The lives of bricks
 

From this

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2338/...478574babf.jpgUSC


To this

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics17/00018248.jpgLAPL


To this

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...os_Angeles.JPGWikipedia


I never knew that the bricks from the old City Hall, built in 1888 on Broadway and demolished after the current one was built in 1928, were then used to build the Heinsberger Decorating Company, still standing and looking great at 7415 Beverly Boulevard.

:previous:
Wow really? I didn't know that either. That's really awesome!

I agree, that is totally amazing. Good find GaylordWilshire.

edit. oops. more to come.

Kodachrome postcard...

https://otters.net/img/lanoir/richfieldcolorpc_lg.jpg

Can there be any doubt that this amazing jewel was Los Angeles's single most grievous architectural loss of the 20th century?

:previous:

It looks so great in the morning sun.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CULWYCEvos...lshire+092.JPGlaplaces


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CULWYCEvos...lshire+089.JPGlaplaces


Well, maybe we have a little bit of consolation in the 1931 Selig Retail Store on the nw corner of Western and 3rd. Architect Arthur Harvey
was clearly inspired by Stiles Clements's 1928 Richfield Building. After his 1928 Chateau Elysee (now better known as the Scientology
Celebrity Center), Harvey really got on the Deco bandwagon--two other of his L.A. works are the American Storage building and the Wilshire
Professional Building. Imagine if they, too, had been done in black and gold:

http://www.you-are-here.com/building...an_storage.jpgyou-are-here
American Storage Company building, 3636 Beverly Blvd

http://www.you-are-here.com/building/professional.jpgyou-are-here
Wilshire Professional Building, 3825 Wilshire

Fire at the Richfield Building in 1954.


http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7...ldfire1954.jpg
unknown/possibly ebay

To be honest, I wasn't aware there was ever a fire at the Richfield Building.
Does anyone know the details? It looks rather intense.

One of the most extraordinary sets ever built in Hollywood.
D.W. Griffith's vision of Babylon for his epic Intolerance 1916.


http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/5...leranceset.jpg
D.W. Griffith





Below: The crumbling Babylon set from D.W. Griffith's Intolerance at Hollywood Blvd. and Sunset Blvd in 1918.
More specifically, this photo is the southwest corner of Prospect Ave. & Talmadge St.


http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5...stcornerof.jpg
unknown

Above: The set stood derelict for nearly four years until it was finally destroyed by order of the Los Angeles Fire Department in 1919.





Below: 94 years later, this photo shows that two of the houses still survive at the southwest corner of Prospect Ave. & Talmadge St.

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/8...stcorner2a.jpg
Craigzone

thanks for letting me in! i grew up on maryland drive, which is a short, 4 block street north of sixth street, between fairfax and san vincente. it was a great neighborhood. all of the photos of the Miracle Mile bring back a lot of memories. there's one place i've been looking for pictures of, and not finding any. not sure it would qualify for the "noir" theme of this thread, but if anyone has a link, i'd love to see it. in the mid 1960s,when i was a kid, there was (believe it or not) a little amusement park at the corner of beverly blvd and la cienega. it had a haunted house, bumper cars, carousel. this was on the SW corner, across la cienega from what was then the rexall drug store. even more interesting, directly to the west, the southeast corner of beverly and san vicente, there was a little pony stable with, as i remember, about 10 ponies and oval riding rings. kids would ride the ponies...i did many times. i remember going there on weekend mornings very early to give them apple slices and carrots. then one day, all the ponies were gone...anyway, if anyone has any photos...or links...i'd love to see them....but this thread is awesome. and eerie...i had no idea what bunker hill looked like prior to the construction of the new city hall....i wish the old chinatown was still there. i live near baltimore now...they did a similar thing in the 1980s.

Are you Harla Ann or Libby Mae?
 

:previous:


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics27/00063268.jpgLAPL


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics38/00068991.jpgLAPL
The library's caption reads: "Libby Mae Simon and Harla Ann Simon have fun on a car ride at Kiddyland, an amusement park located at the corner of La Cienega and Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles. The site of the park is now occupied by the Beverly Center." (Love those little Cadillacs.)


