noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

I had all but forgotten about those earlier posts/page 229 on the Los Altos Apartments T2.
My favorite find was the abandoned cars in the Los Altos Apt. Garage! It's easy to imagine a body in one of the trunks.
thx for the reminder.

[ethereal_reality]

Kodachrome slide from 1963. (listed on ebay 4 hours ago)


ebay

I've been trying to make out the name of the large apartment building (the name is obscured by wires).
That's the Sunkist Building and the Edison Building in the distance! If you look closely you can see a small portion of the Engstrum Apts.
(with the small roof top sign)
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[ethereal_reality]

Los Angeles 1929 No street address given

snapshot/ebay
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[tovangar2]

Great POV e_r on the 5th Street color shot!

I cannot read the sign, but I love the Bubble Up ads on the buses :-)

There's a quote from "Adobe Days" (1931) re this intersection that I've always wondered about:

"Mr Coulter had a woolen mill over the hill near the present corner of Figueroa and Fifth Streets. The old brick walls of this factory may still be seen - the main part of a modern-fronted garage. There was a little stream there called Los Reyes"

One of these days the garage will turn up in a photo....

[Albany NY]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Kodachrome slide from 1963. (listed on ebay 4 hours ago)


ebay

I've been trying to make out the name of the large apartment building (the name is obscured by wires).
That's the Sunkist Building and the Edison Building in the distance! If you look closely you can see a small portion of the Engstrum Apts.
(with the small roof top sign)
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The sign says Monarch Apartments. Here are a couple of views of it from another angle, from when it was called the Monarch Hotel. Notice the decorative areas near the roof are the same

The Monarch in its earliest days.
http://onbunkerhill.org/TheMonarch

A little remodeling has been done to "modernize" the bar entrance
http://onbunkerhill.org/TheMonarch

One Bunker Hill.org has the goods on this building, including some juicy noir bits (death, blood, betrayal, mystery, etc.)

A few more images of the Monarch, at 5th and Figueroa. It was opened in late 1929, and held its ground until 1966.

http://onbunkerhill.org/TheMonarch

http://onbunkerhill.org/TheMonarch

In 1964, its fate has been sealed.
http://onbunkerhill.org/TheMonarch

By 1965 the neighborhood is being leveled.
http://onbunkerhill.org/TheMonarch

It is now 1966, and Los Angeles is looking forward to the Union Bank Building, which will soon take the place of the Monarch (lower center of photo).
http://onbunkerhill.org/TheMonarch



The new kid on the block, the Union Bank Building has replaced the Monarch. Much of Bunker Hill has been destroyed by now, too. This iconic view shows the old, dignified, Los Angeles, crumbling away to make room for the new, cold, Los Angeles. A large city of neighborhoods is being replaced towers of power and business. Homes have warmth and character, and the endless stories of those who lived there. The new LA lives within Excel spreadsheets, focus groups, demographic targets, and business plans. Cold and heartless, like an episode of Dragnet. Just the facts, ma'am.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Los Angeles 1929 No street address given

snapshot/ebay
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Hello ER ~

This building evidently had nothing to do with 'bowling'. Wilmington was a dockside area with a lot of tough guy types hanging about. Evidently it was easy to find strong dockworkers for a boxing match.

The Wilmington Bowl was a boxing venue in the Los Angeles suburb of Wilmington, located at the intersection of Anaheim and Alameda Boulevards. Doc Moffett was its matchmaker from 1924 to late 1929. The original arena had a capacity of a little over 4,000. There were weekly shows on Wednesdays. But a fire destroyed the original arena in late 1929. A new brick arena was opened in 1930, but Moffett wasn't the matchmaker at the time. The capacity of this arena was 3,300.
The Wilmington Bowl would be a boxing venue for two more decades after the second arena was opened. But it appears that the heyday of the Wilmington Bowl was when shows were staged in the first arena.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Smog picture, 1950

Originally Posted by Albany NY

The sign says Monarch Apartments.

Pfft. I should have known that it was the Monarch, one of the "gateway" buildings to downtown. The one on the other side of 5th is the Architects Building. Note the Richfield on the right.

Really nice pix of the Monarch Albany NY. Thanks :-)

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Pfft. I should have known that it was the Monarch, one of the "gateway" buildings to downtown. The one on the other side of 5th is the Architects Building. Note the Richfield on the right.

