Thank you GaylordWilshire for your kind reply. I found the Burlington neighborhood postcard image particularly nice as, even though the houses are in a variety of styles and one, one and a half or two stories, there is a cohesiveness of scale that results in a very pleasing rhythm and overall effect, even though the architecture isn't particularly distinguished. Too many of our blocks have had their scale ruined by unfortunate infill apartments, commercial intrusions, McMansions, etc., the result, in the main, of thoughtless zoning changes.

http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/1...elcomplete.jpg

The aforementioned Panama Hotel, 403 East 5th St., ca. 1918 and 2011.



http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/451...llipsdualx.jpgLAT


Top pictures: LAPL/GoogleSV

I came across this interesting video today that I am almost certain hasn't been posted.

http://imageshack.us/a/img51/5227/aa...oxnardstfr.jpg
http://archive.org/details/LAprocessplatesandcoronation

:click on the link attached to the photo
__




I had a little fun with it and located one of the buildings you briefly see in the video.

http://imageshack.us/a/img607/1401/a...antamonica.jpg




The same building today :(
(It looks as if there was a thoughtful addition on the left)

http://imageshack.us/a/img94/9974/aa...onicavideo.jpg
google street view

The building is located on the northeast corner of Oxnard St. & Woodman Avenue in an area just west of North Hollywood.
(google maps labels this area as Valley Glen)







The vintage 'foto-car' proceeds and hangs a left. It immediately passes Grizzy's on Woodman Avenue.
(our 'cupola' building is still visible at far right)

http://imageshack.us/a/img690/1290/aabmy1as2agriz.jpg








http://imageshack.us/a/img35/5674/22190346.jpg




below: Grizzy's site today.
The distinctive triangular wedge is missing and the building is at least twice as wide as when it was Grizzy's.

http://imageshack.us/a/img855/2434/stodayoxwoodinn.jpg
google street view



The Oxwood Inn.

http://imageshack.us/a/img825/2032/a...ardstandwo.jpg
google street view


below: I really love the classic 'cocktail' sign.

http://imageshack.us/a/img836/3415/stodayoxwoodinn1.jpg
detail

If you're at all interested, please watch the video. http://archive.org/details/LAprocessplatesandcoronation

There are other areas in the film/video that I haven't been able to locate.
(especially the last sequence)
___




tovangar2, I can't wait to hear more from you. The details in your posts are amazing! :)
__

West End of 3rd Street Tunnel Under Bunker Hill 1949
 

The photo shows 3rd St in 1949 looking east across Figueroa and Flower to the west end of the 3rd St tunnel with Bunker Hill above. The streetscape is a vibrant, lively and wonderful jumble of hotels, coffee shops, clubs, theaters shops and signage. Pedestrians bustle along the sidewalks. It looks like one could spend all day there and have a good time. Up on Bunker Hill one can see cars moving on Hope St directly behind the tunnel's retaining wall parapet. More cars and pedestrians travel Bunker Hill Avenue at the crest.

Today, if one visits the spot in one's Googlemobile, nothing but the tunnel itself is left, the entrance of which has been brought radically forward. The World Trade Center squats on the south side of 3rd between Figueroa and Flower (devoid of any entrance for pedestrians) while the monolithic, blank and forbidding base of the 333 South Hope Building (incidentally, the only building downtown the sides of which are oriented towards the compass points) runs from Flower St to deep inside whats left of Bunker Hill. Only the yawning entrance of its loading dock gives any relief. Next to the tunnel entrance on the north side of 3rd a large, but never used, patch of grass angles away followed by Kosciuszko Way and a stray branch of Hope St spilling into the intersection of 3rd and Flower. And finally, the anemic landscaping, "tasteful" signage and glum architecture of the Bunker Hill Apartments brings one back, after passing under a rather cutsy pedestrian bridge, to 3rd and Figueroa. There's not a pedestrian in sight, including on the dedicated bridge. This must now be a couple of the most desolate blocks in town:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-S...93551%2BAM.jpg
gsv

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-G...00155%2BAM.jpg
gsv


If Bunker Hill had remained wild, used by Angelenos only for recreation (as downtown's answer to Griffith Park or even LA's answer to NYC's Central Park) LA would be a very different city. In the 1868 view below Bunker Hill looks like a big, friendly, protective dog sleeping peacefully on downtown's western flank (Spring St at left, Broadway at center, both disappearing towards the horizon).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3645/...ca79e039_o.jpg
P.S. to ethereal_reality, Thank you!

Greetings,

After several months of going through the noirish Los Angeles thread - and only reaching page 300, figured it was time to chime in with a skyscraper sized THANK YOU... and a question or two.

I'm sorry for not thanking each and everyone for their contributions here but trust me, all your information and photos have been a huge influx of fun and yes, even a good slice of education, God forbid ;-) Of course I might be forced to jump off a tall building if I did not single out Ethereal Reality, a special dedication to you for starting all this fun etc etc!