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics38/00068992.jpgLAPL
The library's caption reads: "Harla Ann Simon rides a pony at Beverly Park, also known as Kiddyland, an amusement park located at the corner of La Cienega and Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles. The site of the park is now occupied by the Beverly Center."

And you will want to watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUYc3uZbRW4

wow...thanks!!!! i did watch the video. funny...i really couldn't remember the name...neither beveryly park, nor kiddieland. but i remember the place...thanks again!!!

Is that fire or fog--or perhaps a fire in a nearby building? The lights on the tower are still lit.... Anyway, the only news of fire in the Richfield I found was from December of 1967, not long before the demolition. Apparently, the fire was one more excuse for the dimwits at Arco to decide to tear it down. (You can't help but wonder what the publicity value, at least locally, might have been had they had the brains to save it as a symbol of "black gold.")

In July 1954, there was, apparently, a fire at a Richfield refinery near Wilmington.

PS Naturally, after I wrote all that I see what appears to be flames on the left... so forget the fog....

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5779n9fb/hi-resCharles Mace 1945/Calisphere

Full history here: http://losangeleshistory.blogspot.co...-also-see.html

It looks pretty much the same now. Apparently it belongs to Father Flanagans Boys Town.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...80443%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View

GaylordWilshire, thanks for trying to find out details of the Richfield Building fire.
I've researched it as well.....but have always come up empty handed.

I'm almost sorry I found that photograph.

Does anyone know if these spiral staircases still exist?

This one is on the Pasadena Freeway at Riverside Drive in 1956.


http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/3...afreewayat.jpg
usc digital archive

GaylordWilshire, since you're into the residential aspect of Los Angeles architecture I thought you might appreciate this photo.

The only information I have is 'General Harrison Otis House'.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3...isonotisho.jpg
usc

:previous:


See http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...e-see-our.html

Otis's house was at 2401 Wilshire, at Park View--one of the first houses built on my namesake boulevard. Later it became the Otis Art Institute. Gone now.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19/00009289.jpgLAPL


When it was the Otis Art Institute (Elks Building in the background):
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics13/00026016.jpgLAPL

sears roebuck 5601 santa monica boulevard in hollywood 1928 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4150/...2e1f754b_b.jpg

it's hard to believe that these two images are the same building:eeekk:

here's another building that lost it's fenestration's over time, the nuwilshire theater 1314 wilshire boulevard in santa monica 1938 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4092/...5b5731f5_b.jpg

yep, still there, albeit looking a tad disheveled from years of wear and tear though, (enter at your own risk :uhh: )

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/...4073f1ba_b.jpg

Remnants
 

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...34B7C3F89?v=hrUSC

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061823.jpgLAPL


One of great Victorian houses on West Adams Street (the "Boulevard" appellation was apparently adopted sometime in the '20s, perhaps in a vain effort to secure the diminishing cachet of the area as the Hancock Park and Westside districts developed) was the Russell Judson Waters house at #900, next door to the magnificent and still-extant (but for how long?) Second Church of Christ Scientist. Waters, by the way, was the founder of Redlands, and, later, a U.S. Congressman. The pictures above don't really show the fence, perhaps an enlargement of the original, comprised of iron, a low stone wall, and stone gateposts (though there are Bison Archive shots of the house in the "Images of America" book West Adams that do). But mercifully we have remnants of 900 West Adams, including the Portland Street side of the fence and another set of gateposts that match those lost at the front. And--the carriage house still stands, now addressed 2625 Portland. I've seen it described as a miniature echo of the main house--as you can see in these pictures, the barn does indeed have a turret with a roof matching the big house. The first picture puts one in mind of the Addams Family tv show of the '60s, doesn't it? According to some sources, the Victorian house used as reference for the show once stood on Adams, though this was not it. I'm trying to discover the true identity of the Addams Adams house (reportedly demolished in the '60s)--I love an architectural mystery. The top half of the tv house was a matte painting, making it even harder to trace. Anyway, it's not a cure for cancer, but after all, somebody's got to do this reseach....


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics51/00075487.jpgLAPL


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TK...90345%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View


http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TK...90634%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TK...81610%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View

^^^WOW gsjansen, I didn't expect that spiral staircase to still exist.
Who exactly would use it? Perhaps broken down motorist in the days before cellphones?

