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riichkay Mar 9, 2021 6:02 PM

Sakhal, given the aerial photo and your info on the historic street numbering I think it's likely I have the wrong corner....so it's now officially a "mystery location".

Martin Pal Mar 9, 2021 7:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sakhal Nakhash (Post 9211646)
"There was a later Brown Derby at Hollywood and Vine, in the former Melody Lane building..."

What?! Citation needed! :???:
That's my old neighborhood, and somehow I've never heard that.

_________________________________________________________________


It was there for awhile in 1987, but didn't last very long.

https://m.psecn.photoshelter.com/img...BlaFv0Yy.s.jpgHollywood Photographs


1986: A year earlier it was a Howard Johnson's.

https://na-st01.ext.exlibrisgroup.co...2OZCZ36VGVASIA

Snix Mar 9, 2021 8:43 PM

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...724d09cb_z.jpg
Brown Derby at Hollywood and Vine, 1987
(California State Library)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sakhal Nakhash (Post 9211646)
"There was a later Brown Derby at Hollywood and Vine, in the former Melody Lane building..."

What?! Citation needed! :???:
That's my old neighborhood, and somehow I've never heard that.


Snix Mar 10, 2021 12:44 AM

I am researching an artist named Leonard Del Sonno AKA Leonardo Del Sonno who had a studio at 3319 Sunset in Silver Lake starting in 1958. I found someone by the same name on findagrave who died in 1981 but could not locate an obit on Del Sonno.
He did these outlandish chalkware table lamps, but had some other wild decor on display in his shop window. Any leads would be appreciated. Thank you.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...nardo-delsonno

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2be66494_b.jpg
1973 Ed Ruscha/Getty
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3da5d2a1_b.jpg
Etsy
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ec246c24_z.jpg
Etsy
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3082c8d6_b.jpg
Ebay
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...476c170c_z.jpg
Monrovia Daily News-Post 11/14/46

Sakhal Nakhash Mar 10, 2021 2:19 PM

Known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by riichkay (Post 9212025)
Sakhal, given the aerial photo and your info on the historic street numbering I think it's likely I have the wrong corner....so it's now officially a "mystery location".

I ended up spending more time than I perhaps should have studying both photos, as well as looking at the historic aerials, the sanborn maps, G.S.V. and even eventually the topographical maps. (I'll explain my specific reason for that last area of study).

I think the lighter photo is an earlier photo. I came to that conclusion due to the growth at the top of the tree, and I noticed in what I'm calling the darker photo, there is a birdhouse/mailbox (?) type of wooden object next to/behind the young boy in that photo that is missing in the lighter photo.

Another thing that struck me about the darker photo is the drop off from the bottom step that the young girl is standing above. It seems like quite the cliff face there, exposed roots and all. Then after looking closely at the rest of the cobble-stone wall, I got the impression that the sidewalk may have been recently regraded. That got me to thinking. So I looked at the topo. map and moved west to where about I was guesstimating the 1000 block would have been in that era. I ended up zoning in on the intersection where "Montana Ave." and "Bringham Ave." meet.
Just a hunch. It would seem that sometime in the 1920's Montana Avenue was graded over some kind of ditch or depression. I am also of the suspicion that the Spanish-style building that can be seen in the distance in the darker photo is one of the buildings at the VA Hospital, however it's hard to tell. I wasn't able to match it exactly to any existing building that I could see, however it does look to be similar in style to the rest of the remaining buildings.
So at best, I've got a wild guess, stemming from a hunch that was based on speculation.:shrug:
I've done more with less.

Sakhal Nakhash Mar 10, 2021 2:34 PM

From this knowledge junkie: Thank you everyone.
 
