noirish Los Angeles

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by Wig-Wag

Ed, I believe you are correct that this is LARY's Vernon Yard. I believe we are looking west towards the Santa Fe delivery tracks. The UP (Los Angeles & Salt Lake wye which was also on the property would be behind the photographer. Unfortunately, the area has changed so much as to be almost unrecognizable now. A Google satellite view failed to reveal any building as tall as the one shown on the left in the photo.

Since Vernon was a meat packing area I wonder if the Luer's sign refers to Luer Meat Pacing Company which was located on E. Vernon Avenue?

If I can locate my copy of Inturbans Special No. 12, All Time roster of the Los Angeles Railway, we may be able to identify the crane, which, from the plate on the boom appears to be an Industrial Brownhoist.

Ah ha! Found it. The crane is LARY 9226 shown in two photos and a spec drawing on page 66 of The Los Angeles Railway All Time Roster published by Interurbans Publishing Company in August of 1952. The crane shown in the upper left photo is 9225 and is the one referred to by Ed as having been preserved at the Orange Empire Railway Museum.

[IMG][/IMG]

Cheers,
Jack

Never seen one like that. Operating a crane under a live trolley wire must have required an exceptional degree of situational awareness :-) Looks like the sort of thing that would have today's OSHA inspectors in a tizzy.

Cheers,

Earl

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

It seems that Walter Leimert thought that with all the new bridges over the the LA River, people would start moving east of Main Street, evening out the westward population trend. Apparently after only a few years he gave up on that idea and opened Leimert Park to the southwest, providing a resting place of sorts for Our Lady of Noir. I knew Mr. Leimert was a major developer, but never knew his full story, which is well-told here:

http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures...mert-park.html

1928 - Leimert Park "Another Vine and Hollywood in the making" ?


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...d/7247/rec/512


















http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...d/7247/rec/512






http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...d/7247/rec/512

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

11-11-1922 Armistice Day. - http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/ref/co...0coll2/id/4382

Four years earlier, the first Armistice Day in LA.



11-11-18 Broadway and Sixth Street. The end of the war to end all wars. Peace.


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/1823/rec/519





Don't Forget: "Wrigley's After Every Meal." http://www.infinitive.co/nthinkingarticle.php?n_id=63




1924 - Not LA Posted only for flavor.
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcolle...ed/XXX2229.jpg

1930 wrigley print ad.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1150_.jpg















http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/1822/rec/503

[fhammon]

The Sperl Building on E. 1st St. in Little Tokyo built 1882 seems to have escaped our attention.

Interestingly, Suehiro Cafe, one of the oldest operating restaurants in Little Tokyo (since 1972), is located in the ground floor space of the Sperl Building, built in 1882-- one of the oldest continuously family-owned building in Los Angeles (and supposedly haunted).

http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures...tle-tokyo.html

As the story goes, when Ghost Expeditions returned to Los Angeles earlier this year to look for a new home, a detective who had been working at the substation at the time of its de-haunting serendipitously called and asked if the team would like to conduct its research in his building in Little Tokyo.

The former detective is Tony Sperl, whose great grandfather was one of the early inhabitants of Los Angeles. The First Street edifice, aptly named the A. Sperl Building, dates to 1882 and hasn't left the family's hands.

Originally a blacksmith shop, the Sperl Building was most recently a Japanese video store.

http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/g...e9e783f8e.html

Tony Sperl says:
"The historic Sperl Building...337-339 1/2 E. 1st Street (historically 337), built by Antonin Sperl in May 1882 for his Blacksmith's Shop...'Cooperative Carriage.'

http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures...tle-tokyo.html

http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures...tle-tokyo.html

It's the building with the pole in front of it i this photo:

http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures...tle-tokyo.html

http://www.you-are-here.com/downtown/sperl.html

..... and the controversial mural on the back side of the building:

http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures...al-mashup.html

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

1928 - Leimert Park "Another Vine and Hollywood in the making" ?

I believe this is the completed "model drive in market". It's seen here at the opening of the Citizen's National Trust & Savings Bank on March 29, 1930. I originally posted a smaller detail view in the final part of my roundup of Citizens Trust & Savings Bank branches.