Also, thanks for the history of the General Harrison Otis house. It is much appreciated 'GaylordWilshire'.
I didn't even know the address, let alone the connection to the Otis Art Institute.

Also, that before and after of the Sears store is utterly tragic.
It has morphed from a humane building addressing life on the street to a god-awful bunker.
Why on earth would they do that? Is it in a bad part of town?

:previous:

Re the Sears store--looks like an example of Brutalist architecture with an attempt to mitigate the inherent ugliness of the style (and perhaps regionalize it) by adding the red tile roof. Brutalism was an aberration (IMHO) of the '60s and '70s--hulking, bunkerlike buildings meant to convey function rather than being merely decorative. I think it's now seen as a failure as far as architectural progress is concerned, which is no surprise.

The Second Church of Christ Scientist is absolutely beautiful.

The Hellman Building built in 1897.


http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4...buildingbu.jpg
usc digital archive





below: An announcement of an expansion (additional floors) that doesn't seem to have happened.



http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9...bldgannoun.jpg
latimesblog




below: An interesting article on life inside the Hellman Building.


http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/8...bldg2ndbro.jpg
latimesblog

It is magnificent, that CS church. Unfortunately, it sits empty and has been for sale for years. The First Church on Alvarado (below) was taken over by the Seventh-Day Adventists. Come on, guys, how about Seventh-Daying another one?

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00075/00075332.jpgLAPL

And here's the first First Church--it was at 625 West 17th. Gone With the 10, if not before.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00075/00075340.jpgLAPL

abominations over time apparently is not limited to commercial buildings.

here's a then and now looking east on Washington Boulevard from across ardmore avenue in the West Adams Neighborhood - 1928 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/...6c46ed90_b.jpg

what the hell is that in front of the old residence??!!?? a clear case of GET OFF MY LAWN if ever there was one :hell:

ne corner of washington boulevard and manhattan place 1933 and now

i've heard of exterior elements being eliminated from buildings for earthquake concerns, but removing the entire 2nd floor seems a tad extreme! :koko:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/...b39797f1_b.jpg

:previous:

Hello jansen-- Interesting that one building reduced its square footage, while the other maximized it. Generally, the trend in West Adams was to maximize property use, beginning in the '20s when the population exploded and people with houses on large lots realized that they could capitalize on their land either by subdividing, replacing a house with an apartment building or, along streets that became major east-west arteries, taking advantage of zoning changes and going commercial. Many a real-estate gain in West Adams financed a swanky new place in Windsor Square, Hancock Park, the hills of Cheviot and Beverly, Bel-Air, Brentwood etc etc. Washington Street/Blvd was once a fairly grand residential avenue in the section you show, where it is the northern boundary of West Adams Heights (the gateposts of which still stand at Washington and both Harvard and Hobart). There are parts of Crenshaw, Adams Blvd, Western etc where old Craftsman houses hide behind to-the-curb storefronts like the one you picture on Washington, which I think is the longest east-west road in L.A.

That first before/after photo with that hideous structure attached to the front of the beautiful house is SO infuriating.

If I still lived in L.A. I'd be tempted to go there and find out the story.
Perhaps the owners of the house simply sold off their front yard to a commercial venture because it fronts Washington Blvd.

:previous:

It's still happening on the major boulevards--compare pics of Sunset around Vine--near the Cinerama--and Wilshire around Fremont Place--with vintage shots and you'll see that property along alot of L.A. streets that used to have plenty of room between curb and building are now built out to the sidewalk. Central L.A.'s suburban years are long gone... I first started driving around L.A. in the early '70s, and the difference between then and now is amazing. Out to the curbs--actually, these days, Los Angeles is... New York.


circa 1965
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015874.jpgLAPL


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...11635%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View


Where once they were prominent along Wilshire, the concrete Fremont Place gateposts are now hard to discern among the commercial jumble.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...11955%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View

It makes me wonder what I would do if I owned property and was offered a good amount of money for a portion of my land.

