noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A group of well dressed people standing near a sign that says Paloma Street & E. 37th Street.

Los Angeles, circa 1915.



One thing that caught my eye was that the street sign doesn't appear to be on a corner. -seems a little odd.
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Paloma seems a unusually narrow street; perhaps it was once an alley with houses. The "E 37th ST" sign is parallel to what looks like the main street; in the modern city, Paloma and 37th don't meet. My guess would be that there was a regiggering street names/numbers at some point and that the church was on some other Paloma corner originally. Maybe someone can dig up a vintage map of the area.


EDIT-- Per George Garrigues, it turns out that, somehow, 40th Place east of San Pedro St was once East 37th St...so it looks like the church in the vintage shot may have been on the site of the New Life Baptist Church on the northeast corner of Paloma and East 40th Place....


GSV

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck

1937 - Sewage treatment construction in El Segundo. Source indicates this was part of an experiment underwritten by the Fed Govt.
http://www.sewerhistory.org/images/w...0s_workers.jpg

The source has misidentified that wonderful photo. It's actually a 1935-36 photo looking west at storm drain construction near Rodeo and La Cienega just north of Baldwin Hills.
Not only is the familiar northern prow of the Baldwin Hills visible at left, but part of what is now the Culver Studios can also be seen.

USC has the same construction photo; it has no date but is identified as building the Slauson Avenue Storm Drain. Here's a zoom showing the studio water tank in the background,
with some sets from the adjacent "40-Acre" Backlot also visible:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/5430/rec/46

Here's a link to a USC photo identified as looking east from Monier [sic] Lane, December 26, 1935; it certainly looks like the same project (Moynier Lane will be renamed La Cienega):
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/5545/rec/58

In this 1930 south-facing aerial of the then-Pathe Studio, we see the same water tank from the construction photo. The tip of the adjoining "40-Acre" Backlot can be seen at top center:

Hollywood Photographs.com -- http://hollywoodphotographs.com/deta...&c=-1&i=1&r=24

The "40-Acre Backlot, May 1938:

Retroweb.com -- http://www.retroweb.com/40acres_early_years.html

The semi-triangular backlot was bounded on the north by Higuera and on the south by Ballona Creek:

Google Map

I don't know if the purple line on the Storm Drain Map below is part of the Slauson Avenue Relief Drain, but I think that's what is shown in the construction photo, which looks
straight toward the backlot and studio:

LA County Dept of Public Works -- http://dpw.lacounty.gov/fcd/stormdrain/index.cfm

# # #

As for the sewer, in 1888 Los Angeles proposed routing it along today's Expo Line (see RR tracks along Jefferson in Google Map above) and then dumping it in Ballona Creek:

June 28, 1888 Los Angeles Times

Those living downstream understandably objected, so the plan was changed to build a bridge for the sewer pipe over Ballona Creek and then route the sewer cross-country to the ocean.
But an 1889 proposal was inordinately favorable to one of the property owners whose land the sewer was to cross: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=2

The sewer went to Hyperion in 1894 instead, and Mayor Hazard was remembered for stopping the Ballona sewer route:

November 3, 1896 LA Herald @ LOC -- http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...o_2805%2C2552/

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Pacific Linen Supply Company, Vernon CA

I'm hoping the 'dome' survived, and is hidden among some obscure industrial buildings. But the only address I could find
for the Pacific Linen Supply Co., in that era, is 907 E. 8th Street (from the 1942 Los Angeles City Directory),
but that isn't exactly Vernon.

There's an interesting LA Times article about the Wallace Neff bubble houses which also mentions one in South Pasadena that was funded by Thomas Ince's widow, Elinor.

Working from the 907 E. 8th Street address, I looked on Historic Aerials. There's a large circular building near that location in 1948 and 1952:

1948



1952


Both from Historic Aerials

Google Books has pages from "No Nails, No Lumber: The Bubble Houses of Wallace Neff" By Jeffrey Head. Here are three of the pages relating to the Pacific Linen Supply Co. (e_r - don't read the last paragraph ):






All from books.google.com

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

The source has misidentified that photo. It's actually a 1935-36 photo looking west at storm drain construction near Rodeo and La Cienega just north of Baldwin Hills.
Not only is the familiar northern prow of the Baldwin Hills visible at left, but part of what is now the Culver Studios can also be seen.

USC has the same construction photo; it has no date but is identified as building the Slauson Avenue Storm Drain. Here's a zoom showing the studio water tank in the background,
with some sets from the adjacent "40-Acre" Backlot also visible:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/5430/rec/46

Thanks for pursuing this further. The background certainly seemed misplaced.



More Slauson '35 project

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/5545/rec/108



The "Slauson" project was an immense undertaking. Unless it was a WPA means of creating employment opportunities, one has to wonder whether heavy earthmoving equipment wasn't available. For all I know there were plenty of other public works projects that had an equal or greater need for heavy equipment, e.g., Hoover Dam.

