[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Los Angeles, south from the Belmont Hotel (2nd & Belmont) in the 1890s.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1890s-Photog...-/400659098870

back / with information

What a great photo er! I think that's the earliest photo I've seen of that part of Los Angeles. It was probably taken between September 1884 and December 1887.

The Belmont Hotel building opened as Ellis Villa College on Sept 16, 1884, following the laying of the cornerstone on May 28, 1884. Rev. John W. Ellis of the First Presbyterian Church
founded the college:

May 29, 1884 Los Angeles Daily Herald @ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=1


June 28, 1884 Los Angeles Daily Herald @ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=1


Sept 17, 1884 Los Angeles Daily Herald @ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=4

Rev. Ellis subsequently built a new building for his college near the old building:

Sept 5, 1886 Los Angeles Daily Herald @ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=3

The old college building reopened as the Belmont Hotel:

May 4, 1886 Los Angeles Daily Herald @ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=1

Apparently, different management opened the hotel a little ahead of schedule:

June 12, 1886 Los Angeles Daily Herald @ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=1

The Belmont Hotel burned December 16, 1887:

December 17, 1887 Los Angeles Daily Herald @ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=7

On July 2, 1888, the second Ellis College also burned down (the "wicked woman" is from another story):

July 3, 1888 Los Angeles Daily Herald @ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=1

GW posted what might be the only extant photos of the Belmont Hotel (it's on a hill in the distance in the first one) and a link to the LA Fire Dept account of the fire that destroyed the hotel:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5408