In a perfect world, I would sat NO!!!
But if you're struggling to retain the property......you might have to say yes. :(

:previous:

ethereal... and even if you weren't struggling to retain your property, but saw that your neighborhood was changing--becoming more crowded, trafficky--that your now-unfashionable Victorian was becoming a bear to keep up, too big, with all that gingerbread to constantly scrape and paint at great expense--the drafts in winter (i.e., your wife keeps telling you how humiliating it is to hear Mrs. Worthington Proudfoot go on about her new digs on Muirfield at meetings of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League, and telling you how a new house near the Proudfoots would make you look more successful to your business cronies). Or, say, you were beginning to feel that your Craftsman bungalow, as new as it seemed just ten years before, was looking common, what with thousands of clones now spread across the landscape, indeed, across America--and if you noticed that some neighbors were selling out at considerable profit and moving to new houses in lovely new.. er, restricted neighborhoods... you might have to say yes then too. Those underground utilities and those modern stucco houses a few miles north on, say, Plymouth or June or Keniston would look mighty fine.... Actually, of course, I don't know what you, ethereal, might have done in such a time and place. I'm just imagining the mindset of a typical upwardly mobile, ultraconservative middle- to upper-middle-class Los Angeles burger ca. 1927, watching all those less-prosperous sorts getting off the train downtown, looking for places to live that remind them of the farmhouses they left in Iowa....


How your wife convinces you your current house appears:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033596.jpgLAPL

What she envisions:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics23/00061279.jpgLAPL

I see your point Gaylordwilshire.

von Sternberg--Rand--Hickman-Marion Parker
 

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/i...r01_neutra.jpgArchitectural Digest


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics30/00064895.jpgLAPL


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics30/00064894.jpgLAPL

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics29/00034128.jpgLAPL



I've always liked pictures of this Northridge house--built by Neutra for director Josef von Sternberg and owned by the lovely Ayn Rand and hubby, a Mr. O'Connor, for about 20 years (until around 1963--the house was torn down in the early '70s). It's the Rand connection that intrigues me here, though I'm not an admirer, by any means. (In college after a few drinks--etc--and if we were really bored, a certain theatrical friend could get us to laugh uncontrollably by reading aloud the many pretentious passages from her books. It's amazing to me that anyone has ever taken her seriously, much less Alan Greenspan.) ANYWAY, something I never knew about Mlle Rand, and something which, like Mr. Prescott in the link below, hasn't done anything to improve my opinion of her, is that she had an early admiration for one William Edward Hickman. Yes, the one-and-only murderer and dismemberer of Marion Parker at the Bellevue Arms in December 1927. (Note to Sopas: I'm reading Stolen Away per your recommendation, and you're right, it's a great read.) I found this on the web that echoes my sentiments:

http://michaelprescott.net/hickman.htm

I guess I've become fascinated with all things Marion--the case seems to me an early example of noir darkness under the palms, one which, as Sopas once said, is perhaps even more notorious than--certainly overshadowed by--that of the Black Dahlia

I've always loved Neutra's Sternberg house.
It's a bit odd for a Neutra house with it's moat and curving metal (aluminum?) wall.

Years ago I had lunch in a Neutra house in the Hollywood Hills.
Ever since, I've been trying to figure out which one it was.
GaylordWilshire, do you happen to know how many Neutra houses there are in the Hollywood Hills?

Oh mah gah some great pics and entries in this thread! I've been away from it too long, I've been so busy with a new job the past month that unfortunately, doesn't allow me to go online.

This thread is obviously still in top form! :tup:

I wondered what happened to you sopas_ej.

I'm certainly glad to see a post from you. Good luck with your new job!

i've always been more of a schindler fan myself

here's a store that schindler designed for modern design creation lamps, at the se corner of holloway drive and palm avenue off of the strip. 1936 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/...7b136dc0_b.jpg

i guess i should be happy that the building still exists, even tho' it's been horribly renovated from sleek noir to awkward ugly in it's current incarnation.