Really nice pix of the Monarch Albany NY. Thanks :-)

Cheers T-2.....I guess they didn't see the hotel building on a foggy night in 1957.

Monarch Bar....crash. I guess you could still order a drink..


LAPL

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This is the first advertisement that I've found for the Crescent Heights tract.

Los Angeles Herald 1905

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/


google aerial

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Further south at 310-12-14-16 S. Crescent Heights (NE corner of CH and Blackburn, just below 3rd) we have an attractively designed apartment building from 1936. I couldn't find any vintage photos, and current photos are difficult to take given the two large trees on the property.

This is looking east across Crescent Heights:


Looking north across Blackburn:


Looking northeast:


Looking southeast:






Photos by me March 30, 2013

[ethereal_reality]

1965 photograph posted by Albany NY

The Monarch Hotel and Architect's Building book-ending the Sunkist & Edison Building.

http://onbunkerhill.org/TheMonarch
[/QUOTE]

Thank you Albany NY for the information and photographs of the old Monarch Hotel/Apartments.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

At the NE corner of Crescent Heights and Blackburn we have an attractively designed apartment building from 1936.


by me March 30, 2013

This is a wonderful find Flyingwedge. I don't recall this streamline modern apartment at all.
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[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Cheers T-2.....I guess they didn't see the hotel building on a foggy night in 1957.

Monarch Bar....crash. I guess you could still order a drink..


LAPL

LOL, thx. gsjansen posted that one before, but I've never been able to get it to load (just me?) http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1270
Nice to finally see it!



P.S.

Beautiful building Flyingwedge. Google maps shows it with more of a lawn and shrubbery (Yuccas, Century plants, etc). They must be (slowly?) redoing the landscaping. It will be interesting to see how it ends up. Could do with new paint too. The two big Tamarind trees at the curb are not enhancing the architecture.

[ethereal_reality]

ebay

Thank you for the excellent information on the Wilmington Bowl CityBoyDoug. Very interesting history. (I thought it was a bowling alley)
-much appreciated....and then some.

[Mstimc]

I just got back from a trip to the West Side and back to the OC to visit UCLA (our son will be going there in the Fall). Driving back south of downtown, I started thinking about this site, and got a little depressed. To the north and south stretched hundreds--maybe thousands--of buildings that once housed businesses that actually made things. L.A. was once a hell of a factory town, from San Pedro to Eagle Rock. I know a lot of those buildings are still being used, but for what? Strip joints, cheap furniture stores, storage for imports that used to made here. I look at some of the pictures here, of factories, breweries, shipping companies and a dozen other manufacturing-related uses, and think about the working people who could earn a living for their families in them. I know we can't bring those days back, and I know factory life was anything but rosy, but you have to feel a little twinge of regret when you drive by the Bruck Braid building, that used to make "wire rope", and see its an "arts center".

[ethereal_reality]

excellent commentary Mstimc.
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ebay
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[ethereal_reality]

A glimpse inside the public library when it was located in the old city hall, 1905.



ebay
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[ethereal_reality]

3424 Jasmine and Palms Sts

ebay

mailed in this envelope



from the Arcade Station.

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[Lwize]

Jasmine is lined with apartments built in the 1950's thru 1990's.

https://www.google.com/maps?ll=34.02...06953&t=h&z=20

(short URL isn't working for some reason)

Price Self Storage in the background on National used to be a Tootsie Pop factory.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

3424 Jasmine and Palms Sts

ebay


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This area appears to be mostly apartments in 2013. From the photo it looks like a father, his son and his two boys....a genuine family business? Shirtless Jr. [left]. makes it look like a warm summer day. There are iron works in Los Angeles that still do this type of work.

[Wig-Wag]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This is the first advertisement that I've found for the Crescent Heights tract.

Los Angeles Herald 1905

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/



google aerial

Notice several street name changes.
Hays Ave. has become Havenhurst Dr.
May Ave. has become Hayworth Ave.
Crescent Ave. has become Fairfax Ave.



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A trivia quiz.

Does anyone know why there are radiused curves connecting Sunset boulevard and Crescent heights?

Answer tomorrow night if no one has the answer before then.

Cheers,
Jack