As a start, it looks like one of many Security Trust & Savings Bank buildings that were built in this style in the 1920s.

Yes, this is true; in fact, she and Anna, were quite a pair--and drove the guys wild at the clubs--on Alameda and Los Angeles St. in, Old Chinatown. :D

A map sponsor willing to pay for their name to be listed on the map! Huell Howser did a great California's Gold episode on the Norconian resort a few years ago.

Thanks tovangar2, for your video links on the Norconian.

Great photos!! However, I cannot find Sunset Blvd. at Main St. on Google today? Were the streets reconfigured? I know, also, that this is not the same Soochow Restaurant, which was on N. Los Angeles St, next to Jerry's Joynt.

Soochow was the non-Pinyin, old transliteration/spelling of the beautiful city of Suzhou; similar to Tsingtao, which today is Qingdao.

Brooklyn Ave Elementary (LAUSD schools are named for the street they're on and don't get their name changed even if the street's does) is at 4620 Chavez Ave out by Evergreen Cemetery. Macy St is now part of Chavez too.

Sunset used to come almost to the NW corner of the Plaza. It's been re-routed to the north and renamed Cesar Chavez Ave through that area connecting with the old Brooklyn Ave through East LA

Here's a shot from a 1949 Thomas Guide showing Sunset at that location. I've indicated Sunset in blue.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/4...azamap1949.jpg

Thanks, tovangar2 and WS1911!

This explains why I was so confused as to the location, looking at GSV!

As with most of this stuff, I liked it the way it was with the prior configuration.

Just as I liked, what [was] then N. Los Angeles St. :(

A sunny day on the Nickel, where passive preservation rules. The last 100 years has not been altogether unkind to the buildings:

E 5th and San Julian, the belly of the beast:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_...938%2520PM.jpg

The back of the Panama Hotel, E 4th St:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B...551%2520PM.jpg

The SC Dodge Building, just west of San Julian Park:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-F...310%2520PM.jpg

Wall between E 5th and E 6th:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-9...243%2520AM.jpg

The Russ, south of E 5th on San Julian:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-k...401%2520PM.jpg

417 E 5th:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-W...753%2520PM.jpg

Wall and Winston:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-s...214%2520PM.jpg

Winston and Crocker:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...038%2520PM.jpg

5th and San Pedro:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-g...251%2520PM.jpg

617 E 5th:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-t...013%2520PM.jpg

E 5th and Crocker:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-c...242%2520PM.jpg

Crocker and E 6th:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-R...508%2520PM.jpg

E 6th, just east of Crocker:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-j...753%2520PM.jpg

The Plaza at last !
 

The Google Maps view on the Plaza was a mess until now. Tourists buses were hidding Pico House and the Plaza. The Brunswig and its neighbor were hidden by bad tarping for their renewal work.
Now everything is clean and beautiful for out of towners who want to feel like being there.

Looking for circa 1900 Photo of Simpson Building

Does anyone have a good photo of the Simpson Building as it appeared circa 1895-1900? Would love to see the building when it was new.

Not Main and Sunset but seems unlikely two restaurants so close to each other would have the same name (unless 'Soochow' is a generic name for a certain kind of cuisine or simply the bowdlerized version of 'Suzhou').



http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8173/7...2ca9b4d3_o.jpg
Soochow Cafe, N. Los Angeles Street, Herman Schultheis, 1937


Two smartly dressed women pass the Soochow Cafe located at 504 N. Los Angeles Street in Old Chinatown. This is the only Soochow Restaurant I know and it's wedged next to Jerry's Joynt on Los Angeles Street.

LAPL


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8294/7...dfd62db7_o.jpg
street scene old chinatown, los angeles (calif), circa 1940

Los Angeles Street at Ferguson Alley. Jerry's Joynt, the Soochow Restaurant, Lugo House, Terminal Annex and the tower at Union Station.