Detail of picture in Huntington Digital Library

The same post also includes this night shot complete with arrow.


USC Digital Library

[C. King]

Just wanted to run this up the flagpole. I was asked if there is/was a hotel or apartment building along Wilshire by the name of the Dumbarton Hotel. It was referred to in a book set in the era of Chief Parker at the LAPD. As most of us know, the search engine on the site is a bit spotty, I found no reference to one. I have perused the LAPL and USC sites and the closest I've gotten is the Dunbar Hotel on S. Central. Just thought I'd ask around and to see if any of our sleuths can find it.

Thanks in advance.

[HossC]

The word "Dumbarton" doesn't seem to appear in any of the City Directories as the name of a building or a person. I've known other businesses that never made it into the CDs, so that's no guarantee that it didn't exist. The only reference to a Dumbarton Hotel that I've found so far is in a book called 'Rose Gold' by Walter Mosley (maybe the book you mentioned?).


books.google.com

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by HossC

The word "Dumbarton" doesn't seem to appear in any of the City Directories as the name of a building or a person. I've known other businesses that never made it into the CDs, so that's no guarantee that it didn't exist. The only reference to a Dumbarton Hotel that I've found so far is in a book called 'Rose Gold' by Walter Mosley (maybe the book you mentioned?).


books.google.com

Are we actually talking about the old Dunbar jazz club and hotel?

During the era of segregation, when they were barred from the city's major hotels, the Dunbar was the hotel at which visiting black celebrities were most likely to stay. The Hotel is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. At 4261 Central Avenue.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central...os_Angeles.JPG

[C. King]

Originally Posted by HossC

The word "Dumbarton" doesn't seem to appear in any of the City Directories as the name of a building or a person. I've known other businesses that never made it into the CDs, so that's no guarantee that it didn't exist. The only reference to a Dumbarton Hotel that I've found so far is in a book called 'Rose Gold' by Walter Mosley (maybe the book you mentioned?).


books.google.com

Thanks Hoss,

Yes, that's the book. With what I was told, the author probably had knowledge of the LA area. Sorta like Wambaughesque in his descriptions in setting of the scene. Most likely, the "Dumbarton" was fictional. Thanks anyway.

Casey

[ProphetM]

This is from several pages back; I was away in NorCal for the Christmas/New Year holidays and have just caught back up!

Originally Posted by Mstimc

Looking at all the "then and now" pictures makes me wonder what the longest-surviving business is in L.A., at the same site. Realizing technology, demographics and the transient nature of retail trends are natural forces for change, I wonder what establishments have managed to ride the highs and lows and stuck it out in the same place for more than a decade or two. There are some obvious ones like the Chinese Theatre, but even that has changed owners a few times...

Cole's has been in the basement of the PE building downtown since 1908. It could even claim continuous operation up until 2007, when it closed for renovations for about 20 months. I haven't been able to find an older business that has operated from one site, but it's a really hard thing to search for. There is Evergreen Cemetery, open since 1877, but I don't know if that counts as a business in the normal sense.

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by HossC

I believe this is the completed "model drive in market". It's seen here at the opening of the Citizen's National Trust & Savings Bank on March 29, 1930. I originally posted a smaller detail view in the final part of my roundup of Citizens Trust & Savings Bank branches.


Detail of picture in Huntington Digital Library

Movie Stars, Vaudville Acts and Lights!
http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original


A closer view of the panorama reveals ice cream, log cabin bread, Bell Potato Chips - a virtual Disneyland.









Portable cement mixer, not-so-secret still or industrial popcorn equipment??

[ethereal_reality]

originally posted by CityBoyDoug

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

The boy second from the left is wearing a belt ring with a couple of tool checks on it.
These checks have his number on them and are hung on a tool hook whenever he takes a tool for use.
He gets his check back when he returns the tool.

Thanks for explaining the belt ring and tool checks. I didn't realize that's how it worked.
-makes sense though.
__

[ethereal_reality]

"10, Lincoln Park trolley 1235"



ebay

Not sure exactly what street corner this is. Interesting streamline modern building on the right, next to Aunt Bea.---->

__

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Log Cabin Bread truck and a Bell Potato Chips car..

