Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
A few months ago I found this wonderful photograph of an unspecified area of Hollywood in the 1920s.
Since then I've tried to pinpoint the location and vantage point to no avail.  ....so I'm seeking your help.
below: Here is the entire photograph as it appeared on ebay with a W acting as a watermark.
ebay |
So, using KevinW's wonderful discovery I determined exactly where the picture was taken from.
Unfortunately, you can't see a darn thing from that vantage point today:
Google Street View
This is at the intersection of Manzanita & Sunset Blvd. - Manzanita proceeds south behind the camera, but in front of camera it does not connect because Manzanita is at a lower level than Sunset. A set of stairs go down from the sidewalk on Sunset to Manzanita, which then continues. I believe the old photo was taken from the top of the stairs. Today there's that business & apartment building in the way of the view. The original photo looks down across an empty lot onto Wit Place, a very narrow street where the two small houses in the photo are still there. The garage to the right of them is gone, but the next house is still there as well. (There might be a tiny piece of the garage left:
Street View)
Further back in the picture, all the big houses are facing Sanborn Street, and it looks like all of them are still there on both sides of the street. Roofs, windows, etc. all match up; the prominent one with dark walls and white window frames has lost its chimney.
Here's a street view shot of the most distinctive group - the house with a gambrel roof, a very small stucco building next to it and then a more ordinary house, just left of center in the original photo:
The big blocky building a little further away from camera is also still there; it is the back side of a small group of apartments facing Hyperion Ave.
ethereal_reality:
bottom of the stairs
Yes, the stairs are still there. That is Landa Street. It's a narrow alley from Griffith Park Blvd. to Lucille St., and then stairs go up almost to Maltman Ave., and then Landa continues up the hill again as a street from Maltman. Landa stops again temporarily at Micheltorena Street, at which point you are right next to that giant place on top of the hill. That big place is the Canfield-Moreno Estate, aka the Paramour Mansion, aka The Crestmount, built in 1923:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canfield-Moreno_Estate