Quote:
Originally Posted by tovangar2
 Thank you Michael. The Hildreth carriage house was Margrethe Mather's studio? I am totally dense not to have made that connection before. |
Yes. She originally leased the carriage house in 1916-18 and maintained the lease until her death of complications from multiple sclerosis on Christmas day 1952. In the last years, she had been living in Glendale with George Lipton, a very good friend from the old days who cared for her, the carriage house having become little more than a place to store her belongings, personal and professional, her cameras and thousands of negatives. In a final indignity, albeit one about which she was thankfully unaware, transients had broken into the studio and burned many of her negatives to keep warm.
Looking west on 4th Street from 4th Street barricade at Hope Street, 1937
Looking west down 4th Street from the 4th Street stub at Hope Street. The steep slope between Hope and Flower prevented 4th Street from going through. We are looking across Flower Street (out-of-frame at the bottom) to Figueroa (with the truck in the intersection) and to Fremont with the white Hotel Percivel at 1017 W. 4th Street. Down here, the little 'street' that runs to the right from 4th is the ever elusive Sack Alley which only runs from 4th Street to 3rd Street. The five story building which backs up to Sack Alley is the Imperial Apartments at 350 S. Figueroa. Frustratingly close to my most hoped for image. If the camera were to simply pan right 90 degrees, we would be looking directly at the Hlidreth carriage house at 715 W. 4th Street, the studio of Margrethe Mather. And in 1937, she might very well have been there on the day this shot was taken. It pleases me deeply to think she enjoyed this exact view, occasionally must have stood right here and looked down on Sack Alley. Similarly, if we were to look the other way, 90 degrees to the left, we would be looking at the Castle Tower Apartments, the repurposed Hershey Mansion.
USC digital archive/Automobile Club of Southern California collection, 1892-1963
Margrethe Mather, Edward Weston, 1914
Margrethe in Weston's Tropico studio in 1914. Easily my favorite early Los Angeles character. Orphaned at 10 years of age, made her way on wit and talent in the entirely male dominated early twentieth century. Here she brought the flowers from a nearby table to form a pleasing composition with the confident, almost challenging, uplifted chin and direct gaze. Inarguably a part-time prostitute, she was nevertheless an honorable and loyal friend and one of the first professional photographers to break with pictorialism and instruct Weston on his growth, although he would attempt to erase her sizable contributions in his self-styled 'Daybooks'.