I've been enjoying Noirish LA for some time, and now it's time for me to contribute! So I thought I'd start with an original family photo I hope you will all enjoy.
My maternal great-grandparents Jose Maria Alvarado and Maria de Jesus Garcia de Alvarado were married in San Diego in 1895 and then moved from Ensenada to Los Angeles in 1899. Their first home here was on Bellevue and North Broadway in a house
already documented in this forum by MichaelRyerson. My process in finding and identifying this house is
documented on my family history blog.
The family's Los Angeles addresses are as follow:
- 1900: 414 Bellevue Avenue (later Sunset, later Cesar Chavez) at North Broadway
- 1905: 238 Myers
- 1906: 1606 Bridge
- 1907: 717 Bailey apparently until purchasing land in Lankershim
- 1916: 10939 Fourth Street, Lankershim (today Magnolia Ave in North Hollywood); directory reads only “4th St., Lankershim”
- 1918: 543 1/2 S. Fremont Ave. (they also kept the store in Lankershim through at least 1930)
I'll share information about other addresses later, but I'd like to start with the address at 10939 Fourth Street in Lankershim. Today this is at the corner of Magnolia Blvd. and Craner St. in North Hollywood.
The Alvarado family lived above the store and had a rooftop garden. In the rear was a public room they rented out for weddings and other special events. Standing in front of the store is my great-grandmother Jesus Alvarado. From the look of her dress this photo appears to be taken in the 1920s; my great-grandfather Jose Maria died in 1920, so this may have been during the time Jesus was running the store alone. The dog's name was Jack.
You can see the adjacent address is 10941 and at least in the original I can even read the labels of some of the cans in the window.
Anyone have anything interesting to share about this area of Lankershim at the time?