The original source for my post states:

Hundreds of workers moving sand behind the old Hyperion screening plant, circa 1937, in preparation for a new sewage treatment plant planned by then City Engineer Lloyd Aldrich. Despite a $7 million grant from the federal government, only an experimental plant to handle a small amount of sewage was started and apparently was never actually placed in operation. http://www.sewerhistory.org/grfx/trtmnt/trtmnt1.htm

Were hundreds of workers employed for the Hyperion screening plant too? Would expect that project would have also been documented and newsworthy.




1936 - North Outflow Repairs - http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si.../id/4929/rec/8





Undated, address unknown





1947 Sewer outflow pipe
http://dlproj.library.ucla.edu/deriv...0330244a_j.jpg

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

The Millar Block was completed in early 1886.

Here's one of the best shots of the Millar Block dated February 24, 1952

Indiana University Archives -- http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cush...se&pnum=P05738

Flyingwedge, I believe I've spotted the Millar Block in this rppc. pan right--->
ebay

-notice the small building at lower left with the huge Beverly advertisement on it's side wall. I wonder what was built on that empty lot next door?

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[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Paloma seems a unusually narrow street; perhaps it was once an alley with houses. The "E 37th ST" sign is parallel to what looks like the main street; in the modern city, Paloma and 37th don't meet. My guess would be that there was a regiggering street names/numbers at some point and that the church was on some other Paloma corner originally. Maybe someone can dig up a vintage map of the area.


EDIT-- Per George Garrigues, it turns out that, somehow, 40th Place east of San Pedro St was once East 37th St...so it looks like the church in the vintage shot may have been on the site of the New Life Baptist Church on the northeast corner of Paloma and East 40th Place....

Thanks GW for figuring out my vintage photograph.
I've had the photograph in my file for quite awhile, but didn't post it because I could never make Paloma Street meet up with 37th Street.

Now I know.
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[HossC]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Paloma seems a unusually narrow street; perhaps it was once an alley with houses. The "E 37th ST" sign is parallel to what looks like the main street; in the modern city, Paloma and 37th don't meet. My guess would be that there was a regiggering street names/numbers at some point and that the church was on some other Paloma corner originally. Maybe someone can dig up a vintage map of the area.


EDIT-- Per George Garrigues, it turns out that, somehow, 40th Place east of San Pedro St was once East 37th St...so it looks like the church in the vintage shot may have been on the site of the New Life Baptist Church on the northeast corner of Paloma and East 40th Place....

Here's the 1921 Baist map showing 37th Street where you'll now find E 40th Place. The road immediately north is Santa Barbara Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.). In 1921 it ended at Griffith Avenue, but now contines east across Paloma Street. Incidentally, on the 1914 Baist map Paloma Street is called Ladner Street.


www.historicmapworks.com

[ethereal_reality]

So Neff's dome was on E. 8th Street after all! Thanks HossC



It appears much larger than I expected.
I believe the long building to it's immediate left is still there.
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[Krell58]

I just saw over the weekend that the movie "Cry Danger" is coming out on DVD in April. I've already pre-ordered a copy of it.

Anybody remember when Beaver Cleaver was singing a song about Zamboanga on an episode of "Leave It To Beaver?

The episode was Lonesome Beaver. The song was on many other movies and TV shows.

Here's a link to the song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mo...s_in_Zamboanga

[ethereal_reality]

Here's a great graphic.


ebay
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[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Flyingwedge, I believe I've spotted the Millar Block in this rppc. pan right--->
ebay

-notice the small building at lower left with the huge Beverly advertisement on it's side wall. I wonder what was built on that empty lot next door?

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Good eye, er! And nice trapezoid, too. But what's an RPPC? And when was that panoramic photo taken?

Anyway, from what I can tell, that empty lot has been mostly empty since 1932.

The SW corner of 2nd and Spring had been the site of the Hollenbeck Hotel:

November 5, 1931 Los Angeles Times

Prior Hollenbeck:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=3904
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2632

Looking north on Spring Street, June 1934. The SW corner of Spring and 2nd was still a parking lot (that's the old Bryson Bldg being torn down across the street, with the LA Times Bldg
going up behind the Bryson):

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/91430/rec/12

According to the 6th paragraph below ("Among the latest to go . . ."), the site briefly was home to a temporary post office in the late 1930s, but then reverted to parking:


March 29, 1940 Los Angeles Times

Looking north on Spring Street, 1939, showing the temporary white post office building on the SW corner of Spring and 2nd:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/22300/rec/27

SW corner of 2nd and Spring on 1950 Sanborn Map; those walls around the lot were 16 feet high:

LAPL

Looking at 2nd (top to bottom) and Spring (left to right), 1964. The SW corner is partially obscured, but it's mostly a parking lot, although I think I see the top edge of a Standard service station
sign just above the building on the SE corner:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...d/71307/rec/26 (3rd photo from bottom)

You've probably guessed by now what the corner looks like today:

GSV

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A group of well dressed people standing near a sign that says Paloma Street & E. 37th Street.


