noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by odinthor

The trio of buildings at center is our site of interest; they appear to be identical triplets, as far as one can tell from the sketchy art of this map.

Interestingly, one or two of these was moved in 1913 to W. 18th St.

It seems odd that the structure that was moved had one street number on Alvardo (654 S. Alvarado St.) but will have (had) two separate street numbers on W. 18th St. (1432 - 1432 W. 18th St.) The easiest reason is that it was turned into a duplex -but was it a duplex on Alvarado - or does that even matter?

I'm just trying to figure out if you're correct about the parking lot being the site of the other half of the building. (on 18th St.)


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[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by riichkay

Photo dated 1952, from a post a few months back.....https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?p=10473662#post10473662

It took some head scratching on my part but I figure this shot was taken from the north side of Wilshire Bl., a bit west of Alvarado.
It seems to me like the statue is no longer there?

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

It seems odd that the structure that was moved had one street number on Alvardo (654 S. Alvarado St.) but will have (had) two separate street numbers on W. 18th St. (1432 - 1432 W. 18th St.) The easiest reason is that it was turned into a duplex -but was it a duplex on Alvarado - or does that even matter?

I'm just trying to figure out if you're correct about the parking lot being the site of the other half of the building. (on 18th St.)


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e_r, spot-checking I see that in 1915 (two years after the building(s) had been moved from Alvarado to W. 18th) both addresses (1432 and 1434) have (different) occupants . . . and still the case in 1956:


1956 LA Address Directory

so some structure had to be there where the parking lot is now, and the size of the space seems to accommodate a doubling of the other portion. I suppose it depends on what the moving permit meant by "2 flats."

Back to three buildings but one address on Alvarado, maybe on Alvarado it was one tripartite boarding house, in other words one economic entity though in three sections, with the manager/owner's address there being the legal address . . . ?

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by Bristolian

It took some head scratching on my part but I figure this shot was taken from the north side of Wilshire Bl., a bit west of Alvarado.
It seems to me like the statue is no longer there?

Bristolian, I believe that's the Prometheus Bringing Fire to Earth statue . . . https://livingnewdeal.org/sites/macarthur-park-statue-los-angeles-ca/; but it looks as if it has lost the globe that had been in one of its hands in your 1952 pic.

[Bristolian]

Thanks, odinthor

That clears it up. The photo was actually taken from the south side of Wilshire.
It also appears that the building now known as the Walter J Towers was under construction in the 1952 photo.

[ethereal_reality]

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We have a mystery location to start the week.


1916 Knights of Columbus Drill Team Preparedness Day Los Angeles Photo


Currently on eBay


Thankfully there's a pretty good clue hidden in plain sight.



This one.





Lets take a super-duper closer look.


detail

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[HossC]

Frank Rosenkranz's Catholic bookstore was at 1240 S Los Angeles Street in the 1917 CD (a short move from 224 E Pico in 1916). That means that the large building behind the drill team was the slightly camera shy St Joseph's Parochial School at 1224 S Los Angeles Street (with the old St Joseph's Church to its left in the picture below).


USC Digital Library

[ethereal_reality]

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Thanks, Hoss

To clarify; here's the house with the bookstore, right?



I imagine it was also the parsonage.




I also found the F. Rosenkranz Catholic Bookstore at 224 E. Pico.





And the drill team is mention in this article from 1916...(courtesy of odinthor)



. . .along with a Cirogonion Club...What kind of club is that!?


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[ethereal_reality]

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AND just by chance I have a photograph of the actual parade in one of my old files.




Pretty cool.

Hmmm, Monte Cafe and L.A. Cafe. What block are we on?



This should help.


Courtesy of odinthor.


Or maybe not, that's confusing as all get out....




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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

To clarify; here's the house with the booktore, right?



I imagine it was also the parsonage.

I think you've highlighted the back of the school building (lower arrow, below). I believe the bookstore is hidden by the building opposite in my original image. It's under the upper arrow in the 1931 image below.


mil.library.ucsb.edu

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

AND just by chance I have a photograph of the actual parade in one of my old files.



Pretty cool.

Hmmm, Monte Cafe and L.A. Cafe. What block are we on?

