This Seaver Center photo is currently undated and titled "Los Angeles Business Building." However, there are two clues that
tell us this is a c. 1908 photo of 500-506 W. Temple and The Nesta aka the Nesta Hotel (the hotel entrance is at the far right):
SCWHR-P-005-N0243 at
Seaver Center
Clue #1: The building at the left edge of the photo is the Beth Israel Synagogue at 227 N. Olive:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beaudry
The cornerstone is laid July 1901, and is formally dedicated, with a march and speech from Mayor Snyder, March 1902.
( Here is a photo of a wedding inside the Beth Israel in 1909.)
Now as for Bunker Hill's Beth Israel (AKA the Olive St Shul) it is, according to one of the sites I referenced here, "used until 1940."
( lapl )
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Clue #2: If you look closely at the center of The Nesta in the Seaver Center photo, just to the right of the "For Rent" sign, you
can see "Sharp's Delicacies" on the glass. Flora Sharp and her delicacies were at 502 Temple only in the 1908 LA City Directory:
ProQuest via
LAPL
The Nesta was built in 1906-07 and first appears in the 1908 LA City Directory:
September 30, 1906,
LA Times @ ProQuest via LAPL
Building Permit listed in the November 4, 1906,
LA Times @ ProQuest via LAPL
1908 LACD @ fold3.com
Here's The Nesta on the 1909 Birds Eye View map of Los Angeles:
Library of Congress
When Temple Street was widened, The Nesta lost 10 feet off its front. This is the November 12, 1931, BP for the work:
LABDS
The building seems to always have been either The Nesta or the Nesta Hotel:
1942 LACD @
LAPL
The Nesta Hotel is on the 1950 Sanborn, marked VAC for vacant:
ProQuest via LAPL
By December 6, 1950, when this photo was taken, the Nesta Hotel was gone (the dot marks the SW corner of Temple and Olive):
00109975 @
LAPL
Today, Olive no longer intersects with Temple; it stops at
1st Street.