ethereal-- There are about five or six Neutras still in what I'd call the Hills--the Ward, Scheyer, two Kun houses, the Mosk, the Bonnett are in what I'd call the Hills, I think. Frankly, I've always been a little hazy as to how far south the Hollywood Hills extend, since I've heard people refer to houses in the Hills that I would have said were in Los Feliz. There are Neutras among the hills of Silver Lake, including the architect's own. But anyway-- various districts of L.A. can overlap, I guess. There is of course what is the most famous of all, the Lovell--with a sort-of-maybe-round-about noir connection in that it was Pierce Patchett's house in L.A. Confidential. But for a definitive list of Neutra houses, this is the best website I know of. Lots of pictures, which might jog your memory:

http://trianglemodernisthouses.com/neutra.htm


Here's another von Sternberg house pic, from that site (is that A. Rand herself on the patio, to the right?). (Btw, yes, I think the walls were made of aluminum.):

http://trianglemodernisthouses.com/neutra19.jpgtrianglemodernisthousesdotcom


I've always loved that Neutra specified that a couple of the lights in the Lovell house be the rim and lenses of Model T Ford headlamps. Was he giving a nod to a city on wheels? Here's one:
http://trianglemodernisthouses.com/neutra75.jpgtrianglemodernisthousesdotcom

Thanks for the information GaylordWilshire.
The Neutra house I visited was either in Silver Lake or Los Feliz (I mistakenly said Hollywood Hills).
I was quite young at the time and wasn't aware of Neutra's fame.

Zanjas live!
 

Los Angeles's nineteenth-century system of water delivery channels, the zanjas, finally went out of service around 1904, when underground pipes took over the last of them. These were initially just ordinary mud-lined ditches. Later bricks were used as lining, and at some point some of them were lined with concrete. They were bigger than I imagined, two feet wide and three feet deep. Also until now I didn't know that there is actually a stretch of concrete zanja still in place in Los Angeles--surely one of the great remnants of the West Adams district. The zanja still with us is in front of the site (now a parking lot) of the Victorian house of one-time city councilman Frank Sabichi, the address of which was 2427 S. Figueroa (between St. Vincent's Church and the Stimson house at 2421). I'm finding that while many West Adams houses have been demolished, often left behind (as with the Waters house at 900 W. Adams) are their low stone walls and, sometimes, metal fencing. This is true of the Sabichi house, as you can see in the before and after shots here:


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061557.jpgLAPL
The Frank Sabichi house, 2427 S. Figueroa


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061796.jpgLAPL
A shot from in front of the Sabichi house north toward the Stimson, giving a good view of the zanja.


http://s93883215.onlinehome.us/adamj...763-790363.JPGRecentering El Pueblo
The zanja now, which appears to be filled in (with dirt? concrete?), and a detail of the Sabichi fencing.


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061794.jpgLAPL
Notice the pattern of the Sabichi fence. Btw, this is a great view of the southern facade of the Stimson house.


http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TK...13345%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View
Note the small bridge over the zanja at the sidewalk entrance to the Sabichi house.


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TK...10433%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View
In the two shots above, you can see that the Sabichi house has left behind some of its fencing.
Two of the driveway posts in the shot above are also in the lower left of the top picture.

^^^Very interesting GaylordWilshire!

I have never heard of a zanja before your post.
It's amazing that remnants of the zanja AND the Sabichi fence still survive.

Gaylord, great pics of the zanja and Sabichi house. The book "The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death and Possible Rebirth" by Blake Gumprecht, talks about the zanjas.

I realize that the site of the Sabichi house is now the parking lot of St. Vincent Catholic Church, of which of course, Edward Doheny helped fund the construction, and Albert C. Martin designed it.

a 1880's photo of the zanja on Figueroa between 1st and 2nd streets

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/...c42dd9a1_b.jpg
USC Digital Archives

the same view today

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/...b815ab3b_z.jpg

the old zanja location is probably where the current street median divider gutter is

Addams Found
 

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TK...s01e01_065.jpgscreenmusingsdotorg
The Addams Family tv-series house--a painting-on-photograph that includes one of the
six-globe streetlamps (at right) installed in Chester Place in 1903 (the "city's first
in a residential community," according to the L.A. Times) and soon after in
other parts of West Adams. It was based on the Los Angeles house below.


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TK...20/addams1.jpgDon Sloper/Los Angeles's Chester Place/Sisters of St. John of Carondelet
The Newhall house ca. 1965. I haven't found a photo of the house closer to its construction.



http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TK...ams_Cre024.jpgscreenmusingsdotorg
An actual photograph of the Newhall house used early in the series, without matte
painting added.



