I've posted twice before about the area bought in the mid-1880s by Alonzo Potter, bounded by Francisco (then More) and Figueroa (then Pearl), and by 7th and 8th. Potter lived in a home there and built Potter Park Avenue -- later 7th Place -- in the middle of the property.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=12197
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=13409
But I hadn't been able to find a photograph of the property -- until now:
LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics22/00030879.jpg
The above photo is undated but was taken no later than early 1887, looking SE from 7th and Francisco at (1) the Potter home, (2) a little plus-sign-shaped building, (3) the house on the SW corner of Pearl and 8th, and (4) the 8th Street School on the NW corner of 8th and Grand.
We can confirm these things by looking at the 1888 Sanborn Map; that's More/Francisco on the left and Pearl/Figueroa on the right:
Both the 1887-or-earlier photo and the 1888 map have the same plus-sign-shaped building (
2) and the two-story house on the SW corner of 8th and Pearl with a porch on the east side and a one-story section on the west side (
3). The photo shows the Potter home (
1) without the northern addition it has in the map.
We know the photo shows the 8th Street School (
4) at the NW corner of 8th and Grand because, well, it's in the right spot and it looks like it:
LAPL --
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics13/00026141.jpg
1888 Sanborn @ LAPL
Eighth Street School was apparently built around 1876 or 1877 (the lot was donated June 1, 1875 --
http://books.google.com/books?id=LA0...ngeles&f=false AND
http://books.google.com/books?id=A2g...weixel&f=false).
And we know the photo can't be any later than early 1887, because it doesn't show three-story Los Angeles College, which opened in 1888 and later became the Abbotsford Inn (
http://urbandiachrony.wordpress.com/...s-c-1908-2013/), on the SW corner of 8th and Hope:
LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081400.jpg
1888 Sanborn (Pearl-Flower-Hope) @ LAPL
Potter -- er, excuse me,
Professor Potter -- first appears on Pearl Street in the 1883 LA City Directory; here he is in the 1884 LA City Directory (633 Pearl would become 745 Figueroa):
1884 LA City Directory @ Fold3.com
Fast-forwarding to Feb 14, 1959 for a view of the same area, we look SW at Potter Park Avenue, renamed 7th Place, with mostly parking on the north side of the street. Facing north on the west end of the block at the corner of Francisco, the large building with the columns is the Schermerhorn/Beck at 942, then to the east it's the Aberdeen at 936, the Melville/Covington/Wolbert at 930, and the Potter Park Villa/Woodhaven at 928:
UCLA Digital Library --
http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/vie...198/zz0002q5vx
I guess the location of the little plus-sign-shaped building from the pre-1888 photo would have been approximately in the back of the Potter Park Villa/Woodhaven.