https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-n...3%252520PM.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-n...0%252520PM.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1...0%252520PM.jpg

All SMPL

The Ridgeley in 1934 surrounded by bucolic fields.


http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/3...eleyin1934.jpg
unknown / perhaps ebay



below: Luckily this beautiful apartment complex has survived!

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/9...geleytoday.jpg
google street views

The Uptown Arms in 1928 located at 1812 West 12th Street.

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/3...armsin1928.jpg
lapl




below: The Uptown Arms as it appears today.

http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/2...streetview.jpg
google street view

Thanks again for that magnificent video Seb. What a look at a lost world. Someone else posted this a few weeks ago but It took FOREVER to buffer each time I tried to look at it and I finally gave up. Your version works perfectly.

"The Ridgeley" apartment building looks terrific today!
It's great to see such care given to the landscaping.
Wonderful stuff.
I hate to be a dunce, and I'm sure it's been posted, but could you give me the address?

The Ridgeley is located at 615-619 Ridgeley Drive between Wilshire Blvd. & 6th Street.

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/3...eleyaerial.jpg
google street view

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2...2520AM.bmp.jpgSMPL

Always seemed a little odd that Richfield advertised its "100% Pure Pennsylvania Oil" in California, implying that "native" oil was somehow of lesser quality.... Maybe it's just me.

How very strange. I recognized that location immediately. That photo was taken at the intersection of Central Ave. and Hiller Rd. in my little rural home town, which is 700 miles north of Los Angeles. (The clincher is the trees in the background.)

https://otters.net/img/lanoir/centralandhiller.jpg

Ten years ago sounds about right, but gas prices here are almost always 20-25 cents more per gallon than everywhere else in California, so it might be even earlier. Today, that station still does the Halloween pumpkin thing, but the 76 globe is red now since it was taken over by Conoco, and a deep red pumpkin... it just doesn't look quite right.

-Scott

Many cities are now requiring that the gas station signs on the poles be removed and replaced with one that are low and usually made with a slump-stone facade.
When I moved to Sierra Madre in 1973 (lived in Arcadia (1950-1973)), we had four gas stations. Now we have but two and our one that was Union Oil with the orange ball on the pole, had the ball and pole unceremoniously removed about four years ago when Union Oil would not longer support a station here because of the low volume of gas sold. So now it's a "Valero" station.
I saw, just by chance, the old white pole and the orange ball being hauled by truck down to the 210 Freeway. Pretty sad in a kind of pre-geezer sentimental sort of way.
The signs are blight to some, but after decades and decades these signs become landmarks. These landmarks act like a beacon telling you that you are home after a long day trying to make a buck.
They grow on you, these landmarks do.
The slump stone 4 foot high "Valero" sign won't replace the "76" ball anytime soon, especially in October.....

I lost my Philippe the Original's virginity last night. :D Born and raised 57 years ago in L.A., and I'd never eaten there before. Isn't that sad? :shrug:

It's great any time of day, but at night... very noirish. I always like to go in the evening, taking a stroll to the station after dinner just for the sense of incipient danger and the chance to see something like a bum in three Eva Gabor wigs tumble off a bus, that sort of thing....

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics18/00008734.jpgLAPL

Yup...that's real entertainment :)

:previous:

Not to mention

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-d...2520AM.bmp.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4...5%252520AM.jpg

Both Paramount Pictures


PS This sort of fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP26ZQY2WhQ&NR=1

It looks somewhat familiar, but.......
 

I stumbled across this photo on Calisphere and am wondering if one you Los Angeles experts know the exact location of where it was (or hopefully, is)? It was captioned "Unidentified Building Downtown LA 1930's".

The deco architectural detail is just wonderful.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/7893/...tifiedbldg.jpg
Calisphere

~Jon Paul

Thanks for the info 'SilentLocations'.
How could anyone destroy that spectacular entrance? The street level 'modernization' is nothing short of vandalism.


_______

I agree in principle.....

maybe a quake safety issue? That entrance - magnificent though it is - appears poised to pancake anyone exiting the building in a big shaker.

Don't get me started on the loss of neon and awning and large plate glass windows, changed out in favor of standard Mini-mart sign design.

Then-and-now photos of Downtown are usually depressing. Yes, the buildings often still exist in those parts of town that were beyond the CRA's reach. But inhabited by teeming masses who neither care nor appreciate the skeletal remains of what was once a vibrant Downtown.

Speaking of CRA - they are still at it. The "largest redevelopment agency in the U.S.", they boast on their homepage.

More accurately they are "Ruining Neighborhoods since 1950. Coming to YOUR neighborhood soon!"

http://www.laweekly.com/2011-06-30/n...reates-blight/

:previous:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-R...0%252520AM.jpgXavier de Jaureguiberry


I can't find any updates on the 16th Place story--I'd hope that the "wall" has been ordered removed, but won't hold my breath--but I will say that suggestively describing the old downtown core as "inhabited by teeming masses who neither care nor appreciate the skeletal remains of what was once a vibrant [place]" seems outdated, frankly. Most Angelenos couldn't care less about downtown, and at least half of the population seems never even to have been there. But from what I've seen, it has become the Williamsburg of L.A. And let's not forget that if Bunker Hill had survived, it's possible that most of the old commercial buildings below it would have been replaced with mediocre glass & steel. The point has been made here before--while we all lament the destruction of Bunker Hill, the survival of the old structures of the office core is some consolation. The mid-years of fantastic street life, Broadway bustling in the 70s-80-90s just as it did in the '20s, the incredible wedding-shop display windows--is now augmented by 20-40-year-olds who appreciate urban energy. As much as I might moon over lost Bunker Hill and the noir era and sometimes wish it was still 1925--or '35 or '45--no amount of nostalgia is going to bring it back. End of editorial.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0bRrhyfW29...o+downtown.jpg


Here is a great story on Bullocks, including Pasadena--The Department Store Museum:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0bRrhyfW29...o+downtown.jpg

The comments to the post are also worthwhile....

Yes, thank you very much SilentLocations!

I couldn't agree more with you etheral_reality! I was just heartsick, if not actually surprised, when I saw the current photo.:(

~Jon Paul

Here's another photo of the Bankers Building showing it's highly unique 'wedding cake' entrance.


http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/6292/...ngonhillst.jpg
usc digital archive


The entire building is absolutely beautiful.


_____