Originally Posted by Martin Pal (Post 6348035)

Thanks for that info GW (and Godzilla).

If I have time to go by there sometime soon, I want to read what that "plaque" info says, for want of a better word.

I don't know if it was originally conceived that way, but the upper floor of the building contained several apartments until some point. In fact, there was a woman who was allowed to stay in her apartment well into her 90's as a sort of building caretaker/manager. I talked to her once, she had worked as a masseuse at the Beverly Hills Hotel and once told me how mean she thought Joan Crawford was. She remembered the rail yard across the street and said that a lot of the red car operators lived around there.

Most of the other apartments were converted to offices, one was a hair salon, but they retained their apartment look.

I know that at one time the Larrabee Street side of the building toward the north side was a post office. (I'm assuming it was until 1969 when they built the current West Hollywood Post office just north of this building, with it's address on San Vicente.) From 1983 that original post office space has been a video store (Video West) and still is open. Thirty years!

I also know that the building may not have survived the 1994 earthquake except for the mandated earthquake retrofitting that had been done a year before that. The building next to this one had some major structural damage after the quake and was closed for several months, but it was repaired. Then there was a fire there in 2007 that closed it for about a year, though the buildings on either side were saved from that. All this and they're still there!

___________________________________

P.S.: I had to laugh at the bottom of that newspaper clipping about building permits setting a new record. Appears that's a tradition started from the earliest beginnings of the city that has not abated. In fact, didn't an earlier post I wrote quote that the city name itself (West Hollywood) had been promoted by a real estate group? In addition to the milennium project that was eventually approved, and renamed, I've recently read about grandiose plans to build monstrosities at Santa Monica Blvd. and San Vicente and a giant building where the Garden of Allah used to be. (Not that I mind the disappearance of an ugly strip mall, but this bigger is better notion in Hollywood and West Hollywood will probably only stop when one of these things falls down in an earthquake or something.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 6349807)

Here's another interesting sign, circa 1927 (notice the arrow on top) -I've been trying to locate the building on the right.
http://imageshack.us/a/img59/4123/qi7y.jpg
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/P...ialbrowse=null

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 6350145)

-What's going on below the side entrance is something quite sordid (and noirish).
suicide leap from fire escape 1951
http://imageshack.us/a/img51/2885/4se6.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img842/6149/cmkq.jpg
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/91245/rec/5

I vaguely remember posting this photograph years ago on the thread. At the time I commented on the little blonde boy on the right;
wondering what must be going through his mind.

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge (Post 6344442)

Wow, that's an awesome castle er!

As far as castle-inspired buildings go, I've always been partial toward the Pacific Coast Club (PCC) in Long Beach. I know we've seen it here before, but I searched and only found one post with a couple photos that have the PCC in the distance: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...&postcount=438


I took the next five photos in, I think it was 1988, when I was working in downtown Long Beach and heard that the PCC would be torn down:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4a981042.jpg
Looking across Ocean Blvd at the north side; the cornerstone is behind the big NO TRESPASSING sign.


http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3435e69c.jpg
Vnless my thinking is favlty, any elvcidation here wovld be vndve.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 6349807)

Here's another interesting sign, circa 1927 (notice the arrow on top) -I've been trying to locate the building on the right.
http://imageshack.us/a/img59/4123/qi7y.jpg
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/P...ialbrowse=null

Originally Posted by HossC (Post 6350291)

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...lMonte1927.jpg
USC Digital Library

Originally Posted by austlar1 (Post 6350231)

Around 1973 I lived on Larrabee just up the street from this building. I seem to remember that there was a drug store located on the corner. The drug store closed in the mid 70's and was replaced by a gay bar. I guess that would be Revolver. There were some small offices upstairs converted from apartments. One guy operated a hair removal salon upstairs. He had personalized license plates that read "Wax and Rip"! Ouch!!

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug (Post 6350326)

Pacific Coast Club:

When I was stationed at the Long Beach Naval Base in the 1960s I worked for an Admiral. He had a large military staff and a Marine chauffeur.

