Let's set the Wayback Machine to 1888 Los Angeles. Attorney John Robarts (1843-1894) has his office at 40 N. Spring Street with law partner and future California Governor (1899-1903) Henry T. Gage. Robarts lives at 550 S. Main Street:
1888 LA City Directory @ Fold3.com
Forty N. Spring is in the Wilcox Block, just south of Court Street. It's the three-story building on the left in this c. 1903 photo:
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/7096/rec/154
Because in 1888 Los Angeles had not yet done away with 0-99 street addresses, 550 S. Main is at the NE corner of Main and
7th (north is at the bottom):
1888 Sanborn Map at LAPL
Although the 1888 Sanborn Map shows a home at the NE corner of 7th and Main, the Robarts Block was clearly built during 1888, because Dr. C. Edgar Smith advertised in the January 2, 1889, LA Herald that he had moved there:
Library of Congress --
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=1
BTW, was Dr. Brinkerhoff's "sure and painless system" really painless, efficacious and fatality-free? Well, if his achievements before turning his talents to anal concerns are any indication . . . perhaps. He previously patented an inkwell, a fruit jar, and a cornhusker:
http://www.fohbc.org/PDF_Files/Brinkerhoff_Sp2006.pdf
Anyway, here's the Robarts Block, NE corner of 7th and Main, on the 1894 Sanborn Map (north is on the right):
LAPL
Now let's move forward to July 16, 1894. Instead of going home to his family at 143 W. 24th Street, Robarts decides to spend the night at the Hammam Baths, 228 S. Main Street:
1894 Sanborn Map at LAPL
This 1888 photo looking north on Main shows the front of the two-story Hammam Baths building, just south of St. Vibiana's:
Huntington Digital Library --
http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/c...d/3582/rec/101
On the morning of July 17, 1894, Robarts went from the Hammam Baths to his office, still in the Wilcox Block but now at 138-1/2 North Spring . . .
1894 LA City Directory @ Fold3.com
. . . got a glass of water, sat down, and died. The janitor found him at 7:30 a.m., still warm, but quite dead. "Fatty degeneration of the heart," as it turned out.
His remains were removed from the Wilcox Block to the Orr and Bird undertaking parlor, which, conveniently for those involved, was just across the street at 147 N. Spring:
1894 LA City Directory @ Fold3.com
100 Block of N. Spring Street:
1894 Sanborn Map at LAPL
In this c. 1890-99 photo looking north on Spring, Phillips Block No. 1 is the tall building on the corner (NW corner of Spring and Franklin); the three-story building to the right housed Orr and Bird undertakers, whose parlor was on the ground floor under the third (far right) bay window:
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/2279/rec/16
This is a c. 1892-96 photo looking south on Spring. The Wilcox Block is on the left with "GROCER. COFFEES AND TEAS." on the wall. The undertakers are on the right, just past the short utility pole that has paddle-shaped signs on either side of it:
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/7098/rec/42
Backing up a few years, here is a similar view from c. 1881-88. See the "Central Market" sign at right? That's the meat market next to the undertakers on the 1894 Sanborn Map:
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/7092/rec/40
And who owned the meat market? Simon Maier, brother of Joseph Maier, of the Maier and Zobelein Brewery, which we have discussed here previously:
1894 LA City Directory @ Fold3.com / Info from CemetaryGuide.com --
http://www.cemeteryguide.com/gotw-maier.html
Although John Robarts was dead, the Robarts Block lived on. It was on the route of the 1895 La Fiesta de Los Angeles parade:
CA State Library --
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...UPXNVAHV79.jpg
CA State Library --
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...B2AV3TUFUD.jpg
And other parades, too:
CA State Library --
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...5LIPL5JMCM.jpg
Looking south on Main, January 1, 1907. In the lower left corner is the Robarts' roof. The Robarts/St. Lawrence is now the Robarts/Faremont:
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...5/id/929/rec/3
1920:
LAPL --
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018967.jpg
This undated photo is looking west on 7th:
LAPL --
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014156.jpg
Looking east on 7th, 1939:
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/21130/rec/1
c. 1950:
CA State Library --
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...Y6E4THJ8RS.jpg
This is the 1906 Sanborn Map, updated to 1950. Note the little building with two storefronts on the north side of the Robarts Block:
LAPL
This aerial view from January 22, 1958 (the fire is at the Solnit Shoe Company, 817 S. Los Angeles St.) appears to show the Robarts Block (red circle) roofless and being demolished:
LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00101/00101706.jpg
The LA County Assessor says the current building at the NE corner of 7th and Main (at the top center of the photo, to the right of the E-shaped Hotel Cecil) dates to 1958, and the small building to its immediate north -- from the 1906/1950 Sanborn Map -- dates to 1940. This is a 1960 aerial view:
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/21896/rec/47
And this is a June 2013 street view looking east across Main Street, with the Hotel Cecil at the far left. Those two storefronts on the left don't quite match the rest of the building, although they've been made a part of it:
Photo by me
The difference in back is quite stark:
Photo by me
That set me to thinking . . . if someone decided to retain that little 1940 building and incorporate it into the new 1958 building, maybe the 1958 building with its cinderblock outer walls wasn't entirely all new construction? Maybe the Robarts Block was another old building chopped down to one floor, and then added onto? I asked one of the guys who was renovating one of the storefronts (two photos up, third storefront from the right), but he put the kibosh on that notion. He said that although there was old brickwork in the basement, the interior ground floor walls were all plaster.
So although John Robarts' monument at 7th and Main is gone, his monument at Rosedale Cemetary is still very much extant:
FindaGrave.com --http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=84641718&PIpi=55385564
Most info from FindaGrave.com --
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...&GRid=84641718