noirish Los Angeles

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

The yellow line is Sunset and the blue line is Santa Monica....roughly.

The red circle is ER's home when he was in show business in Hollywood. I believe his bungalow is posted somewhere on NLA.

previously posted

1924 - AAA Map - LA to Topanga
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co.../id/32/rec/129



The Wilshire-Fairfax "Rogers/DeMille Field" appears to be clearly marked, but I wonder about the field depicted under "Sherman." Unless it is the Fairfax-Melrose location ( http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8683 ) Its existence lends credence to stories about certain '20s and early '30s residents conveniently flying in and out of the area ([I]in airplanes[/I]). Don't see any obvious airstrip evidence in recent area photos - yet.

[Wig-Wag]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I'm not sure what this guy is doing.



__

ER, opening up the shadows in Photoshop reveals that this is a Los Angeles Transit Lines wire truck. Compare the colors with the bus in the background.

Due to what appears to be a lack of trolly wire running the length of the street I would offer that the worker on the ladder is removing one of the horizontal support wires to the former trolley overhead. The section he is holding looks long enough to stretch from the center of the street to a building anchor point.

Cheers,
Jack

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

I have a theory on what's up with Diana Street.

I think the reason there's even a Diana Street in the first place has to do with 3rd Street (and maybe 4th Street) not originally crossing Bimini Slough/Sacatela Creek. Third Street comes in from the left of the map, just under the big circled 24, stops at Vermont, then jogs north. After 3rd Street was put straight across the creek, the old northern jog was renamed 2nd Street:

1921 Baist Map from Historic Mapworks (http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/19422/Plate+016/)

I've marked Diana Street with a red line on this 1929 photo. Apparently, not everything on the Baist Map came into existence. Curvy 4th Street is at the bottom; keep in mind the straight road leading from the northern apex of the 4th Street curve, just above and to the left of the black plus sign. I'm not sure if 4th Street is being laid out or is being dug up for construction; if the latter, we might be looking at the undergrounding of Sacatela Creek in progress:

LAPL (http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics42/00040733.jpg)

Here's an undated shot of the Sacatela undergrounding, possibly between 3rd and 4th, looking southwest towards the Ambassador Hotel; I assume the streetcars are on Vermont. I wish I could confirm that this photo shows the same area as in BifRayRock's posts 12289 and 12291, but on my old computer those pics are broken up into so many pieces, it's hard for me to tell what I'm looking at. Sorry.

USC Digital Library (http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/5569/rec/10)

Anyway, back to Diana Street. It's hard to see in the 1929 shot, but in this undated photo from I'm guessing the mid/late 1940s, there's clearly a house and grounds to the west of and behind the homes on the west side of Westmoreland:

LAPL (http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics33/00066409.jpg)
So here's my theory: I think that before Fourth Street was put through, Diana Street was the driveway to that house, or at least used as another entrance. Here there seems to be a tree-lined entrance of some sort, in the same place as the road in the 1929 photo, leading up from 4th Street to the house. Google Maps shows a phantom 3274 Diana Street; maybe that was that house's address? Diana Street isn't as overgrown in the 1929 photo -- which you'd be able to see if I hadn't put that red line there -- as it appears in later pics.

Here's roughly the same shot; the house and grounds are now part of the park and it looks like some courts have been built on the home's footprint:

Google Earth

Looking closely at the west end of Diana Street on Google Earth, you can see parallel parking spaces painted on both sides of the street. I'm guessing it was parking for the Shatto Rec Center when it opened, but its relatively secluded location drew too much unwholesome activity for it to remain open.

I thought we had closer views of this image and the mid-Wilshire skyline. Maybe not.



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/5569/rec/17


I thought we had closer views of this image and the mid-Wilshire skyline. Maybe not.



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/5569/rec/17



Immanuel Wilshire Presbyterian - 3300 Wilshire Blvd.








1928 - 3300 Wilshire, Immanuel Wilshire Presbyterian
https://paradiseleased.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/00064720.jpg[/URL]









Ambassador






Gaylord Apts. at far right











Immanuel Wilshire Presbyterian Church in distance, was completed in '25
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lFexkLbzLq...n+wilshire.jpg





Further west . . .

A familiar Wilshire residence?


1928 - Wilshire United Methodist (4350 Wilshire Blvd) in background and a lot of Wilshire dirt in foreground.
http://windsorvillage.net/wp-content...uction1928.jpg

"There it is, take it"
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2261/...791aedd59a.jpg

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks Wig-Wag. I appreciate the help.



