Quote:
Originally Posted by gsjansen
this 1910 view looking east must be from the Engstrum as that is definitely the intersection of 5th and grand.
a very nice view of Pershing square before this view was obliterated by the construction of the Edison building. boyhowdy! man did this joint get hemmed in but quick by surrounding structures down the road.
what with beaudry's posting of the happy fella on the north side of the Engstrum, and this image on the east side.....dayum, this joint offered at one time, some of the finest view wise hotel rooms in town! I'd love to find a view looking west before the construction of the Sunkist building
USC Digital Archive |
Great pic! Looking at it, I can see the back of the First German United Methodist Church, which was completed the year that photo was taken. It was next to the San Carlos Hotel, which I see used to have a more ornate facade, though this backside of it has a more utilitarian brick facing.
Here's the San Carlos Hotel some 40 years later. By then the ornate details had been stripped. Next to it in the left of the photo is the Biltmore Garage, which dates from the 1920s; I find it interesting that it's a multi-level parking structure from the '20s, and they even made some effort to make it look like an ordinary building. I also find it interesting that for the Googies restaurant on the corner, they mimicked the roofline of what would be a free-standing Googies restaurant. You can barely make out the top of the Edison Building, as well as the bottom floor of the Methodist Church.
yesterdayla.com
Here's the San Carlos Hotel and First German United Methodist Church in their waning years, circa 1985. These and the adjacent Biltmore Garage would be demolished for construction of the Gas Company Tower, which opened in 1993, I think. In this photo you can also see the construction of the tower addition to the Biltmore Hotel, which would also include parking for the hotel.
USC Archive
The church has since moved to Glendale; apparently they are a German-speaking congregation:
Welcome to the First German 'Speaking' United Methodist Church in greater L.A.
Here's that block from its more halcyon days, circa 1928:
LAPL
The building to the right is a telephone exchange building. Believe it or not, it still exists, it's just been reskinned and now forms one of the three connected buildings of the Madison Complex, which over the years used to say Pacific Bell, then SBC, now AT&T; I'm sure many of you know it as the building with the huge microwave tower on top of it. It's still one of the largest telephone central offices in the nation. The microwave tower was in use from the early 1960s until the 1990s.
thecentraloffice.com
thecentraloffice.com
You can read about it
here.