It's the Del Monte Cafe at 423 S Spring Street with the Angelus Hotel at the corner of 4th and Spring on the right.

[riichkay]

Caption: "Los Angeles Chinatown circa 1930's....Two boys sell corsages in front of one of L.A. Chinatown's nightlife venues".

Photo is courtesy of Calisphere.

[Flyingwedge]

The Forbidden Palace was open for lunch, too:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

And here's another from the 1940s...


eBay

The Forbidden Palace was located at 451 Gin Ling Way.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by riichkay

Photo dated 1952, from a post a few months back.....https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?p=10473662#post10473662

Originally Posted by Bristolian

It took some head scratching on my part but I figure this shot was taken from the north side of Wilshire Bl., a bit west of Alvarado.
It seems to me like the statue is no longer there?

Originally Posted by odinthor

Bristolian, I believe that's the Prometheus Bringing Fire to Earth statue . . . https://livingnewdeal.org/sites/macarthur-park-statue-los-angeles-ca/; but it looks as if it has lost the globe that had been in one of its hands in your 1952 pic.

Originally Posted by Bristolian

Thanks, odinthor

That clears it up. The photo was actually taken from the south side of Wilshire.
It also appears that the building now known as the Walter J Towers was under construction in the 1952 photo.

Here's an early, but undated view of the MacArthur Park statue.


LAPL

The wider view below shows the statue again and also the back of the billboard we've been discussing.

Aerial view of MacArthur Park facing West from the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street. MacArthur Lake is on the south side of Wilshire Boulevard, the Town House Building and I. Magnin Tower can be seen further west along Wilshire Boulevard.

USC Digital Library

The statue is still there, but as odinthor said, the globe seems to be missing. The base and lower part of the statue are now brightly painted - see GSV

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by HossC

The statue is still there, but as odinthor said, the globe seems to be missing. The base and lower part of the statue are now brightly painted - see GSV
_______________________________________________________________

The earliest GSV image, 2008, has the globe missing, and the painted base was done between the March 2020 and February 2021 images. In fact, the 2021 image has someone with plastic gloves on doing something at the base; maybe that's the person painting it!?

[Martin Pal]

E_R, did you or anyone else know that there is a website titled (The Beach Boys) Endless Harmony Forum. It has a general discussion section called EHers who make music and one of the threads in the section is: The "noirish Los Angeles" thread: 3000 pages of history. It's been there a little over a year or so.

The thread curates photos and info from this forum of interest to the readers of this musical forum. Every post is linked and credited to the post or page on NLA that it's referencing.



https://endlessharmony.boards.net/thread/3361/noirish-angeles-thread-pages-history

[ethereal_reality]

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No, I wasn't aware of it, Martin Pal. At first I thought you meant they had a link to our 'noirish Los Angeles'.

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[ethereal_reality]

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First of all I hope I haven't already posted these interior photographs. I'm pretty sure I haven't but if I have just pretend I haven't. (works for me )

Secondly, there isn't a Surf Street in Santa Monica so I believe the old photos (which I found on eBay) are of Surf Street in Play del Rey.

The street I'm going to talk about is in a compact area in Playa del Rey known as 'The Jungle'.




google-earth

How many knew this area was called 'The Jungle'? ... I didn't.



And here's the very short Surf Street in Playa del Rey.


google-earth




More specifically, 121 Surf Street.

This one.


Now what if I told you I can show you what the interior of the building looked like back in October of 1941. That would be pretty cool, don't ya think?



Here we go.

#1






#2


Complete with fireplace. (I think that's a fireplace)............Hmmm, and what's that gerbil wheel doing up by the curtains?





#3


COZY!...I'd love to sit there and read.





And #4 and #5 are the kitchen.


I'm going to enlarge the last two so check back if you want to see the kitchen bigger. (I'm here to please)


Even if i have the incorrect 'Surf Street' the interiors are still really interesting.

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[ethereal_reality]

My wish is your command. ....Huh?



Here is the 1941 kitchen, LARGER.



My parents had one of those double globe coffee makers.







Ta Dah!

Do you think that's an ironing board in the wall or a really skinny Murphy bed?





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[Lwize]

101 Best LA Movies from the LA Times.
(too large to post - but viewable with your browser's reader-mode)

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/list/best-los-angeles-movies