The old Admiral used to spend evenings drinking at the Pacific Coast Club Bar. At the end of the evening he'd be so drunk he could hardly walk. His kindly Marine driver would pick him up at the sidewalk and take him back to his home on the base. In the photo below I'm on the beach just a few blocks from the Pacific Coast Club. A month after this was taken, I was transferred to Norfolk, VA.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pse2368232.jpg
Taken by my friend Roger.

Originally Posted by HossC (Post 6350409)

After reading ProphetM's suppositions about the location of the El Monte photograph, I looked up the area on Historic Aerials. The Historic Aerials image dates from 1948, about 20 years after the photos, but before the roads changed to their current layout.

I've marked the church from the original photo in blue, with the blue arrow denoting roughly where I think the photographer was standing. The building outlined in red is the one in the photo that I found in the USC Library. The red arrow marks the photographer's position for that picture. I believe the photographs show two sides of the same tree, with the corner of the church just visible on the left of the second picture. The second aerial shows how the intersection looks today.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...onte1948HA.jpghttp://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...onte2013GM.jpg
Historic Aerials/Google Maps

The structure outlined in red had already gone when the 1954 aerial was taken. The building which replaced it is the Columbia School, which ties in with ProphetM's suggestion that Ramona Boulevard used to be Columbia Street. The church was still there in 1954, but gone by 1972.

Originally Posted by ProphetM (Post 6350537)

Oh - I think I see the same building in the top left corner of both aerials.

Originally Posted by Martin Pal (Post 6347157)

There's a similar building at 8851 Santa Monica Blvd., is it the same designer?

Originally Posted by Godzilla (Post 6347416)

http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/B...A44F8310B8.jpg
http://www.loopnet.com/Attachments/B...A44F8310B8.jpg

I am not too familiar with the above building, nor do I recognize the name Wilhelmina Moore.

Originally Posted by Martin Pal (Post 6348035)

If I have time to go by there sometime soon, I want to read what that "plaque" info says, for want of a better word.

Originally Posted by HossC (Post 6350409)

After reading ProphetM's suppositions about the location of the El Monte photograph, I looked up the area on Historic Aerials. The Historic Aerials image dates from 1948, about 20 years after the photos, but before the roads changed to their current layout.

I've marked the church from the original photo in blue, with the blue arrow denoting roughly where I think the photographer was standing. The building outlined in red is the one in the photo that I found in the USC Library. The red arrow marks the photographer's position for that picture. I believe the photographs show two sides of the same tree, with the corner of the church just visible on the left of the second picture. The second aerial shows how the intersection looks today.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...onte1948HA.jpghttp://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...onte2013GM.jpg
Historic Aerials/Google Maps

The structure outlined in red had already gone when the 1954 aerial was taken. The building which replaced it is the Columbia School, which ties in with ProphetM's suggestion that Ramona Boulevard used to be Columbia Street. The church was still there in 1954, but gone by 1972.

Originally Posted by Lwize (Post 5962647)

http://www.trbimg.com/img-50ea3d6e/t...g-20130106/600
(Francine Orr, Los Angeles Times / January 2, 2013)



http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,1048619.story

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 6350465)

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/6817/p88n.jpg

Wasn't there a post recently about big cheeses?

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck (Post 6350858)

???
Runny Cheese
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XAdLp6rY8x...eta_criggo.jpg

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5262270)

In one of the WPA maps I noticed the Bimini Slough area.

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/8...hspalomarb.jpg
uscdl


Here is a 1929 and 2010 comparison of the same area by Vokoban.
If you look closely you can see both the Bimini Baths and the Palomar Ballroom.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7...ermontcomp.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/people/vokoban/

________________

I know we've covered the Bimini Baths in the past so I ventured back in the thread.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...&postcount=644

I believe the following photos/postcards are new to this thread.


http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/9...ad1902voko.jpg
latimes

above: The grand opening of the Bimini Baths. I believe this original structure was destroyed by fire a few years later.


below: The Bimini Baths in the 1930s.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/5...inthe1950s.jpg
vokoban




below: There was also the Bimini Inn. Amazingly, this building survives.

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/9...l1905still.jpg
vokoban

below: The Bimini Inn today.

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/6...hoteltoday.jpg
google street view

The Bimini Inn is now known as the Bimini Recovery Center.