I'd say that's a little cement mixer.

ER...keepin' track of the tools..!!!

Evidently little Log Cabin Bread Co. was involved in a complicated 1958 CA lawsuit concerning price fixing of bread by the big bakeries of LA. I believe the big bread companies were the defendants. Case here:

http://www.leagle.com/decision/19584...%20BAKING%20CO.


posted by godzilla

[ethereal_reality]

Pirate's Den, 335 N. La Brea, Hollywood.

This looks like a crazy-ass place. (note Hitler, Tojo, & Il Duce in the Battle Gallery at lower left)


ebay

reverse / July 15, 1944


I could be wrong, but I don't believe we've seen an exterior view of 335 N. La Brea when it was the Pirate's Den.
Can we rectify that mateys?


The Den was briefly mentioned by BifRayRock back in 2012:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10398

And there's some history about the place:
http://historylosangeles.blogspot.co...rates-den.html
__

[ethereal_reality]

"Piggyback Yard, 1962." (not sure about the buildings in the distance.-the large white building might be the Sears Building in Boyle Heights....maybe.


ebay

- note the rectangular red and green lights on the poles.
__

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Rhum Boogie Club, 732 N. Highland Avenue. (Per '42 CD) Reportedly owned by Mickey Cohen.

I'd like to learn more about this place, that's for sure.


Here's the building today.

GSV




There are several interesting buildings along this stretch. I especially like this little green one with the white columns (that's the Rhum-Boogie Bldg. far right)


GSV

[jtown]

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm

There was a vibrant community of Japanese on Terminal Island, mostly engaged in fishing. Little Tokyo's Japanese-American heritage goes back at least 100 years, and Sawtelle's Japanese American community is almost that old. I went to University HS in the area in the 1970s, and only many years later did I learn that the student population in the war years was decimated by the forced internments of 1942 and after.

Judging from some passages in the novels of John Fante, it seems that there was also an Italian community on Terminal Island, but everyone mostly got along, just as they did in the Plaza area, with the Italians to the northwest and the Japanese to the southeast, and of course all the other ethnicities and cultures that converged there.

In addition to the communities mentioned by TWS, there was a significant Japanese American community in Los Angeles' San Gabriel Valley before World War II.


Pasadena Jr College Triple J Club, 1935
Photo credit: http://www.amerasiajournal.org/blog/?p=2471

The Pasadena Digital History Collaboration has an extensive collection on Japanese Americans in the San Gabriel Valley from Pasadena, El Monte, Monrovia, West Covina, Covina, La Puente.
Source: http://collection.pasadenadigitalhis...7coll6/id/8899

Edit: Acckk! I clearly haven't figured this out yet. My intention was to reply to ethereal_reality's original post about the killer missionary, and E_R's specific question at the conclusion:
"at a Mexican and Japanese settlement near Covina." What kind of settlement would have Japanese in 1938?

[fhammon]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The Roundhouse Cafe circa 1929. Sadly no street address was given. Operating hours were 5:00 to 2:00 A.M.


LAPL

There was a long shuttered R.R. roundhouse outside of my home town....so they have always interested me.
This is the first time I've seen a roundhouse themed cafe.

"The Roundhouse Café – 250 N. Virgil, conveniently close to the Bimini Baths."?

http://www.martinturnbull.com/hollyw...places-p-to-z/
Completely gone now without a visual trace.

Interesting, it looks like the street numbering changed a little over the years.

Looking at historic arials, the building can be seen up until the 1980 images; it is gone in the 2003 shots that are next. Also, the building is a little to the left of the KFC, between Temple and Silver Lake streets. Google now lists that as 338 N Virgil.

If you look at the old image, you can see there is a street on each side of the cafe, so it is on a very short block on Virgil. The spot where the bank (or whatrver it is) seems to fit that placement.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussio...php?11,2891376

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

"10, Lincoln Park trolley 1235"



ebay

Not sure exactly what street corner this is. Interesting streamline modern building on the right, next to Aunt Bea.---->

__

(incorrect guess and picture deleted)

HossC found the misplaced 10 car at: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=25554