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LAT Sept 24, 1921

"S Park Ave" is now Avalon Blvd--the full name on old maps is "South Park Ave," referring to the actual South Park at 50th St seen here before (the actual green space in post #2869, the LARy South Park shops in others etc). This was before the name "South Park" was swiped by developers for an area closer to downtown.

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's the 1921 Baist map showing 37th Street where you'll now find E 40th Place. The road immediately north is Santa Barbara Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.). In 1921 it ended at Griffith Avenue, but now contines east across Paloma Street. Incidentally, on the 1914 Baist map Paloma Street is called Ladner Street.

Thanks for posting the map, Hoss. A.E. Ladner appears to have been active in real estate in the area at one time.

[esotouric]

If you're in noirish Los Angeles this weekend, I hope you'll join us at Figaro on Broadway in Downtown for the free LAVA Sunday Salon, which this month has a theme that's in particular harmony with this thread.

First, Tom Sitton, Curator Emeritus of the Natural History Museum, will share a rogues gallery of early L.A. County politicians as part of a presentation on his new book, The Courthouse Crowd: Los Angeles County and its Government, 1850-1950. Then, in a joint presentation centered around the new mystery novel The Kept Girl, set in 1929 L.A., starring the young Raymond Chandler and inspired by the real Great Eleven cult murder investigation, author Kim Cooper (me!) will dig deep into the book’s true crime and literary inspirations and the process of bringing the book to press, and illustrator Paul Rogers will discuss his cover art for The Kept Girl, then move into a more freeform discussion of his often historic L.A.-themed creative process, from the germ of an idea, to photos, sketches, all the way to a complete series of prints.

After the Salon, Richard Schave leads a free walking tour on the architecture of Claud Beelman.

Next month at the Sunday Salon: regular thread contributor Nathan Marsak talks California cemetery architecture, plus Poem Noir. Join us, do!

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Good eye, er! And nice trapezoid, too. But what's an RPPC? And when was that panoramic photo taken?

FW, RPPC stands for 'real picture postcard'. It's the term sellers use.
I'm sorry to say there was no date associated with the panoramic photo.

So glad you answered my question about the empty lot (former site of the Hollenbeck Hotel).
That photograph of the temporary post office on the corner of Spring & 2nd was quite a surprise.
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[Wig-Wag]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

As it recedes off into the distance, on the left side of the street, does that building sign say "Subway Terminal?" ?

As Michael Ryerson correctly noted, that is the Pacific Electric's Subway Terminal Building.

In addition, if you look in the street behind the bus, you will note two sets of rail. A shared rail on the left supporting both the standard gauge Pacific Electric traffic (outer rail on the right) and the 42 inch gauge cars of the Los Angeles Railway (inner rail on the right). Los Angeles was unique in regard to having dual gauge streetcar trackage.

S. Hill Street, 1942

Cheers,
Jack

[ethereal_reality]

per the recent back and forth discussion of shopping elegance.

Not a lot of clutter in this 2nd floor salon at I. Magnin

ebay
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[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

As I said, one man's elegance is another man's tacky. The post of nationwide Craftsmans was obviously in reference to geography, not elegance. But compared to 1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IVs, those humble houses, sold by Sears or not, are unquestionably elegant. And I believe it's widely accepted that, campy as they are, mid-'70s Lincolns, with their very functional opera windows, absurd bulk, carburetor vs injection, 11MPG, and hideous designer editions--who can forget the hooker's dream, the "Lipstick Edition"?--were among the cars that drove Americans into German-car showrooms for functionality, quality, and...elegance.

My, my aren't we the vicious attack dog that thinks everyone else should accept your opinion. I'm not going to respond here to your nonsense because this is not the appropriate venue. However, I will say it is quite easy to tweak a big block engine with a carburetor to achieve 21-22 mpg and if geared through a six or eight speed modern transmission mileage for those cars of the 1960s through the late 1970s would easily achieve 27-30 mpg, and maybe better.

[GaylordWilshire]

Sounds practical.

Feel free to add me to your ignore list.


Meanwhile, department-store elegance downtown:

LAPL

[MartinTurnbull]

I suspect this photo may have been posted here before but I couldn't find anything when I searched.

It’s hard to believe that there was ever a bridle path along Beverly Boulevard in Beverly Hills, let alone that it was still there in the 1940s. This shot was taken in 1942. But does anyone know which stretch of Beverly Blvd this path was? And/or does anybody have a map of the entire bridle path "from mountains to sea"?

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

1601 Industrial St.




GSV

Flyingwedge, when I first saw your 'before and after' above,
I remembered seeing another C. Leonardt building on one of my jaunts on the google-mobile.


It took me awhile to find it again. Here it is:

1500 block S. Central at E. 16th Street.
GSV






GSV








detail/GSV

It's about 10 blocks southwest of 1601 Industrial Street. I'm hopeful someone can dig up some information on this building.

For reference, here's FW's original post on the Carl Leonardt.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=20424
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