I got hooked here when a buddy sent me a link to this forum/thread after I asked him if he remembered seeing the gas holders that used to be around Southern California... I didn't even know they were called gas holders but as a kid I remember the one right off the 405 freeway near Signal Hill. The thing always amazed me. I also remember being very sad when my parents told me it was going to be torn down.

So despite only having a marginal interest in old buildings - even though I love 'old' stuff --- this forum/thread etc quickly clued me into the many beautiful - and OLD - buildings that used to grace the LA basin [particularly downtown, wow, had no idea...]

I am now one of those guys you see on the street, arching his neck to admire detailed eves...[after I tuck my wallet away real good of course]

So that is my long-winded intro - again, thanks so much for all the great LA history and photos [just looove the aerials too!]

A question or two... [in this case because I go to Amoeba Music a lot]

Old photo was posted here and I believe it was tagged as the intersection of Sunset and Cahuenga looking north. Just to be 100% sure, is this a match?

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/6...northatcah.jpg


Also, I told one of the Amoeba employees about this forum and the old street photos around Amoeba Music --- so he is also interested to know 'what used to be where Amoeba is now?'?? Any luck with that one?

One other questions, further west on Sunset, I ran into this wonderful house???
It's at 6720 Sunset Blvd, just east of Highland. I've seen postcards of the motel but are there any other photos of the old house??

I actually went into the 'lobby' the other week just to ask about the house. No info/luck at all. But what a wonderful feeling it was to be near such a grand structure,,, lovely.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/9...dhollywood.jpg

Thanks again for all the fun.... and I got over 200 pages to get caught up on ;-)

:previous: Wow, good find overthere!

To be honest I had no idea that turn-of-century* house anchors the Hollywood Center Motel on Sunset.
I guess I never took the time to look within the 1960s cement walls that separate it from Sunset Boulevard.
Surely someone on the thread can find out some information. I'll try to myself.


all that said and done.....welcome to 'noirish Los Angeles!' :)
__

Reply to overthere
 

The photos are not a match. The old photo is on Sunset at Cole Pl. looking west. Cole Place is just west of Amoeba Records and forms a T-junction with Sunset. The Hollywood Laundry building on the right (north) side of Sunset in the old photo looks, when one checks Google Maps Street View (see last image below), like it been highly remodeled, but the building on the NW corner of Sunset and Wilcox still looks recognizable and, of course that's the Hollywood Athletic Club (Meyer & Holler, 1924) tower in the distance, also on the north side of Sunset, between Hudson and Schrader. I think the tower (since remodeled) one sees beyond the Athletic Club, further down Sunset, is the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic church (TF Power, 1928) on Sunset at about Cherokee, next door to the Crossroads of the World.

The new photo above, is Cahuenga looking north from Sunset. The big square building in the center distance is the Security Trust and Savings Bank Building (Parkinson & Parkinson, 1921) on the NE corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga. Its being turned into a hotel. Noir note: This building is where Raymond Chandler's fictional detective Philip Marlow had his fictional offices. Chandler called it "The Cahuenga Building" in his books. The intersection of Hollywood & Cahuenga has been officially called "Raymond Chandler Square" since 1994.

These images are a match. Both looking west on Sunset from Cole Place:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-p...02711%2BAM.jpg via overthere
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-P...01244%2BAM.jpg
gsv



P.S. The name "Cahuenga", if you're interested, is a local indigenous word of the Tongva people. It means "the mountain place" and originally just applied to Cahuenga Pass. There are many Tongva place names in and around LA, most with similar endings, indicating "place".

#@*%
 

I cannot get the video past the beginning of the coronation sequence! (a message appears saying it's corrupted), I really enjoyed the drive north on Ocean Ave though. But now I'm dying to see what the last sequence is :-(

I wonder if the Blue Cross sign on the former Auburn/Cord building on the NW corner of Wilshire and Mariposa (see: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10208) is just advertising, or if it marked a Blue Cross office? Because Richfield Oil Corporation had acquired the building by January 1953. I'm sure of the date because that's when my dad started working there. Richfield closed off the Wilshire frontage and used the entrance at 645 S. Mariposa.

I remember Dad said that because it had been built as a multi-story auto dealership, the heavy computers of the 1960s could be housed on the 2nd floor rather than the ground floor. I guess it was a big deal.

The photo above shows the dip Wilshire takes at Mariposa; as you can see below, that dip filled up with water during a storm on February 19, 1958 (see: http://framework.latimes.com/2011/11...n-los-angeles/), when my yet-to-be-married parents were both working at Richfield:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...1958Flood1.jpg


Mom says palm fronds clogged the storm drains and caused the flooding. This is how she got out of the Richfield building, via the west side of the building on scaffolding that was fortuitously already in place for a renovation:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...1958Flood2.jpg


But my dad's '51 Mercury wasn't so lucky. It's there in the underground garage somewhere:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...1958Flood3.jpg


The mailroom was a mess, too:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...e48/Flood2.jpg

- Flyingwedge family photos

:previous:

Great shots, Fwedge. That flooding reminds me of the "Mariposa Ravine" as seen a block north 36 years before, originally posted by ER:


Another from the same period, before the still-extant Chapman Park garage was built:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics19/00019252.jpgLAPL
The house at left and the one to the far left in ER's shot are the same one. Does it still flood in this area?

