View Single Post
  #18837  
Old Posted Jan 13, 2014, 3:33 PM
Retired_in_Texas Retired_in_Texas is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 219
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tetsu View Post
HossC, thanks so much! That's actually the one photo I have seen of the house at its original location, but I've never seen it in such high res.

Retired_in_Texas, that was a great read on the LA Soap Co., thanks.

And one more, somewhat odd, note. The carriage house from the original Forthmann property was moved to 812 E. Edgeware Rd. in Angelino Heights. Apparently it's been sitting on these extra high stilts for a while now, waiting to have a new first floor constructed under it.

Big Orange Landmarks
TETSU quite a story about the Forthman property and the fact the founder of the L.A. Soap company rode to work in a horse drawn carriage up until the time he died. A bit eccentric?

It would be interesting to see what exact 15 acres of the downtown L.A. area the buildings of the L.A. Soap company occupied until its closing in 1988.

I can't resist commenting for the benefit of old building preservationist about the cost of renovation of aging buildings to code being what actually put the company under, with perhaps a bit of foggy headed management not realizing it would have been to the company's benefit to simply sell the real estate and build a new facility elsewhere. Boneheaded thinking all the way around cost L.A. an employer and the existence of a business that was around the turn of the 20th Century among the city's larger employers.

If one is a real history nut, as I tend to be at times, there is more quite interesting coverage of Bergin and the Soap company. I found it interesting that his nephew that succeeded him with the company was from an East Texas town that was about 20 miles from where I grew up and was home to Ladybird Johnson to the time she married LBJ. Checkout A History of California and an Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs ..., Volume 3
By James Miller Guinn
. It's online in google books.

Last edited by Retired_in_Texas; Jan 13, 2014 at 4:01 PM.
Reply With Quote