Thank you Martin Pal and Snix.
I am still somewhat surprised that I'm somehow only just now finding out about The Brown Derby being in the old Melody Lane building.
Then again, that's why I've spent the past 10 years lurking on this forum.
I thought that I knew quite a bit about L.A.'s history, however I have learned so much from everyone here.
Years ago I attempted to collect the information that I was learning from this site, so that I could create some kind of history database. However I quickly learned that there is SO/TOO much information to keep track of.
Also, trying to save each photo and organize them became something of a nightmare.
I had it in mind that I was going to try to organize all of the information into some sort of Los Angeles history wiki.
It became too daunting, too quickly.

I suppose that's a rather long-winded way for me to say:
"Thank you everyone!".

GaylordWilshire Mar 10, 2021 4:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Pal (Post 9212150)
It was there for awhile in 1987, but didn't last very long.

https://m.psecn.photoshelter.com/img...BlaFv0Yy.s.jpgHollywood Photographs


1986: A year earlier it was a Howard Johnson's.

https://na-st01.ext.exlibrisgroup.co...2OZCZ36VGVASIA

A proposal for the H&V BD was seen here in a 2014 post of ER's:

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...ostcount=20619


https://i.postimg.cc/XYjqy06Y/BD-Hand-V-bmp.jpg

BDiH Mar 10, 2021 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sakhal Nakhash (Post 9212900)


I had it in mind that I was going to try to organize all of the information into some sort of Los Angeles history wiki.
It became too daunting, too quickly.

I suppose that's a rather long-winded way for me to say:
"Thank you everyone!".

I can assure you that there is much more Hollywood history that has not been noted here on Skyscraper and elsewhere. So many side streets and structures that were never photographed or recorded in print have been lost to time. Personal memories disappear each time we lose a native son or daughter.

Flyingwedge Mar 11, 2021 3:45 AM

Amos Aspey's tree house
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by riichkay (Post 9211606)
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds
UCLA/Adelbert Bartlett papers

"Tree house of Amos Aspey, civil war veteran, near National Military Home, Pacific branch, Sawtelle, Cal. House contains, parlor, bedroom, kitchen, roof garden, and is piped with water and gas. Stairs lead up to house. House is built in a eucalyptus tree".

Photo is undated, given the children's attire I would guess '20's-'30's.


Possibly the same roofline?....

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds



There is also a photo of the tree house at the Santa Monica Public Library. It says the tree house was on Barrington, but that didn't
look quite right.

Could Amos' tree house have been on the SE corner of Federal and Rochester Avenues? Assuming for the moment that the UCLA
photo looks east, compare it with this May 2019 GSV looking east at the above-mentioned corner. Federal slopes downhill to the
right/south like in the UCLA photo. Also, east of Federal, Rochester has a short, slight rise, then it dips down, like in the UCLA photo.

At the left center edge of the UCLA photo close-up directly above, we see a house in the distance with what I guess are three attic
vents arranged in a triangle. If you look at 11504 Rochester on GSV, the house (built 1929) seems to have the same attic vents,
windows, and roofline we see in the close-up (not including the darker roof circled in red).

riichkay Mar 11, 2021 8:19 AM

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

Flyingwedge, here is the S.M. Library photo of which you speak, it's dated 1915 and as you say the caption locates it on Barrington Ave....could that be Ol' Amos up on the roof?

Re a positive location i.d. on this one, the assumption I made was that the buildings in the background left on the UCLA image were on the V.A. grounds....in the sliver we see of these structures they seemed to me of an institutional type and height, and not single family residences....so I thought the tree house property was hard by the V.A.....I could be way off on this, maybe they are SFR's, if so it throws the location open to the Brentwood streets further west, including Barrington Ave.



https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

In the UCLA photo here is the house to the right of the tree house property, I thought this would be our best clue....I read the number as 1106, but as Sakhal has pointed out the historic Sanborn maps do not show any street with an 1100 block adjacent or close to the V.A. grounds....