I lived not too far away (4th & Hobart) from August 1977 to August 1979, and therefore was around for the major "El Nino" rains in early 1978. I don't recall any major flooding in that vicinity, I guess the storm drain system had been vastly improved in the intervening years. :)

I haven't run across any earlier pictures of the house. It could have been moved back on its lot from Sunset at some point; an early resident (1915) was Frank A McAllister, a real estate man with an office at 6420 Hollywood Blvd. Another interesting resident was Caroline Halberstadt:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-f...2520AM.bmp.jpgLos Angeles Times Feb 7, 1959

One wonders how the very old lady from such a background came to be living at the Hollywood Center Motel...


The motel figured in the the movie L.A. Confidential, info that is available by googling.


A few other interesting noirish items:

An excerpt from the Times of June 11, 1978:
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/2...rescueunit.jpg
This is from an article entitled "24 Hours With Rescue Vehicle 27"


From the article "New Allegations Surface in 'Billionaire' Club Murder Case" in the Times of Dec 7, 1986:
"The name of Dean Karny, the prosecution's star witness in both cases, has come up in connection with the murder of Richard Mayer, 21, whose decomposed body was found Oct. 18 stuffed in a trunk in a room at the Hollywood Center Motel."


And from the Fall 2005 issue of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, there is the story of HCM resident Michele Grey, as told by her daughter Kelly Grey Carlisle. An excerpt:

"Victim is a Hollywood prostitute who was living with three companions at the Hollywood Center Motel. At 10:00 p.m. she told her companions she was going next door to turn a trick to help pay the rent because they did not have enough money. Her friends thought she meant a hotel up the street. They did not see the victim alive again....

"This is what I know about my mother: when she was a little girl she had a cat, when she turned eight she had a birthday party. She spelled her name, Michele, with one L. On my birth certificate she spelled my middle name, Michelle, with two. She had brown hair that, like mine, shone red in the sun. She named me after a steak house by the 405 Freeway called Kelly's. She was a prostitute; she was addicted to drugs. Against all reason she carried me to term. She took care of me as best she could. She died at night, with only her murderer for company. This is what I know about my mother: I am her daughter, and her memory rests with me."


Finally, a short video of two dorks visiting the Hollywood Center Motel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=3iyAd82GcUs

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-q...2520AM.bmp.jpg

19th century Wilshire bridge at Mariposa
 

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-32950?v=hr

The "dip" where Mariposa crosses Wilshire was, at one time, an actual flowing stream, back in the days when Reuben Schmidt's dairy farm occupied the future site of the Ambassador Hotel. It used to be much deeper. What would later be called Wilshire Blvd crossed the stream on a wooden bridge. A photo exists of the bridge, but I cannot locate it just at the moment. Maybe someone else can find it.

The Mariposa Building (as ARCO called it) was indeed very well built. When I used to install artwork there I had to use a masonary drill because all the original interior walls were concrete.

Caroline Halberstsdt 1853-1959
 

.

:previous:

Mrs. Halberstadt is listed in L.A. city directories with her daughter Leonore, a public-school teacher, at 1014 West 17th St from 1902 to at least through 1942. Mr. H (Ludwig) had died before 1900.

Ms. Halberstandt.....
 

.

The last segment shows a sparsely settled residential area on the cusp of urbanization (probably somewhere in the valley).
There are homes yes, but also pastures and a few barns. It isn't a spectacular segment, but I found it interesting none the less.


Here are some images from the last sequence
(they're a bit blurry because the foto-mobile was haulin' ass...about 40mph)

http://imageshack.us/a/img689/6906/aabmy5.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img341/1478/aabmy5d.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img593/4130/aabmy5abarn.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img197/4905/aabmy5n.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img688/3369/aabmy5h.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img29/8137/aabmy5f.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img19/6795/aabmy5c.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img7/1092/aabmy5g.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img38/109/aabmy5e.jpg
___

Thanks :-) Looks like maybe Chatsworth looking north (?) The ridge line in the background looks more like the Santa Susana Mountains than the Santa Monicas to me.

And what was that coronation about, do you know? That was bizarre. The MC walking towards the camera, right at the beginning of the sequence, was seriously scary looking.

In a case someone didn't know it already, Hollywood Center Motel appears in LA Confidential movie pretty much exactly as it exists today (establishing shot across the street.) It's the scene where they find that young pretty boy/hustler murdered in motel a room.