UCLA special collections/Los Angeles Times

Since we're in that neighborhood thought I'd throw this old favorite up...
 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8298/7...a61d66d8_o.jpg
Shoe store on N. Main Street, Herman Schultheis, 1937


A man stands in the doorway of this shoe repair shop, which belonged to Guadalupe Regalado, located at 426 North Main Street (part of the Pico House). Bilingual signs advertise half soles for 35 cents, and his first initial and last name are written "GREGALADO" on a boot shaped blade sign. Next door, ring boxes line the window of jeweler Juan Benitez, located at 424 N. Main which is part of the building that used to be the Merced Theater.

LAPL

I noticed an odd little survivor from the late 19th century (?) recently. In the terrific 1952 photo below (taken from the top of City Hall) of the former Maier and Zobelein Brewery (Brew 102) one can see a bag company building beyond the brewery, across N Center Street (E Commercial St is on the right, the N Garey St on-ramp is in the foreground):

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u...614%2520PM.jpg
(detail)

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-E...044%2520PM.jpg
usc digital archive(detail)

I've spent quite a bit of time in this area because the 400-year-old, giant sycamore, El Aliso, was sited in the wagon yard at the center of the brewery (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10490) immediately in front of the old hipped-roofed building in the center of the brewery complex:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-e...506%2520PM.jpg
(detail)

The original brewery, built in 1889 on the site of Jean-Louis Vignes' 1837 El Aliso Winery (which in turn was built on the site of the Tongva village of Yangna), used to look like this view from circa 1900, after El Aliso was cut down in 1895. One can see what I think is the same hipped-roofed building, then with a lantern crowning it, smokestacks emerging from the corners of the roof. The wagon yard, former site of El Aliso, is in front:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-v...414%2520AM.jpg
LAPL California Index (originally posted by e_r)

Anyway, the bag company building is still with us. One can see it here, beyond N Center St and the site of the brewery:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-C...925%2520PM.jpg
gsv

Two closer views from N Center St:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-g...535%2520AM.jpg
gvs

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-I...415%2520AM.jpg
gvs

In this aerial, one can see the bag company building to the right (east), now the NW corner of a larger complex. The Maier & Zoebelein Brewery site is the vacant lot at center, where El Aliso once grew. The paved area to the left of that is the former brewery parking lot (compare with the first photo at the top of this post). The N Garey St on-ramp is at left. N Vignes Street forms a T-junction with E Commercial just left of center.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-h...442%2520PM.jpg
google maps

I sincerely hope the site of El Aliso is saved from redevelopment. After an archaeological excavation, this extremely historic location should be turned into a park with a suitable marker. Anybody want to help me do that? I don't know where to start.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-b...400%2520PM.jpg
google maps

You can see the Simpson Building in this 1924 aerial shot. I’ve labeled the streets (hopefully I’m right with the street names.)

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2...al1924rev2.jpg
LAPL (original image)

A great story on the bag company. I'm going to have to get over there and take a look. My favorite era in L.A. history is the late Victorian/Edwardian area, about 1870-1910.

I had to Google El Aliso. Are there any photos of it? I understand it was gone by about 1892.

A post on El Aliso is here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10490 with plenty of photos.


Can anyone make out the name of the bag company?:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u...614%2520PM.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-g...535%2520AM.jpg

BTW, Marchessault was never Sunset. Sunset ended at N Main at the NW corner of the Plaza. Plaza St was at one time also known as Republic St. You've got Ferguson Alley misplaced, it continued on from Republic/Plaza St

Well, you've got Aliso Street marked as Ferguson Alley. Ferguson Alley runs off of Los Angeles Street directly across from the fire station at the head of Calle de los Negroes. And where is the Simpson Building in this shot. I love this pic, it's been one of my all time favorites but I'm not familiar with the Simpson Building.

The Simpson is at the NW corner of the Plaza. Notice the Methodists had already demolished the Olvera Adobe (I think), but not built their church and conference center yet.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3...625%2520PM.jpg
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Earl..._(Page_2).html

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-0...247%2520PM.jpg
gsv

Thanks, who was 'Simpson'? Earlier this was the location of the court building. I've spent a lot of hours looking at this image. I suspected maybe it was on the west side of Olvera Street (by process of elimination, truly, I knew virtually every other building in the pic).