noirish Los Angeles

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Thanks for all this great work, FW!

***

Meanwhile, I'm still mousing through the neighborhood to find interesting tidbits. The Hill St. YWCA building was nearby. I ran across this item, which ran as that building was being torn down, and I thought it had certain points of interest . . . it turns out the YWCA was in the Conservative Life Bldg. for a time:


LA Times, 7/4/1971

Here's something I wrote about the YWCA back in the day. At the time I didn't know it was designed by Arthur B. Benton, who is perhaps best known for yet another YWCA.




The Hotel Belmont creeps up in Bunker Noir!, of course—

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by Ossrae

I'm researching aspects of this historic NELA house but am having trouble identifying the style. The expert I asked thinks it could be contemporary to Victorian but a different style than Victorian.

Thank you.


Source: https://www.google.com/maps/place/13...4d-118.2791789

Great house. As you probably know, it was designed by Frank M. Tyler for CH and Ella Howard. Interestingly, they held the funeral for their 15-yo son Harold there in February 1909.

It has elements of some Victorian residential structures but it would be misleading to apply the term. Especially since the house was built in the summer of 1907. That makes it strictly speaking an Edwardian house.

As to "style" I'd venture to say it's a "Tudor-Craftsman." The multiple front-facing gables plant it in the Craftsman vernacular, as does the large open porch (and I love the use of clinker brick instead of the usual river rock). Then, there's decorative half-timbering on the upper stucco portions, that's Tudor.

Were it my house, I'd paint the board dark brown and the stucco cream.

The "maltese cross" design on the door is seriously one of the best residential doors I've seen anywhere, anytime.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Beaudry

232 is proving to be a bit elusive. I figured it would show in one of those shots from Angels Flight but I haven't found it. This is as close as I've come, just a sliver of its north side on Hill—



lapl

Here's a slightly better view of 232 S Hill Street. It's just to the right of the "CHIROPRACTIC" blade sign. This is a detail from a 1939 Dick Whittington photo.


USC Digital Library

[rick m]

Awesome Beaudry-- This I will put (eventually) into folder at One Archives-for Mattachine Society /L.A.

[Ossrae]

Thank you!! That's an amazing picture!

Originally Posted by Bristolian

This closeup from a 1928 UCSB Framefinder aerial seems to confirm the White Point location. The rectangular basin and the rock outcropping in the distance seem to be a match.

https://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_imag...c-300_m-64.tif

[Bristolian]

Happy to help. I posted in 2018 about a long lost golf course above the beach there. My previous post
The area must have seemed like the end of the world back then.

[MartinTurnbull]

I've spent the past few days trying to ID the tower in the background of these two circa early 1940s photos without much luck. So I'm hoping the hive mind might be able to come up with the answer.

The photos have been identified as looking west along Beverly Blvd. The traffic lights in the foreground are on Robertson Blvd. Assuming the above is true, which I'm pretty sure it is, I'm thinking that puts the tower in the background that I'm trying to identify at around La Peer or Almont.

It looks to me like it's one of those ornamental towers that they loved to stick on top of gas stations and the like in the 1930s. If anybody recognizes it, I'd LOVE to hear from you.

Thanks, guys!



https://pastvu.com/p/469496

[HossC]

My first thought was Carthay Circle, but I was wrong. It's the Beverly Tower at the intersection of Beverly and San Vicente Boulevards, which means that the shot above is Beverly Boulevard looking east at Robertson Boulevard.

The description says: View of a section of San Vicente Boulevard, showing some Art Deco buildings. In the background is the Beverly Tower, which is a service station, next to that, in the center of the image, is a little eatery. A painted wooden sign on the left advertises horseback riding lessons.


LAPL

[MartinTurnbull]

Ah! Thanks, HossC! So my inkling that it was an ornamental gas station tower was right on the money, after all. Thanks much!

Originally Posted by HossC

My first thought was Carthay Circle, but I was wrong. It's the Beverly Tower at the intersection of Beverly and San Vicente Boulevards, which means that the shot above is Beverly Boulevard looking east at Robertson Boulevard.

The description says: View of a section of San Vicente Boulevard, showing some Art Deco buildings. In the background is the Beverly Tower, which is a service station, next to that, in the center of the image, is a little eatery. A painted wooden sign on the left advertises horseback riding lessons.


LAPL

[Martin Pal]

Great find for that photo, HossC. Though something is confusing me.
Let me ponder it.

[Martin Pal]

HossC, I am somewhat confused.

https://pastvu.com/p/469496

This above link lists the two similar photos were taken at Beverly Blvd. and Bonner Dr., one on March 5, 1941, and the other on June 5, 1941 (hence the two different billboards).

The map on the page indicates Bonner Dr. t-bones Beverly Blvd. from the north and is in between Robertson and San Vicente. The photo you posted (c. 1940) indicates the caption saying: "View of a section of San Vicente Boulevard" and your conclusion is that the other two photos are: "the shot/s above is Beverly Boulevard looking east at Robertson Boulevard."

