noirish Los Angeles

[Muji]

Fascinating finds, ethereal.

If any of you are interested, I've recently started a new blog called Urban Diachrony featuring then and now pictures of Los Angeles. Here's the photo from my most recent post, showing Wilshire east of Beaudry Avenue, 1954-2010. The original photograph is from Neat Stuff Blog, which has a neat collection that I'm not sure whether or not has been posted here.



I'd love any feedback or suggestions for photos!

[sopas ej]

Excellent then and now, Muji! Your blog is great too!

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Also, thanks for the history of the General Harrison Otis house. It is much appreciated 'GaylordWilshire'.
I didn't even know the address, let alone the connection to the Otis Art Institute.

A few more shots of the Harrison Gray Otis house (once at 2401 Wilshire, at Park View), which became the Otis Art Institute. I wasn't aware that on its grounds were a stone folly in the form of the downtown Times building that was bombed in 1910.

LAPL
Otis Art Institute, 1939


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Before both the eagle and the bombing, ca. 1885

LAPL
October 1, 1910: The eagle survives


See also http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...e-see-our.html

[Arco Sinclair]

Los Angeles got both electricity and telephones in 1882. Those poles on Buena Vista look new. I've seen some old photos with more than eight horizontal supports that make them look odd. They didn't last long though.

This is the best thread going. You guys rock!

[GaylordWilshire]

The 1902 Harry Gray house, which once stood at 19 Chester Place (nw corner of Adams and Chester):
LAPL

LAPL
The part of the Chester Place Adams entrance gate seen at left remains.


The Stearns-Dockweiler house, still standing at 27 St. James Park, was designed by renowned L.A.
architect John Parkinson in 1900:
LAPL

Google Street View


The Childs house, which once stood at 3100 West Adams:
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As with many demolished houses in West Adams, there is a little bit left:
Google Street View
The Childs wall along Adams--it once had a corner entrance with steps (second Childs photo above),
almost identical to that which survives across Adams at the site of yet another demolished house on
the boulevard:
Google Strteet View
The corner lot in this shot is apparently now part of the property of the Fitzgerald house, seen at left.
The whole corner has been on the market for $1.9 million for several years. I haven't yet found out what
house once stood on the corner--whatever it was would have been better than an empty lot, of course,
but an empty lot would be preferable to what atrocity I fear may come.

[ethereal_reality]

^^^ Very interesting GaylordWilshire. I always enjoy your posts.

Below: The intersection of Main, Spring & Ninth in 1917.
Notice the policeman's elevated post...stand?..I don't know what to call it.



usc digital archive


By the way....excellent before and after photograph Muji.
I look forward to exploring your blog.

[ethereal_reality]

Barker Brothers at the corner of 7th & Figueroa.


usc digital archive





postcard/ebay

[gsjansen]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

^^^ Very interesting GaylordWilshire. I always enjoy your posts.

Below: The intersection of Main, Spring & Ninth in 1917.
Notice the policeman's elevated post...stand?..I don't know what to call it.



usc digital archive


By the way....excellent before and after photograph Muji.
I look forward to exploring your blog.

here is a before and after of the intersection of spring main and 9th 1939 and now



i wonder how they accessed that crows nest??!!?

whatever the purpose for the fountain and monument shown in the 1917 photo in the center island was, it's certainly gone 22 years later in the 1939 photo.

GW, amazing west adams photos and commentary. also great images of the otis house! i wonder if the times building memorial sculpture still exists somewhere.......

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

GW, amazing west adams photos and commentary. also great images of the otis house! i wonder if the times building memorial sculpture still exists somewhere.......

Otis College of Art and Design

Otis College of Art and Design
The end of The Bivouac. A number of different signs were on the lawn over the years,
reflecting the graphics of successive times. It's always interesting to me to be
reminded of what's behind stucco--the Mission Revival here is revealed as stage set.


LAPL


Harrison Gray Otis's house at 2401 Wilshire (which, according to the militaristic world he made for himself, he referred to as "The Bivouac") was given to Los Angeles County "to be used for the advancement of the arts." The County started the Otis Art Institute in 1918. The adjacent E.T. Earl house was acquired by the school at some point; the Otis and Earl houses were two of the three earliest on Wilshire Boulevard, and both were demolished ca. 1957 in order to build a bigger school. As for the folly--I found a footnote in my copy of Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and The Rise and Fall of the L.A. Times Dynasty by Dennis McDougal (an excellent read) which says that the replica of the bombed Times building "had been made from its rubble and stood on the grounds of the General's former home for nearly 40 years" before being broken up, the pieces given to Otis students.

[ethereal_reality]

Perhaps this has been posted before...but I don't remember seeing it.

A great little video of Los Angeles in the 1940s.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50353697@N02/4713710016/

The music is wonderful as well.

[ethereal_reality]

Looking north on Main St. between 2nd & 3rd streets in 1939.
Notice the Arrow Theatre, all seats 10cents.



usc digital archive

[ethereal_reality]

I googled (under images) the descriptions of the photos below and nothing showed up,
so I believe these photographs haven't been posted before.






Below: View from Olive and 7th St. panning eastward from north to south.
(Damn, sorry for the missing photos) I'll try and replace them. e_r in January 2014.


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[GaylordWilshire]

ethereal--Your great downtown shots reminded me of the Braly Building.

