Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
 It's little tidbits like this that really bring these vintage photograph alive.
Thanks MR |
Looking northeast from 5th and Flower Streets, ca.1955
View of the northeast corner of 5th and Flower Streets in about 1955 (purely a guess, no archived date). Mama Maru's coffee stand/hamburger/hotdog joint (at right, near the Sunkist) and a RentaCar lot has taken over the old Julian Service Station property. The western flank of Bunker Hill has been shaved away and the Castle Tower Apartments are gone. At right is the Sunkist Building and then, going to the left, are the rear of several brick apartment buildings on Hope Street, the darkly foreboding Touraine (447 Hope) is next to the Sunkist, an open space wherein is hidden the little Sons of the Revolution Building/Library, then the somewhat smaller but no less dark Santa Barbara Apartments (433 Hope), the Wentworth (formerly the Rubaiyat)(427 Hope) with the unusual stepped side façade, and then to the left of the sizable eucalyptus is the white Barbara Worth Apartments (formerly the Briggs)(407 Hope). We would expect to see, snuggled down behind the Barbara Worth, at the left edge, the Castle Tower Apartments but they are missing here. More's the pity. We can see a small horizontal porch of the contemporary Stuart K. Oliver house and beyond it a small, white multi-family building.
Huntington Digital Library, Palmer Conner Collection of Color Slides of Los Angeles, 1950 - 1970
"It was built in 1935 as a monument to Southern California's citrus industry. But like the orange groves it celebrated, the eight-story Sunkist Building was destined to disappear when it could no longer withstand the economics of redevelopment.
The building's dazzling white facade was a familiar sight at the corner of 5th and Hope streets. Its jutting wings formed a U, and the building was topped by palm-decked roof gardens. Nearby stood offices of the Richfield Co., the Central Library and the Southern California Edison Co.
It was one of the first earthquake-resistant buildings in Southern California. Construction costs? A princely $365,000. The land, which cost an additional $117,000, was a real Depression-era bargain.
There was no mistaking who owned the building: a tower bore the word "Sunkist." The facade was accented with stylized relief figures.
Architect Robert Field, the building's designer, called his creation "one of the early stylistic contemporary structures in the United States."
Right next door, almost lost in the shadow of the looming building, sat Mama Maru's coffee stand at 5th Street near Flower Street. Francis Wilcox, Sunkist general manager and chief executive officer from 1957 to 1965, would arrive at work about 6 every morning, walk next door to Mama Maru's and help the tiny owner set up the tables and umbrellas while his coffee was brewing. At his retirement party, Sunkist employees created a likeness of the coffee stand and invited Mama Maru to the celebration."
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-03-22/local/me-13983_1_sunkist-growers
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