As you are aware all the east-west streets in this part of Brentwood are in the 11000+ blocks, I should know, over the years I lived in the 11700 block of Goshen Ave., the 11800 block of Kiowa Ave., the 11700 block of Sunset Bl., among other Brentwood locations....what I am thinking is looking at this street number it looks like it was set in an arc-type pattern....the natural progression would have another numeral, maybe that number fell off, and this house is actually in an 11000 block....if that helps us at all.

Sakhal Nakhash Mar 11, 2021 9:13 AM

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...476c170c_z.jpg
Monrovia Daily News-Post 11/14/46[/QUOTE]

Before this thread drifts along too much farther, I wanted to acknowledge Snix's inquiry out of courtesy.
I did try to find some information about Leonard Del Sonno/Leonardo Del Sonno.
I came up empty-handed. I even tried alternate spellings (Delsonno, etc.). Nothing.
Or, nothing more than what Snix has already discovered.
I wonder if "Leonard(o) Del Sonno" was his real name.
Ancestry.com seemed to have a few hits on that name, but I wasn't going to sign up for a membership just to answer that question.

:shrug:

As an addendum, I did find a single mention of "Roger Merrill Lamps"
"General Desk Book...: Office of Price Administration":

"5158-RogerMerrill Lamps, Los Angeles, Calif.
Order No. 5158 established maximum prices for sales and deliveries of cast
plaster stone, handpainted, horsehead table lamps and oblong parchment
shade, model No. 215 manufactured by the applicant, of $16.67 to jobbers
and $19.61 to retailers by the applicant, and $35.30 to consumer by any
person* (Issued 9-9-46)."

https://books.google.com/books?id=OR...mps%22&f=false

CaliNative Mar 11, 2021 12:55 PM

delete

CaliNative Mar 11, 2021 1:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sakhal Nakhash (Post 9212886)
I ended up spending more time than I perhaps should have studying both photos, as well as looking at the historic aerials, the sanborn maps, G.S.V. and even eventually the topographical maps. (I'll explain my specific reason for that last area of study).

I think the lighter photo is an earlier photo. I came to that conclusion due to the growth at the top of the tree, and I noticed in what I'm calling the darker photo, there is a birdhouse/mailbox (?) type of wooden object next to/behind the young boy in that photo that is missing in the lighter photo.

Another thing that struck me about the darker photo is the drop off from the bottom step that the young girl is standing above. It seems like quite the cliff face there, exposed roots and all. Then after looking closely at the rest of the cobble-stone wall, I got the impression that the sidewalk may have been recently regraded. That got me to thinking. So I looked at the topo. map and moved west to where about I was guesstimating the 1000 block would have been in that era. I ended up zoning in on the intersection where "Montana Ave." and "Bringham Ave." meet.
Just a hunch. It would seem that sometime in the 1920's Montana Avenue was graded over some kind of ditch or depression. I am also of the suspicion that the Spanish-style building that can be seen in the distance in the darker photo is one of the buildings at the VA Hospital, however it's hard to tell. I wasn't able to match it exactly to any existing building that I could see, however it does look to be similar in style to the rest of the remaining buildings.
So at best, I've got a wild guess, stemming from a hunch that was based on speculation.:shrug:
I've done more with less.

Agree. The tree growth appears to be at least 10-15 years past the 1923 photo (even though euc.s can grow fast). The attire on the kids could be 1930s, even 1940s. As to a location, no clue.

odinthor Mar 11, 2021 2:04 PM

https://i.postimg.cc/LsP0rDf3/Aspey-LAT-24-4-14.jpg
LA Times, 4/14/1924

https://i.postimg.cc/JnP3gHTQ/Aspey-LAT-24-4-14b.jpg
LA Times, 4/14/1924

Sakhal Nakhash Mar 11, 2021 3:15 PM

Quite the elusive treehouse.
 
"One Hundred and Ninth Street near Santa Monica Boulevard."
Hmmm, now I'm really confused. Do those two streets intersect somewhere?