Rare photograph of an early Rose Parade.

"1915 Rose Bowl Parade Pasadena CA Michelin Men Float"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-1915...item1e7df2c900

Does anyone recognize the large building behind the float?


Here is the reverse



detail #1 (it looks like the Michelin Man on the right has sprung a leak, psssssssssssssst)

__

[Wig-Wag]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

[COLOR="Indigo"][SIZE="2"][FONT="Tahoma"]
[B]

The Wilshire-Fairfax "Rogers/DeMille Field" appears to be clearly marked, but I wonder about the field depicted under "Sherman." Unless it is the Fairfax-Melrose location ( http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8683 ) Its existence lends credence to stories about certain '20s and early '30s residents conveniently flying in and out of the area ([I]in airplanes[/I]). Don't see any obvious airstrip evidence in recent area photos - yet.

BifRayRock, This map from the Lost and Forgotten airfields site shows an airfield under the number 4 that the key describes as Pacific Air Transport.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/...ds_CA_LA_C.htm

A brief history of the company appears on this Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Air_Transport

Unfortunately, the Los Angeles County Airports map is not clear enough to read the street name, but the location seems to jive with what is shown on the map you posted.

Cheers,
Jack

[ethereal_reality]

I don't believe we've seen this photograph on NLA.

"Hollywood Freeway at Alvarado Street, circa 1955."

https://www.flickr.com/photos/30993133@N04/

It looks like the bus on top of the bridge is stopped on a sidewalk. (there is even a chain-link fence separating it from the freeway) What gives?

__

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by Wig-Wag

BifRayRock, This map from the Lost and Forgotten airfields site shows an airfield under the number 4 that the key describes as Pacific Air Transport.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/...ds_CA_LA_C.htm

A brief history of the company appears on this Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Air_Transport

Unfortunately, the Los Angeles County Airports map is not clear enough to read the street name, but the location seems to jive with what is shown on the map you posted.

Cheers,
Jack

Thanks, WW/Jack. At present, I have not discovered any CD listings for Pacific Air Transport and it was an "old-timer" who would have been well over 100 by now who regaled me with stories of barnstormers near the train yard. As noted in an earlier post, the Rogers and De Mille names were attached to several "strips" including locations near the Farmer's Market and Wilshire at La Cienega. For strips that were short-lived, private or barely improved, it is somewhat understandable that they do not appear on maps. It may be significant that Rogers merged with "Pacific Aero Corp. and moved to Western Ave. and 127th Street. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8683

I am familiar with the very informative site.http://www.airfields-freeman.com/ The 1925 AAA map available at USC digital omits any reference to the aviation field near "Sherman," so I suspect it may not have been much more than the proverbial field, a tent and some flags. (Or AAA merely felt airstrips were not relevant to most of its members.)

Your airport map appears to be dated, circa '28, in which case, if accurate, it might not display "abandoned/disused" fields or airstrips that predate '28. (To be fair, it does list 26 and 46 "closed," wherever they were located.) Notice "No.1" is listed as "Rogers," at which time it had moved from the Wilshire-Fairfax situs to Western and 127th.*. No "20" also "Rogers" was probably at 39th Street and Angeles Mesa Drive. Of course, the Fairfax strip could have been used "informally," but photos and contemporary reports indicate the area had agricultural value, was littered with drilling rigs and was fast being becoming residential by the late '20s. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8690



*Interestingly, the "abandoned" site alleges that Howard Hughes learned to fly at Rogers Field. There may be some confusion between the three different fields bearing the name "Rogers."

Industrialist Howard Hughes learned to fly from pioneer aviators, including Moye Stephens, at Rogers Airport in the early 1930s. Rogers Airport was evidently closed (for reasons unknown) at some point between 1929-39, as Bob Beecher reported, “There are several pictures of the intersection up to 1939 when the May Company department store was built & the airport was long gone, replaced by other buildings. The airport building (the one on the angle) had turned into a cafe.” http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/...ds_CA_LA_W.htm

An undated (circa late 1940s?) photo looking northeast at a Goodyear blimp over Hughes Airport, with a row of aircraft visible along the north side of the runway.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/..._40s_blimp.jpg

See: http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=11617


The Hughes airfield in 2014
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/..._14Oct5_nw.jpg

