, and I'm the one who tipped-off Scott about it in the first place!

Los Angeles Past Dec 17, 2009 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny Socko (Post 4612312)
I'm the one who tipped-off Scott about it in the first place!

Gregg?! That's you? What a surprise! I'd love to tell you some stories about the area where your office is. Drop me an email and let's talk!

-Scott


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