noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

matchbook with fine graphics/ebay.







http://www.santafelofts.com/index2.html



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...ner-m2638.html

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[alanlutz]

Originally Posted by alanlutz

Hey guys, haven't posted in a while but have been following the site since late Feb 2012. Love it! Have learned so much!! Posted a few photos but am still getting caught up with the past. Am currently only up to page 270.
Want to share two things. 1. on a recent trip to L.A. I was walking up Broadway with a friend explaining how there used to be 2 State Buildings on the corner of 1st and Broadway. One still has the foundation there and one of you guys did an excellent job of showing pictures of the tiles on the floor still there with a now and then photo shoot. This building was torn down around 1975. The other state building was across the street and was built in the 60s to replace or add to the first one. it was badly shaken by another earthquake and was torn down and remains a dirt pit. The Ronald Reagan State building is doing fine down the street. But my point is while I was passing the state building that still has a foundation and a parking garage under it, a live guard was posted there sitting under an umbrella to keep out trespassers. I called out hello to him and engaged in conversation. I stated how I enjoyed the pictures I had seen on this site of the old State building. HE says no, this was the old Law Library! I said, no, you're wrong, and I'd love to bring my pictures in to show you how you are wrong. Well, I haven't been back since, this was only late July, but how about that?
My other point is to share an excellent 6 part series some of you may have already found on Youtube on the street names of Los Angeles. It is very good and touches on so many points you all have brought out here over the past hundreds of posts. Enjoy:
http://youtu.be/Swab_rVB4Us

I know it was late Saturday night when I posted this and maybe no one was on duty checking these for these type of things but I was hoping to get a rise out of someone about what the guard said about the foundation not belonging to the old State Bldg. When more people get around to reading this please let me know. Was I also correct about the other state building that used to be there kitty korner? Thanks for your replies. I shall stand by.

[ethereal_reality]

alanlutz, I believe you are referring to the two properties that are shown below.




The cruciform foundation visible in the photograph is the remnant of the State Building you mention in your post.
The guard you spoke to mentioned a law library. I imagine any state building would include a law library of some sort.




That said, Dylan Leblanc mentions a 'municipal archive' in his post below. I believe he is referring to the other vacant lot.



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[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

alanlutz, I believe you are referring to the two properties that are shown below.




The cruciform foundation visible in the photograph is the remnant of the State Building you mention in your post.
The guard you spoke to mentioned a law library. I imagine any state building would include a law library of some sort.




That said, Dylan Leblanc mentions a 'municipal archive' in his post below. I believe he is referring to the other vacant lot.



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From the description, the municipal archive that Dylan was referring to was the old Hall of Records. The civic center proceeds leftward from City Hall in that view and that's where the Hall of Records was.

The empty lot circled above that is south of City Hall is now the site of the new LAPD building. There is another empty lot outside of frame to the left - it is also caddy corner from the State building foundation, across Broadway & 1st. Google Earth shows a very large building there that was torn down in 2007, but not being an Angelino I don't know what it was. THAT is the one I believe AlanLutz was referring to as still a "dirt pit".

[Los Angeles Past]

Originally Posted by ProphetM

From the description, the municipal archive that Dylan was referring to was the old Hall of Records. The civic center proceeds leftward from City Hall in that view and that's where the Hall of Records was.

The empty lot circled above that is south of City Hall is now the site of the new LAPD building. There is another empty lot outside of frame to the left - it is also caddy corner from the State building foundation, across Broadway & 1st. Google Earth shows a very large building there that was torn down in 2007, but not being an Angelino I don't know what it was. THAT is the one I believe AlanLutz was referring to as still a "dirt pit".

This is correct.

[MichaelRyerson]

Pacific Electric Building, Los Angeles II, 1910

Pacific Electric Building, 610 S. Main Street, Los Angeles , ca.1910. Notice the man standing in the window watching the street below. The streetcar is bound for Edendale and the policeman has a little help although from a seated position.


image from Shorpy.

This is a slightly reduced image. Original size here

http://www.shorpy.com/node/9347?size=_original#caption

[Los Angeles Past]

Contemporaneous photo and bottle.



Shorpy




My personal collection.



The bottle was said to have been dug from a site in Boyle Heights.

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past

Contemporaneous photo and bottle.

My personal collection.

The bottle was said to have been dug from a site in Boyle Heights.