[tovangar2]

e_r, re your nice b&w of the Hollywood Freeway and Alvarado bus stop, I couldn't get close enough to the upper railing to recreate the shot, but all the infrastructure seems relatively unchanged after 60 years and it's still a freeway bus stop :-)


GSV

[BifRayRock]

24 Police Machines. Cash Talks


1922 - Indian Motorcycles aplenty, especially for two-wheeled LA Law Enforcement. Notice the badges. Pacific Motor Supply, 926 S. Main Street (In 1923, PMS President, Arthur Freed resided at 1316 S. Western Ave. He also had a residence in San Francisco.)
http://www.indianmotorcycles.net/att...144-jpeg.4587/


1930 - Out of the Way
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics04/00011692.jpg


1910 - Griffith Park Moto Copper
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00010/00010223.jpg



1935 - Huntington Beach, Main Street and PCH, Crowds for the bike races.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics36/00037511.jpg


1927
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics39/00039132.jpg


1919 - In front of Greek Orthodox Church at 1216 S. San Julian St.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics05/00012179.jpg



Culver City and street graffiti.

1930 - Culver City Population (and motorcycle) explosion.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035824.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035825.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035826.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035823.jpg

[Wig-Wag]

[QUOTE=ethereal_reality;6965103] Thanks Wig-Wag. I appreciate the help.

Here he is with his girlfriend.

tumblr

I know these people! They go out in the dark, fog, rain and during earthquakes and take all the photos of UFO's!

On a more serious note, ER, the building that currently most closely matches the building in the background of the Rose Parade shot is the Pottery Barn building at the corner of Colorado and Raymond. However, it appears to have lost it's upper story and undergone severe remodeling. More importantly, the half union streetcar tracks in the foreground are going the wrong way for what is a traditional west to east parade direction. I am still researching as PE had four half unions on Colorado Boulevard along the parade route. They were from west to east, Fair oaks Ave., Raymond Ave., Los Robles and South Lake Avenue. See this wiki site for an explanation of streetcar Half, Three Quarter and Gran unions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_union

Cheers,
Jack

[tovangar2]

Great shots of Curlett and Beelman's 1924 Culver Hotel BRR. Really nice. The building on the NW corner is still there too. The streets have been rather dramatically reconfigured.

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

An undated (circa late 1940s?) photo looking northeast at a Goodyear blimp over Hughes Airport, with a row of aircraft visible along the north side of the
runway.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/..._40s_blimp.jpg

See: http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=11617

Paul Freeman's Abandoned and Little-Known Airfields site is amazing! At the right edge of the above photo, beyond the airfield, there's a brown fence that runs left to a tall white
structure, which is the screen for the now-former Studio Drive-In, which was built in 1948 or 1949. It was located in the "Y" formed by the Jefferson/Sepulveda intersection;
Machado Road and Ballona Lane run through the site today.

However, the above photo is the Culver City Airport, which was north of Jefferson Blvd., not the Hughes Airport, which was south of Jefferson. By the way, Jefferson stops at that "Y"
intersection I mentioned, then begins again about 1/3 of a mile south, so I apologize if references to that street are confusing. The Hughes Airport is now the site of the Playa Vista
development. The Culver City Airport was north of that.

On the map below, X = Studio Drive-In, C = Culver City Airport, and H = the east end of the Hughes Airport property, which ran west all the way to Lincoln Blvd (Hughes owned land west of Lincoln, too). The street south of the Sepulveda/Jefferson "Y" is all Sepulveda.


Googlemap

The following photo, probably post-WWII, looks east at the Culver City Airport and is also from the Freeman site. A red arrow points to some kind of design on the roof of a hangar.
In the top photo, the largest building (dark gray) also has the same design on the roof. The size and orientation of the other buildings in both photos also match.

The road behind the row of hangars at the airport is Jefferson. Sepulveda is harder to see, but it runs left to right near the top of the photo, just beyond the far edge of the airfield.
The road coming down from the upper right corner is Slauson Avenue.

Beyond the upper right corner of the photo was the Fox Hills Country Club (1926-69). The clubhouse there was designed by Sumner P. Hunt, yet I've never seen a good photo of it.


Larry Leaman photo at http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/...htm#culvercity

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Great shots of Curlett and Beelman's 1924 Culver Hotel BRR. Really nice. The building on the NW corner is still there too. The streets have been rather dramatically reconfigured.