LAPL

For some reason I just assumed that when the 150-foot height limit was imposed by the city council in 1906 (and which lasted until 1957), no building in Los Angeles exceeded that height at that time. But it turns out that the Parkinson-designed Continental Building at 408 S. Spring (se corner of 4th), finished not long before the council acted, is 175 feet tall, and was the highest building in town until the exempted City Hall was completed in 1928. It was originally called the Braly Building, later the Union Trust Building, and then the Hibernian Building before becoming the Continental.


USC Digital Archive
From 4th and Main, showing the back of the Braly Building--and part of the I. W. Hellman house being
moved to make way for Mr. Hellman's new bank. The building going up at right still stands.


And 105 years later:
Yelpie Images

P.S.
Another great read is Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California by Frances Dinkelspiel (proud great-great granddaughter if Isaias).

[ethereal_reality]

The Braly Building is one of my favorite buildings.
I didn't know the history...so thanks for the info. GW.

[ethereal_reality]

The Therberge Building at 1013 S. Los Angeles Street.


usc digital archive

I like the simplicity of this building.






Below: The Newmark Building on Broadway just south of 2nd. St. in 1910.


usc digital archive

[ethereal_reality]

The Bendix Building and the surrounding area in 1935.




usc digital archive

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

ethereal--Your great downtown shots reminded me of the Braly Building.

LAPL

For some reason I just assumed that when the 150-foot height limit was imposed by the city council in 1906 (and which lasted until 1957), no building in Los Angeles exceeded that height at that time. But it turns out that the Parkinson-designed Continental Building at 408 S. Spring (se corner of 4th), finished not long before the council acted, is 175 feet tall, and was the highest building in town until the exempted City Hall was completed in 1928. It was originally called the Braly Building, later the Union Trust Building, and then the Hibernian Building before becoming the Continental.


USC Digital Archive
From 4th and Main, showing the back of the Braly Building--and part of the I. W. Hellman house being
moved to make way for Mr. Hellman's new bank. The building going up at right still stands.


And 105 years later:
Yelpie Images

P.S.
Another great read is Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California by Frances Dinkelspiel (proud great-great granddaughter if Isaias).

The Continental/Braly Building is one of my favorite buildings in Los Angeles. It was this building that led to the 150-foot height limit that was in effect for basically the first half of the 20th Century-- city leaders didn't want LA to become a "skyscraper" city, which clashed with their vision of LA being a "garden city"; to them, skyscrapers evoked the dirty, crowded, industrial cities of the East Coast and Midwest with tall buildings that cast shadows on their streets. Skyscrapers weren't compatible with Eden.

[Los Angeles Past]

October, 1910, wasn't noteworthy in L.A. history solely for the bombing of the Times Building. The "Million-Dollar Post Office" on Temple Square was officially dedicated and opened to the public 100 years ago today.

Full story here.

-Scott

[GaylordWilshire]

Cooper, Lynch and Kurtz: West Adams/Bison Archives
Cooper, Lynch and Kurtz: West Adams/Bison Archives
900 West Adams, ca. 1940. The pictures above were taken a
few years before The Curse of the Cat People was filmed.


I finally had the chance to watch The Curse of the Cat People again. When I've seen it before I didn't know that Mrs. Farren's house once stood at 900 West Adams, which gsjansen, JeffDiego, myself and maybe others have written of here previously. The film is actually much more interesting than I remembered it, and not just because of the house. But for the purposes of this forum I'll talk about the spooky old Waters/Farren place... here are a couple of obsessive observations. As Amy is following her friends around the Adams/Portland corner of the house in one particularly evocative scene, there is a terrific sense if Victorian West Adams--the great stone and iron fence that JeffDiego mentioned, the brooding turretted house, the lush vegetation. In the movie, trailing potted plants cover the "900" inscribed on each gatepost (probably on purpose--although the street number is seen above the door; see pics here), and you can see the adjacent Christian Science church's balustrade in these scenes, still there today. There are other quick exterior establishing shots of the house that look more like a painting that is only a close approximation of the real house. Closeups of the real front door are seen, with characters entering the actual house, though interiors are apparently studio sets--decorators did a good job of replicating most of the details of the actual house's front doors on these sets. JeffDiego mentioned that he thought the scenes of the unseen Mrs. Farren talking to Amy from a high window appear to have been filmed at another location-- this definitely looks to me to have been the carriage house (which still stands) right behind the main house. What you can see of the carriage house and its small tower in the movie match what is visible from the street--at least in Google Street View shots, that is (see prior posts of the carriage house, which also show remnants of the stone-and-iron fence). OK--this is probably way more detail than you ever wanted to know about The Curse of the Cat People, but I think its 1944 release date and mysterious look and feel, and the starring role of a great old L.A. house (even if it's supposed to be in Tarrytown, N.Y.), make it part of noir-era Los Angeles if not really noir is the usual sense. Btw--I wonder if the producers of The Addams Family remembered Curse when they were searching for a "haunted" house for the '60s tv series, but, finding 900 West Adams gone, then discovered 21 Chester Place?

American Film Institute
Mrs. Farren entertaining Amy at home. Notice the cat eating the canary.

[ethereal_reality]

GW-
Excellent commentary on 21 Chester Place and 'The Curse of the Cat People'.




Below: The La Venta Inn in Palos Verdes in 1930.



usc digital archive

Below: The La Venta Inn today.


activerain.com








Below: The Bel Air Bay Club in 1930.


usc digital archive

Below: The Bel Air Club today.


Loren Latker