If one is looking east on Beverly from Bonner, Robertson is west, the other direction. The map included on the link page seems to indicate this gas station would be on Robertson and the photo looking west toward Robertson. The LAPL indication of the businesses being on San Vicente would be incorrect in this case. Something doesn't seem accurate to me. Or, I could just confused? (It's hot here! )

[HossC]

Here's a 1937 aerial of the area. You'll see that Bonner Drive originally went straight to the intersection of Beverly and Robertson. Looking at Historic Aerials, the layout was still similar in the late '40s. In my head, the 1940s photos were taken from the left of this aerial looking to the right (east). I've labeled what I think is Beverly Tower. My assumption is reinforced by the writing on the roof below it reading "L.A. RIDING ACADEMY", tying in with the "HORSEBACK RIDING LESSONS" sign on the left of my earlier photo.


mil.library.ucsb.edu

[Martin Pal]

.

That aerial explains it, HossC! Thank you. The current Bonner Drive curves down to Beverly Blvd. approximately where the second "n" in Bonner is written on the 1937 aerial. So what you said makes sense now!

Click on the photo in the quoted post below if you want a larger version.

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

A 1930's aerial of West Hollywood:
[...]


Link HERE. (Playground to the Stars)
_________________________________________________________________

I had posted this above aerial that was identified as a 1930's aerial. When I looked at the link again today, the website's moderator, Jon Ponder, had updated it:

Correction: Additional research found that the Los Angeles Riding Academy (in the foreground) was sold in 1924, so obviously the photo was taken before then. I updated the headline to reflect the date change. – Jon, Sept. 11, 2020.

In the 1937 aerial the Riding Academy does look different in a lot of ways. He doesn't say if the Academy was still being used for any other horse related activities, but it would makes sense that it was from the riding lessons sign in the 1937 aerial.

[ethereal_reality]

.
Mystery buildings.


"Vintage 1938 Snapshot Photo Woman Buried in Sand on Beach Los Angeles CA " (half buried, if that) unless there's another girl under the sand.


Currently on eBay





Let's take a closer look at those buildings in the background.



hmm. . .Venice Beach?

I'd say the building on the left is a hotel and the building on the right is. .um. .well, that looks like a box office in the arched entrance but it doesn't look like a theater. (and is that a barber pole to the right of the entrance?)

.

[ethereal_reality]

.
. . .and since we're down the beach.


A one of a kind snapshot of Venice, the Hotel St. Regis and Ocean Park Pier. (1940s?)


Currently on eBay

....................................................................I spy three sailors.



.

[Noir_Noir]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
Mystery buildings.

"Vintage 1938 Snapshot Photo Woman Buried in Sand on Beach Los Angeles CA "

Just in terms of the date of the picture - it's likely from 1941 and not 1938 as the ebay seller has it.

As the seller points out the posters in the background are for Ringling Bros. Circus in Long Beach on Sept. 17.

The only years the circus was in Long Beach on that date were 1923 and 1941. The cars in the picture indicate the later year.


classic.circushistory.org

[ethereal_reality]

.
Thanks for the correction, Noir Noir. I spent a good portion of an hour trying to read the posters not realizing
the seller mentioned Ringling Bros. Circus.


.

[ethereal_reality]

.
1946 Mystery


I don't recall seeing this fantastic building on NLA. (but as many of you know, my memory stinks)... I searched the thread using "bosley" and received no hits.

Seller's description:..1946 Goldberg-Bosley Dance Ballroom Venice Blvd & S. Flower St Los Angeles Photo.


Currently on eBay



The reverse.





I found the ballroom(?) in the 1916 city directories with a slight variation between 1601 and 1606 S. Flower Street.


1916 LAPL






1929 LAPL




Oh, I almost forgot. Here's a closer look at the signs at the southeast? corner of S. Flower and Venice Blvd..


detail

OK, folks. Let's find a photograph of the interior! . .and, if luck is with us, perhaps a photograph of Philip & Ida tripping the light fantastic.



Go minions! hahahhahah (evil laugh)
.

[HossC]

It looks like we got a small look at Goldberg-Bosley Dance Ballroom nearly 10 years ago. In your original post, e_r, you posted a detail view from the image below, but it's now missing. GW replied to this detail with a couple of LAT articles including one about a fire bomb.

I found a matchbook cover at www.flickr.com which describes the ballroom as the "Best Ventilated in Los Angeles".

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Los Angeles, in that infamous year 1947.


ebay

Can anyone tell me where this photograph was taken? (I just noticed the slight 'jog' in the street)

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Looks like this was originally the Goldberg-Bosley Hall...

Los Angeles Times, Nov 13, 1908

Los Angeles Times, Jan 28, 1922

Sixteenth is now Venice Blvd; there are Times references to it up to the mid-'30s...

[Martin Pal]

Both the L.A. Metro Line A (Blue) and E Line (Expo) both run down Flower St. now, past where this ballroom was located.