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I did notice something else in Hunter's new pictures - there was demolition crew spraypaint on a lot of the walls, but in a couple spots I noticed that it said "NO DEMO". So after they are all done, there might still be leftover exterior walls from the 1912 Times building, at the edges of the property near the sidewalks. :haha: Like this one. |
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Spreading interest in the is-it-or-isn't-it Times basement:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-C...2520PM.bmp.jpg and https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-M...2520PM.bmp.jpg |
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http://www.comics101.com/comics101//...scalators2.jpgScott Tipton |
Still more interest...except, I realize, they all have the idea that it's the basement of the bombed Times building that may or may not have been found, rather than the basement of its replacement...
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5...2520PM.bmp.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-j...2520PM.bmp.jpg |
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https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2913/...c4de4a11_z.jpg Was going to race home and post my pix but had other engagements (and Hunter's images are much better and more complete!) -- including a Robert Brown Young tour where I met fellow Noirisher Tetsu, great guy. Made a couple of vids like this and this. Here for example is a recent shot of where this used to be. Real sorry to see that go. https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5479/...df77351f_z.jpghttps://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/...f2cde10c_z.jpg So while this archaeological site didn't turn out to be the wonders of the 1886/1912 basement -- though those remaining outer "no demo" walls may contain just that -- it was still an interesting exercise. E.g., got into it with the usual knuckle-draggers on Facebook (in a "DTLA" group) who promote "progress" over history with quips like -- and this is an actual quote, about how and why this discovery just must not be important: "if the attack on the Times for their anti-Union stance was so important, then there would be more memorials about it." I mean, face to palm or what. My word, they even pulled out the ludicrous trope, refuge of the disingenuous developer-class: THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Apparently we could never maintain the basement as a monument, not because it's simply unhistoric and not important, but because it will (not may, they assert, but will) collapse and hurt children. Therefore, I guess, if you are pro-history, you hate children? Anyway. I guess I don't expect most people to be smart (we Noirish clan are a rarefied breed!) but I don't usually expect them to be total chowderheads. I pointed out that all I was asking for was a stay of execution for a short bit so we could go check it out and evaluate. (It always amazes me how unhinged some folk get about merely proposing that. Well, God bless 'em, I'm sure they mean well.) That being said (and my snarkiness aside), I am extremely gratified that the subject was covered in the Times, on Curbed and the LAist, and elsewhere, which shows it to be the important topic it is, and will underline that these preservation discussions are worthy of coverage and substantive discussion. So again, knowing a stop work order wouldn't happen, had to go on a Sunday morning to crawl atop peaks of concrete and through mazes of rebar to do recon. (Speaking of which, saw a lot of late-30s rebar, and not the twisted kind you would expect from the 'teens, so no early walls torn up that I could ascertain.) And now the mystery is (mostly) solved. On to the next! If you're a completist, or just desire to see some more, here's a collection of shots, again, not Hunter-quality, but some of them have their moments. |
http://i.imgur.com/uKqpHa9.jpg?1?6946Charles Fisher
The Larchmont Buzz and Curbed are reporting that this filling station--which apparently started out as a Gilmore unit--will be restored by Starbucks. 859 N Highland. Anyone ever seen a picture in its original guise? The location is listed as a Gilmore outlet in the '38CD but not in the '39 or '42 books; a Charles S. Norris is listed as the operator of the station in those editions but without a brand indicated. I'm not an expert on gasoline lore, but I'm wondering if it looked like this in 1935... looks to me as though it was give a corporate Texaco makeover somewhere along the line. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...2520PM.bmp.jpgGSV March 2014 |
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I agree with you about the naysayers being stupidly pig-headed. I don't think that this can or should be saved, but their reasons for coming to that conclusion are just dumb. I think the chance to save this piece of history was gone in the 30s when they gutted the basement and turned it into a garage. There are a couple of nice signs I see in the pics that could stand to be saved, but the structure itself doesn't have a lot going for it. You can't save everything and I think pictures ought to suffice in this case. |
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So we know it's the Armondale, but it's also the Hotel Congress. That is, it's two buildings; the south building is the Congress, and the north is the Armondale... https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5554/...9880253d_b.jpg A postcard of the Hotel Congress -- note the name on the marquis along 8th -- https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5526/...6b082d39_b.jpg https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3884/...ef372e4f_c.jpg Certainly looks like one building to me -- the fenestration, the facade details, the cornice -- https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2916/...584188d0_c.jpg The sure seem to be billing it as one building, so to speak, right? And yet, it's also the...Armondale. https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2932/...3c8eb0ca_o.gif Yet in the late 60s it's gone back to being quite differentiated between the two structures (note too in FredH's images above how they tore down one and not the other): https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5320/...c3d4265c_b.jpg huntington That's kind of all I wanted to say on the matter...just something to occupy my mind other than this all-consuming State Building garage! As such, cool pictures: 1916: https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3923/...23f61f51_c.jpg usc https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3838/...ca502d4c_b.jpg https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5479/...cd7629c0_o.gif https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5111/...4b04ce7f_o.gif https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2928/...f13c475d_b.jpg I don't know a whole hell of a lot about Japanese gardens, but...I mean, that one might be dead-on, but it sure seems to be set in against a "California Eucalyptus School"-typa painting. Interesting one too, by the looks of it. Where is that? |
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Noir ?....probably.
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As for the ''two'' hotels concept. There might have been some sort of estate or family sale that forced the hotel to divide up into two entities. I've seen this happen before. |
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https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--...2520AM.bmp.jpghttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-9...2520AM.bmp.jpgAug 4, 1912 https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-t...2520AM.bmp.jpgMarch 21, 1909 Looks like Lewis built it on site the old family house.... Norman Sterry went on to become a lawyer to the stars, and we've seen him--and the sad fate of new couple's daughter--here before: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=19404 More Sterry-family: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=21628 But I digress... Perhaps after the Carletons' split (he had also invested in a Hupmobile franchise, btw), Lewis took over the property but continued operating two different hotels. Interesting that the design of the Armondale was an extension of the Congress's, so who knows what the agreement may have been between Carleton and Lewis. https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-i...2520AM.bmp.jpghttps://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-M...2520AM.bmp.jpgApr 18, 1914 All LAT |
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http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...eHighland1.jpg howard gribble (Kid Deuce) on flickr As close as I could get to the same angle today. http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...eHighland2.jpg GSV On the opposite corner of Highland and Willoughby is the old Community Laundry Building. An article on justabovesunset.com describes it as "a building from 1928 by W. J. Saunders", and includes some close-up pictures. A small piece in An Arch Guidebook to Los Angeles by Robert Winter dates it as 1927, and says "The piers of this Spanish Revival building are covered with shields. When the sun rakes over them about midday, the effect is that of the Casa da las Conchas in Salamanca. We never exaggerate.". http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...ityLaundry.jpg GSV |
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Great find, Hoss--so it looks like the building was built this way for Gilmore.... I'd been wondering if it hadn't had a later corporate Texaco makeover. |
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I think HossC nailed it. The same or similar design appears to have been used at several locations. http://yougottobekidding.files.wordp.../image0021.jpg http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=11613 |
i'm still on the side of the fence that says that the perimeter walls of the underground garage for the state building was a utilization of the existing below grade perimeter foundation walls of the 1911/1912 times building. There is no other explanation that I can think of for why the angled wall was kept in relation to the state building.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics17/00018375.jpg LAPL (of course, I could be wrong..........) |
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