As it turns out, the identity of the Addams Family house of the 1964-66 tv series house has, in a sense, been hiding in plain sight. You'd think it was practically unknown if you Googled even recently, what with all sorts of off-the-mark speculation on various websites--it seems that there is a claim for just about every Victorian in America being the model for the tv house. One or two sites mention that it might have been "on West Adams Boulevard"--well, turns out that it was in West Adams, the district, a block from the Boulevard, at 21 Chester Place. I've discovered that Don Sloper, the expert on the street and author of the excellent Los Angeles's Chester Place in the "Images of America" series, includes in his 2006 book pictures of the house unavailable via the LAPL and USC etc and the information that it was built by Walter S. Newhall, son of the man for whom Newhall, Calif., was named. Walter Newhall had quite a major piece of property, and it actually predates the 1899 subdivision of Chester Place. Its original address was West 25th Street. The Dohenys moved into Chester Place in 1901 and proceeded to buy up almost all of the street's houses, and somehow even gained control of the short piece of 25th Street between Chester and St. James Park--including the Newhall house in 1915. The Dohenys rented out their many houses, including the Newhall. One couple, the Grafes, rented it from 1935 until 1969, according to their grandson, Joe Nesbitt, writing on a vintage-tv website that was puzzling over the mystery of the Addams house. (It seems Nesbitt should know, and the Grafes are indeed listed at 21 Chester Place in the 1939 Los Angeles phone book.) The house was demolished soon after the Grafes left to make way for a high school. I can't imagine Mrs. Doheny allowing the use of one of her houses for television--she was by all accounts a woman maniacal when it came to controlling her environment (her atrocious taste in interior decoration, gaudy even by Victorian nouveau-riche standards, is something else...but I digress)--but she was resting comfortably in Calvary Cemetery by then. (It seems that Mount St. Mary's College, which inherited Chester Place, didn't mind tv's use of the house, and, after all, it wasn't really the same house after the art department worked on it. And no doubt a little donation was involved.) Anyway, the Filmways art department found 21 Chester, and, after some tweaking, gave us the house you see in the series--at least a painting of it, with some altered windows, added third-floor mansard and tower, and other Addamsesque details. (The actual house only appeared in the first episode, I've read.)


UPDATE 3-28-2017: For more information, please see http://adamsboulevardlosangeles.blog...-also-see.html, part of an ongoing inventory of the houses lining Adams Boulevard.

And for a page wholly devoted to the house, see https://21chesterplace.com/

Hi,
I recently found this forum & think its great! I've always been fascinated by LA, but have only been there once. I'm also into photography, so needless to say I've spent a lot of time lurking here:)
Everyone here is very informative, so I'm hoping you guys can help me out, but its a long shot. The video "Please Read The Letter" by Robert Plant & Allison Krause is filmed in a beautiful old house. The only info I've been able to find is that it was built in 1905 in Southern Los Angeles. There is never a full shot of the exterior, although there are roman statues in the yard. Y[IMG][IMG]http://www.flickr.com/photos/5456801...n/photostream/[/IMG][/IMG]ou can see the video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpjnaGOeHH4

Sorry, I didn't get the pics up the right way, trying to figure out what I did wrong

NOTE added 3-16-13: The Alison Krauss/Robert Plant video has a new link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Xi5gvZ7Kk (You'll have to endure an mindless 30 sec ad)

That's the Beckett house at 2218 S. Harvard Blvd:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TK...o/beckett1.jpgBig Orange Landmarks


http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TK...0/beckett2.jpgBig Orange Landmarks

I'll let the erstwhile Mr. Floyd B. Bariscale take over from here:

http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.c...residence.html

I have to say that the interior looks great, or at least it does in the moody video lighting. The video is a must-see tour of what appears to be a seriously endangered house. If only its airy high-ceilinged spaces, with outside light coming in from all four sides, would inspire someone with a little cash to rescue it. (Hello Robert? Alison?) The scenes of exterior dilapidation are what tipped me off. Great video, and great song, btw.

house in 1944 classic film
 

Thanks as always for your magnificent photos, Gaylord Wilshire. I repeat myself (from an earlier posting) for those who don't know, the facade and front garden of this house on West Adams were featured prominently in the classic 1944 film, "The Curse of the Cat People," available at Netflix etc. It was the house where a mad old lady and her strange daughter lived, and was supposed to be in Tarrytown, New York in the movie.