Anything special at the bottom of those stairs?
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035823.jpg



Harry Culver's Hotel
http://www.thetravelinggame.com/wp-c...Exterior-2.jpg



1929 Culver

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si.../id/2801/rec/1

[BifRayRock]

Karen Blixen had a farm in Africa, and Al Barnes had a Zoo in Culver City. Actually it was a circus. http://www.culvercitynews.org/column...-arnes-circus/ http://www.westland.net/venicehistor...scircuszoo.htm


TUSKO!
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4...2/SAVE2882.JPG

In the 1920s, there was an area called Barnes City further west at Centinela and Louise. Although it was never actually incorporated, it was “dissolved” in 1927. You might remember the Centinela Feed store in that area, which housed their city hall. The Barnes Circus, after some transitions, was eventually folded into the Ringling Bros. Circus.http://www.culvercitynews.org/column...-arnes-circus/

http://www.westland.net/venicehistor...&Orangatan.jpg



http://www.westland.net/venicehistor...oo-ground.jpeg



http://www.westland.net/venicehistor...oo-aerial.jpeg

1926 UCLA hopeful.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co.../68470/rec/756


















http://photos1.blogger.com/img/296/2...0/MAIL0294.jpg

[BifRayRock]

January 30, 1942

"All enemy aliens living in the above indicated evacuation area, an area thick with defense plants, must move by Feb. 24, the United States ordered yesterday. Five miles wide, the zone extends 10 miles inland to Western Ave."




http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...d/1628/rec/648

[HossC]

The seller didn't give a date with this postcard of the Wilshire Terrace condos at 10375 Wilshire Boulevard, but they look pretty new. There are a few articles about the building on la.curbed.com including 'How the 1958 Wilshire Terrace Building Got Its SoCal Glamor', which comes complete floorplans and diagrams.



eBay

Here's a more recent view.


GSV

[so-cal-bear]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I don't believe we've seen this photograph on NLA.

"Hollywood Freeway at Alvarado Street, circa 1955."

https://www.flickr.com/photos/30993133@N04/

It looks like the bus on top of the bridge is stopped on a sidewalk. (there is even a chain-link fence separating it from the freeway) What gives?

__

Its an diverted enclosed/protected bus stop off the 101 freeway on top. I drove past this place a few days ago and saw a bus picking up and dropping off passengers there. They use the stairs to go down to Alvarado street below. And yep. The fence is still there, but the area is much dirtier than on the photo.

[HossC]

Here's the Hollywood Freeway/Alvarado Street interchange from above. To stop on the bridge, buses must take the Alvarado exit and then turn onto the separated roadway. Buses leaving the bridge merge with traffic from the on ramp. The eastern side works in exactly the same way, so I've only included half the intersection.


Google Maps

Back in post #17514, e_r posted about the building to the right of the dead end in the lower left corner, and included this image which shows the bus lane quite nicely. You can find my follow-up post here.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Traveling east on the Hollywood (101) Freeway, the apartment building is briefly visible shortly before the Alvarado Street exit.

GSV

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's the Hollywood Freeway/Alvarado Street interchange from above. To stop on the bridge, buses must take the Alvarado exit and then turn onto the separated roadway. Buses leaving the bridge merge with traffic from the on ramp. The eastern side works in exactly the same way, so I've only included half the intersection.


Google Maps

Back in post #17514, e_r posted about the building to the right of the dead end in the lower left corner, and included this image which shows the bus lane quite nicely. You can find my follow-up post here.

No shelter for the people waiting for a bus. Dreadful and not human friendly.

On freeway 101 looking south at Alvardo St. below.

GSV

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Anything special at the bottom of those stairs?
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035823.jpg

culver hotel

Alas, no. At least according to the Culver Hotel's history page:

"Story has it that a secret underground tunnel was built to usher [the Munchkins] to their set at the nearby Culver Studio — as well as to ferry alcohol during the Prohibition. In reality, this “secret” pathway was used for pedestrians to cross the busy boulevard..."

The pedestrian underpass is gone now, the streets so reconfigured that it's impossible to recreate the shot above. The hotel has been given a bit of breathing room, courtesy of the city, which is very attractive. The interior has been very prettily tarted up too:





Before:


All very welcome. When I (and maybe e_r) knew the hotel it had been rehabbed with the dreariest of Home-Depot-type materials.

(interior shots from the Culver Hotel website)