I wanted to note that there is a whole village of pretty buildings extending south from the
Hayward-Thomas Building and Carondelet House, along Coronado and Carondelet and on W 7th Street. It doesn't look much from the air, but the streetscape is excellent.
google maps
As the 1910 Baist map (below) shows, apartments and commercial buildings had yet to make much of a dent in this single-family-homes neighborhood (just one of the original frame homes survives in the immediate area. It's at 742 S Coronado, built 1901. There's also a 1902 cottage at 747 S Carondelet, but it's unrecognizable these days).
Note that as one crosses from the Wilshire Tract (north of W 7th) to the West End Terrace Tract (south of W 7th), the streets are off-set by half a block to the east:
historicmapworks
2015:
googlemaps
A grand apartment building, "The Georgelle", at 667 S Carondelet, went in in 1917. It was built by George L Lovejoy, acting as his own architect, not far south of the intersection of S Carondelet and Wilshire, site of the Hayward-Thomas Building and Park-Wilshire Hotel:
gsv(a note on later name changes for this building is here)
building and engineering news/16 may 1917
Along S Coronado, again looking south, beyond the former site of the 1907
Hershey Arms (John C Austin/Frederick G. Brown) on Wilshire at S Coronado, is Peoples & Cheney's 1917
"The Wilshire" at No. 671. Across the street are the lovely 1922 apartments at No. 676 and the 90-room Coronado Inn (once the Hotel Parkway) at No. 682, also 1922, both by architect L.A. Smith (the Coronado Inn could obviously use some help):
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The real cache of gems is on W 7th St between S Coronado and S Carondelet. There's a whole intact block here. Of the six buildings, three are by Morgan, Walls and Morgan and Morgan, Walls and Clements.
First is the Goodwin Building, on the NW corner of Carondelet and W 7th. I'd been looking for historic images of Carondelet House (it suffered a "parapet correction" in 1959 and I've been wondering how it looked as built). California State Library did have six images of the Goodwin (a block and a bit south of Carondelet House), taken by the Mott Studio in ca 1925. The Goodwin was built as stores and lofts in 1924 by Morgan, Walls and Clements. (note the Hotel Parkway roof sign behind the Goodwin). The Goodwin is an obvious forerunner to the 1926 Hayward-Thomas Building on the NW corner of S Carondelet and Wilshire:
csl
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The Goodwin lost much ornament on the ground floor, but one of the beautiful wrought-iron window grills survives, so it could be somewhat restored if anyone cared to also restore the transparency of the ground floor. The exterior of the second floor, apart from the south-facing balcony, looks original:
csl
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A detail of the east facade:
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csl
Next door to the west is 2515-2525 W 7th built as retail shops in 1923. Morgan, Walls and Morgan get the credit here, but I think Stiles O. Clements, not yet a partner, might have been supervising architect because he signed the permit. I suspect that the building owes
something to Irving Gill. It's been architects' offices of late. Two of the original columns survive, so it could also be restored to something like its original appearance. It got a handsome paint job last year.
1925:
detail from csl image above
2015:
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1925. This detail shows that 2515-2525 transitions to two stories at its western end. Note the 1922 building on the NW corner of S Coronado and W 7th (on the left). It's by Thomas Franklin Powers and is still there, but grievously altered:
detail of the csl image above
2015, with Bullocks Wilshire/Southwest School of Law (1929) in the distance (note the Coronado Inn/Hotel Parkway peeking over the rooftop at center. It is much larger than its facade would lead one to believe):
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Looking east, towards DTLA:
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It's hard to get a unobstructed view of the transition between the one-story and two-story parts of this building
(I probably need to have a word with that "Trees-in-the-Streets" program guy):
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Architect Ragnar C Qvale, Qvale Associates, owned the building from the 50s into the 80s.
He's the one who ordered a "parapet correction" for the building in 1958, stripping away the clay roof tiles:
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See
e_r's
post for more on Ragnar Qvale.
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The 1923 permit:
ladbs
Across the street, starting at the SW corner of S Carondelet and W 7th is No. 2500, designed in 1924 by E. H. Merrell for Preston Wright. This is the building I know best of this group because it contains one of my favorite shops (I've been a customer for 40 years),
McManus & Morgan, purveyors of fine papers, founded in 1923 by two UCLA students, now about 70 years at this address (the owner, whose parents owned the business before him, tells me that the shop was formerly at Heliotrope and Melrose, south of the then-campus). Also at No. 2500 is
Aardvark Letterpress, vintage printers, which utilizes some techniques over 600 years old. A lovely video on the two businesses is
here.
Well worth watching.
google maps photos
McManus and Morgan's shop front:
blogspot
...and ceiling:
SCAH
As well as McManus & Morgan, and sharing space with Hewson's, this building was the headquarters of The Arts and Crafts Society of Los Angeles in the 20s. The lights of avant garde LA met here to discuss the latest developments in art, architecture and design. In addition, Llewellyn Bixby Smith opened his photography studio here after his apprenticeship with Edward Weston.
SCAH
SCAH
Aardvark Letterpress' corner space at 2500:
yelp
Next door to the west is No. 2510, also by Morgan, Walls and Morgan, 1923. The facade looks to be almost in original condition. There was once a barn on the rear of this lot. In 1908 it was rehabbed into a residence, or, as the permit put it "to raise a barn two feet and plaster and turn into a house".
The residential barn remained in place even as the larger building, at the front of the lot, went in, but was then demolished in 1934. Too bad, I would have liked to have seen that. I like barns. I like house barns even better.
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An imposing, intact, three-story, 1909 apartment house, "The Trebon", of brick and stone, is at 2520 , across the alley. It was built by Cross & Keel for Robert Fowler. It's got massive windows, and not just on the front:
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Rounding out the south side of the block on W 7th between S Carondelet and S Coronado is a wonderful group of 1924 attached cottages by
Armand Monaco and Wm Bordeaux at 2524 W 7th. Monaco & Bordeaux are known for their sumptuous villas, so these cottages are a real treat (I expect there's some losses re details and finishes, but the volumes remain first-rate):
google maps
google maps
There are many more delightful buildings on the surrounding blocks, too many to catalog here.
A recap, looking east. (Unfortunately, ATM, the width of the street, the lack of parking and the scale of the streetlamps are for the convenience of through traffic. There's no opportunity or invitation to linger:
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UPDATE 23 July 2020: The Goodwin Building (see above), Morgan, Walls & Clements, 1925, is no more. Pity that:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/7t...4d-118.2815559