noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Dept of OCD & Insomnia Studies. lol GW

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Well, guys, I think that the building in question is the smaller of the the Dept of Health Services buildings--at 241 N Figueroa.

Thanks for figuring this out. 100% proven by your map with the straight line and circles.

Here's the original slide, in its entirety, one last time.



I have a question.




Ha. Ha. actually I don't....FOR ONCE.

[ethereal_reality]

re: Old Zoo / New Zoo

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

It's actually only 3,826 feet away - a distance of barely 7/10ths of a mile.

I'm still surprised by the distance. I honestly thought the ruins were somewhere between Andys' driving range and the western border of the present-day zoo.

...by the way, great map Scott Charles.






Okay...now I have a question.

What is this track at the old zoo site? If you look closely it is surrounded, on both inside & outside, by tall fences.


Frasher collection/old L.A. Zoo 1940s?

Is this where they exercised the animals? Do you think the track shows up in any old aerials?
___



I couldn't help but notice this nice looking house, with full porch and fireplace, that pratically sits on top of the faux-clifts (and cages).


detail

I wonder if this was the zoo-keeper's house

__

[mr. rollers]

I've never seen that photo before - good find! What looks like a track is I believe, the walking path for visitors. The foundations and parts of the chimney of that house are still there and easily found.

foundations by mr. rollers, on Flickr

Hi all, I'm the guy who took the color photos of the old zoo (originally posted a page or so back above) back in the 80s when the zoo was first re-opened to the public. Glad you found and shared them! They were taken with an Olympus Stylus point & shoot 35mm camera, so naturally there is no exif or GPS data (only that from the flatbed scanner used to scan the prints).

As you can see, it was pretty overgrown and dilapidated back then. A lot was subsequently changed - a lot of the old buildings were torn down - so it's hard to recognize the exact locations. A new restroom building was also put up across from the stone cages.

The fire of 2007 burned right up to the old zoo, but as far as I'm aware, didn't damage or destroy any existing structures.

There's also a fascinating film on Vimeo called "The Cal Arts Story" (well worth a watch on its own) that contains a scene about 7:25 in that I'm pretty sure was shot at the old zoo.

https://vimeo.com/11955096

[ethereal_reality]

It's so great to hear from you Mr. Rollers!
I wish I had had the forethought to take similar photographs back in the 1980s. [the decade I lived in L.A.]

I am also glad that you don't mind sharing your photographs.
Please stick around [the thread]. You will be a valuable voice ....and I imagine you have more photographs we all would like to see and discuss.

_

[Andys]

If you Google "old LA zoo images' you'll find lots of interesting photos.

Andys

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

This location continues to vex me. Granted, I'm not all that familiar with the area around the Old Zoo (I've only been there a handful of times), but I really can't recall any similar looking building in the area.

By the way, if you go to that Flickr link above, there is another photo taken just to the right of the second photo. You can merge them together to make a mock-panorama:



So now we see that there is another building to the right. That building does not appear to be the same building that is still standing, so I think we now might have a second mystery building.

PS: the photographer's photos do have EXIF data, but sadly, GPS coordinates are not included.

I went to the zoo quite often as a child. I have pictures at home of the zoo when there were animals in it. As to the small building, I think that it was a restroom. The windows are high on the walls and there appears to be a drinking fountain on the outside wall which would indicate that there was plumbing to the building. I have vague recollections of the restrooms at the zoo looking like that.

[GaylordWilshire]

?IS IT?


ANYWAY,

More on the Department of Health Services buildings...

It seems that ER's recent mystery building wasn't being built new, but was rather being remodeled in conjunction with the new 12-story building to its north...



LAT March 21. 1965/Apr 25, 1965



LAT June 2, 1966


The remodeled building is seen here to the left of the new building:

USCDL

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

At least you're beating something GW. It's been a slow day on NLA.


also...it's a bit disappointing to find out our zoo 'mystery' building was a bathroom.

It's just been one of those days.

[mr. rollers]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

It's so great to hear from you Mr. Rollers!
I wish I had had the forethought to take similar photographs back in the 1980s. [the decade I lived in L.A.]

I am also glad that you don't mind sharing your photographs.
Please stick around [the thread]. You will be a valuable voice ....and I imagine you have more photographs we all would like to see and discuss.

_

All the best stuff I have is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-rol...57623284135719, but just the five old ones, unfortunately.

I can't remember exactly how we found ourselves at the Old Zoo that day - maybe I had heard it had been recently re-opened to the public after having been fenced off for many years, although obviously, a lot of folks had snuck in during that time. At least I had a camera with me, but I think the five shots I took were the end of the roll, and for unknown reasons I didn't return to shoot more photos until years later.

I went through the Old Zoo today while out riding my bike through Griffith Park, and from looking at things I'm beginning to suspect that the building in the upper right of the "panorama" might be the "zookeeper's house", taken from the opposite angle to the postcard.

