Quote:
Originally Posted by HossC
Note that on both of these maps, the part of Second Street west of Boylston was called Lake Shore Avenue. It gets renamed to Second Street by the 1921 map.
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Thanks, we were talking about Lake Shore Avenue re Second Street Park back on page 760. And thank you too for the further uscdl pix of this area, one you posted and one you referenced. They each show the hillsides on
both sides of 2nd St which made me realize that, of course, this was part of the Arroyo de los Reyes, a channel made by stream which had its source near Glendale Blvd (formerly Lake Shore), filled Echo Park Lake and
the lake at Second Street Park (at different times in history) then worked it's way down 2nd St., filling the famous swimming pond at 2nd and Beaudry (the former site of which is out of frame a block to the right in the photo below) and eventually exiting Bunker Hill at Block 15 as shown in the 1849
Ord Survey map.
It was not appreciated at the time (mosquitoes/mud), so Block 15 could not be sold and became Pershing Square. However, the route of the Arroyo de Los Reyes changed when the Los Angeles Canal and Reservoir Company dammed Echo Park Lake in 1868. It then came out at Figueroa and 5th where it was known as the "wool mill ditch". B. F. Coulter's woolen mill there made use of it and Los Reyes also, for a time anyway, filled the zanja that ran in front of the fine homes on the north side of Figueroa (an ice company later took over Coulter's mill).
Enough. If anyone's interested, L.A. Creek Freak tells the tale
here and
here.
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...coll59/id/1028
And thank you
ProphetM for the "new" photo of the 1882-1907(?)
Two Johns/Maier & Zobeleing sign. Interesting to see the the building that protected it coming down and City Hall South going up across the street. City Hall South is where the Health Dept moved after leaving the Bank of Italy building which was torn down a year or so after the photo. The International Bank Building/Bank of Italy Building never had fire escapes, but did still have gas lighting in some offices at the time of demolition.