That's a beautiful bottle isn't it, Scott? It's amazing to me how many companies used custom bottles in those days. It seems counter-intuitive to me relative to the cost vs. return, when compared with what I imagine a generic bottle might have cost. Maybe the problem was the lack of a dependable adhesive for paper labels.

[MichaelRyerson]

sometimes life steps in and provides a safe haven for those in need...


Drunk Trapped in Phone Booth, 1951

Drunk Trapped in Phone Booth (1st and Mott Streets), 28 October 1951. Alfred Ulibarri -- 27 years.

USCdigital archive/Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection, 1950-1961

[Graybeard]

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past

Heh, yep, quite a contrast to the way it looks today. It's only "Hill Street" in name now...


Google Maps Street View

A HINO. Hill In Name Only.

[alanlutz]

ProphetM, you are correct. The LAPD now stands where the dirt pit in the outdated photo above shows but the Dirt Pit which is off camera to the left is most definitely still there. I will post some photos as well as the documentation of the rise and fall of that state building. I read about it in the past on this site but it is so vast it will not be quick to find the reference. Thanks for catching what I meant, ProphetM. As far as there possibly once being a law library within the old state building, that is very generous of you to say, ER, at the least. Early on within this site we did see pictures taken facing the old Bunker Hill to the west that showed a Law Library or Law Building, which no longer exists, about where the court house and library are now. I was thinking that was maybe what the misguided guard meant. But how could he not know about the glorious old 13 story State Building that sat on that site?!

[alanlutz]

Here is a most recent Google Earth View of the pit I was referring to where the 2nd State Building used to be. It is kitty Korner of the original State Building foundation in the shape of the cross.

[ProphetM]

MichaelRyerson: I LOVE that PE Building photo. Just lovely. Although I do find it a little odd that Pacific Light and Power Co. put lettering on windows so far above the street!

[Los Angeles Past]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

That's a beautiful bottle isn't it, Scott?

It is, indeed. I'm just glad to finally know where that pharmacy was. I assumed it was in Boyle Heights, where the bottle was found, but now I know that it was right downtown - and in the very first building that my mom ever worked in!

[dom_web]

I'm french a new to this forum, i spent days looking ar these great pix of old LA.
I was LA in 1972, for the first time and always love the city.
I have some old pix from this era that i will post when i will learn how to do it properly.
thanks
dom_web

[MichaelRyerson]

Welcome dom_web and good luck. The initial posting can be irksome. Stick with it though. Do yourself a favor and open an account at FlickR or Imageshack and save your pics there and then post from there. Hotlinking is frowned on and doesn't last anyway. Good luck.

[MichaelRyerson]

Gangsters shooting, 1951 (1)

Personal effects. The Two-Tonys. Finis.



USCdigital archive/Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection, 1950-1961

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by ProphetM

MichaelRyerson: I LOVE that PE Building photo. Just lovely.

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past

It is, indeed. I'm just glad to finally know where that pharmacy was. I assumed it was in Boyle Heights, where the bottle was found, but now I know that it was right downtown - and in the very first building that my mom ever worked in!

Yeah, Prophet, I love it too. Really a great image. In the top five I've ever posted. I especially like the contemplative fellow in the third floor window.

Scott, even twenty five years later, I don't imagine it looked very different to your Mom than it does here. Although I'd guess the traffic policeman had been replaced by a traffic light by then.

[KevinW]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Yeah, Prophet, I love it too. Really a great image. In the top five I've ever posted. I especially like the contemplative fellow in the third floor window.

Scott, even twenty five years later, I don't imagine it looked very different to your Mom than it does here. Although I'd guess the traffic policeman had been replaced by a traffic light by then.

Absolutely great shot I must say. For some reason, my favorite aspect is the reflection of the building across the street you can see in the windows three to five stories above our window watcher. It really puts me in the 3D environment.



I do have one question. What is the device on the front of the street car that looks like a combination cow catcher and chaise lounge frame? Is that a bicycle rack? Or is it to knock people and cars off the tracks?

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by KevinW

Absolutely great shot I must say. For some reason, my favorite aspect is the reflection of the building across the street you can see in the windows three to five stories above our window watcher. It really puts me in the 3D environment.


I do have one question. What is the device on the front of the street car that looks like a combination cow catcher and chaise lounge frame? Is that a bicycle rack? Or is it to knock people and cars off the tracks?

Yes, a people-catcher. lol. Hard to believe but true. Mostly for the occasional drunk or pig-headed jaywalker.