And, now to add even more confusion...
According to the 1920 census, it seems that Amos Aspey was residing at 2406 Rochester Ave. (I don't think that address is correct either.)
Not that I'm paranoid, but I'm beginning to think that someone's just messing with us. /s

Copy of the 1920 census:
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1Q...BnFST9Qyq7BNjC

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1Q...2N7aUq6PQim0GI

I tried creating a Google Photos page to upload the photos, however, apparently it wont actually upload them. It will let me post a link to them.

The first one is a close-up of line 68, and the other is the entire sheet.
I got this copy of the census from:https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61...3A1%3AMHQ6-5PF

I also noticed that as I thought, the sidewalk was regraded at some point.
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1Q...sCBgRYgNzUXUYD

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1Q...F9vf9mfixtmr1u

In the 1930 census, (taken a few months before he died) he's listed as living in the "National Military Home", apparently with a bunch of other veterans.
Additionally, according to the 1910 census, from Haynes Neb. his wife was living with him (Martha L. Aspey 62 from Ill.) and a daughter (Pearl Aspey 37 Kansas).
So far, I haven't been able to find out much about Pearl Aspey.

Noir_Noir Mar 11, 2021 4:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sakhal Nakhash (Post 9214753)
"One Hundred and Ninth Street near Santa Monica Boulevard."
Hmmm, now I'm really confused. Do those two streets intersect somewhere?


It should be "Avenue" instead of "Street".

Then you get -

https://i.imgur.com/d9YtpPM.png
rescarta.lapl.org



I think Flyingwedge's suggestion of the SE corner of "Federal and Rochester Avenues" is right.


From the 1927 aerial it's the corner along Federal (109th) Ave. that fits with the pictures.


A tree right at the corner and two small houses close together.


https://i.imgur.com/Dd1mfte.jpg
dl.library.ucla.edu
mil.library.ucsb.edu



Where the tree house would have been on the 1924 Sanborn map.


https://i.imgur.com/FK6OZVZ.jpg
loc.gov

odinthor Mar 11, 2021 4:27 PM

:previous:

And here's a little more on 109th:

https://i.postimg.cc/hGbxNQC5/Aspey-LAT-25-3-27.jpg
LA Times, 3/27/1925

riichkay Mar 11, 2021 6:41 PM

S.E. corner of Federal and Rochester is correct....


https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

I thought there was a chance that this was "1406", and not "1106"....and recall that a "2" is visible as the last digit of the tree house property, initially I figured that street number as 1102.


Turns out that the subject properties were in the 1400 block of Federal Ave....I ran 1402 Federal Av. on Building and Safety's site, this came up, dated 1932, two years after Mr. and Mrs. Aspey died....


https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds



https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds


Great work by all in solving the puzzle.

Sakhal Nakhash Mar 11, 2021 7:29 PM

Infamous Amos:
 
I had way too much fun with this, that is to say, just the right amount.
:goodnight:

Sakhal Nakhash Mar 11, 2021 9:07 PM

Another time, perhaps.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliNative (Post 9209708)
Mostly agree. Some modern and post modern has been fairly well done, like the Library (U.S. Bank) and Wilshire Grand. As I have said before, would love to see a noirish "neo" art deco or "neo" gothic tower(s) in DTLA that replicated the beauty of the Richfield, Empire State or Chrysler buildings. Why should these beloved styles go away forever? More spires, not just boxes now that the heli landing pad law has been removed I believe. Super tall would be nice, but even 700 footer would be great. L.A. probably would have had a pre-1950s if not for the 150 foot height limit that restricted height until the late 1950s. City Hall got an exemption in the 1920s, and the decorative spires of Richfield and Eastern Columbia (the cool blue tower) and a couple of others also were allowed to go higher (Richfield almost 400' to the top of the spire). On the other hand, if buildings were made more costly to build, might get fewer built since the economics and financing wouldn't pencil out. More better designed buildings with affordable materials hopefully.

What I feel when I see what used to be:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/78/b8...7af1b31297.png


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