[HossC]

While I was looking for pictures of Health Department buildings, my search turned up this photo. There's no info with this image, but a slightly tighter-framed one has the caption, "The National Health Plan building at 3143 on an unknown street. Perhaps at one time the building was used as a bank."


LAPL

A bit of digging found it at 3143 Wilshire Boulevard in the 1960 and 1961 CDs. The Walker & Eisen designed building was home to several banks, both before and after the National Health Plan, but was originally built as the Seaboard National Bank.


Detail of image in USC Digital Library

You can read more about this corner on GW's Wilshire Boulevard Houses blog.

[GaylordWilshire]

The Seaboard Bank started out across the street in the Busch Building, moving to 3143 in 1932--taking along its huge rooftop sign....


More in my roundup of the buildings of the first wave of Wilshire's commercial era...which you can see here.

[ethereal_reality]

An ebay seller is/was selling her father's slides from when he was stationed at Fort Pendleton in 1950-53
[althought I noticed some slide are 1956...but they're not in this group]. She says "He would often go to Hollywood while on leave."

Perhaps by happenstance, or planned, he was at Grauman's Chinese Theater when actress Mona Freeman (who?) placed her hands and footprints in the cement.


ebay





ebay





ebay






ebay















Looks like it was a glorious day for Mona. (who?)

__

[ethereal_reality]

If I remember correctly, this snapshot was taken in Pasadena.

REPEAT

I think the guy in the back is hamming it up quite a bit.


_

[ethereal_reality]

"Three lovely ladies have their picture taken in an unnamed cafe located in South Central Los Angeles." [1940s?]


found in an old file of mine

I would love to know more about this photograph... but I'm afraid the clues are few and far between.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

If I remember correctly, this snapshot was taken in Pasadena.



The guy in the back was mentioned as having lots of 'girlfriends'.


_

We've seen this before. The boy on the back was good with gears and shafts, he was also known as Deep Socket Davey

[robeach11]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

I've added a red arrow to Hoss's image indicating the smaller health services building, which I think is the one under construction in ER's original image...



Dept of OCD & Insomnia Studies

Well, guys, I think that the building in question is the smaller of the the Dept of Health Services buildings--at 241 N Figueroa...

Here's a line from its west edge past the west edge of the Union Bank bldg directly to Coldwell Banker, with Signal Oil at right...




View of the front of 241 S Fig, with an aerial with the possible corresponding ventilator circled. The building seems to have been under construction in 1972 rather than 1969...

241 N. Figueroa- same address as Anna May Wong's home...

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

It's located in Venice at Speedway and Thornton Avenue.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/383105...n/photostream/


'doglord' took this photo from Thornton Avenue, showing a second entrance that's below-grade.


http://dogtownink.com/21/thornton-towers-historic/


I've been trying to find a vintage photograph of it, and some further information.

__

It's been 40 months since your post, e_r, but I just stumbled across an early photo of 16 Thornton:



January 4, 1913, Los Angeles Herald @ CDNC

Originally Posted by tovangar2

I'd love to see a photo of Thornton Towers when it still had its wrought iron stair rail and before it got heavily Art Deco-ized. I imagine it looked lighter and prettier.

I'd say you were right, t2!

[BillinGlendaleCA]

Originally Posted by mr. rollers

All the best stuff I have is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-rol...57623284135719, but just the five old ones, unfortunately.

I can't remember exactly how we found ourselves at the Old Zoo that day - maybe I had heard it had been recently re-opened to the public after having been fenced off for many years, although obviously, a lot of folks had snuck in during that time. At least I had a camera with me, but I think the five shots I took were the end of the roll, and for unknown reasons I didn't return to shoot more photos until years later.

I went through the Old Zoo today while out riding my bike through Griffith Park, and from looking at things I'm beginning to suspect that the building in the upper right of the "panorama" might be the "zookeeper's house", taken from the opposite angle to the postcard.

I was all ready with a post to prove it was by the entrance...I guess I'll have to go back to the old zoo tomorrow. The one reason I think the building to the right in the panorama isn't the zookeeper's, is that I don't see a road in front of it, but it could have been obscured by plants.

[ethereal_reality]

originally posted by Gaylordwilshire

Originally Posted by robeach11

241 N. Figueroa- same address as Anna May Wong's home...

Wow....I wasn't expecting that nifty detail! Thanks for connecting the two addresses robeach11.

Here is her father's laundry business at the same address.

I can't remember if we have seen this on NLA. Oh well...here it is anyway.



from ladailymirror

alcetron
LAPL

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

It's been 40 months since your post, e_r, but I just stumbled across an early photo of 16 Thornton:



January 4, 1913, Los Angeles Herald @ CDNC

Fantastic find Flyingwedge!! u da man.