So the other day I picked up this snap, penciled on the back "SW Corner 1st & B'way Aug 15 1926"...
...there's a bit of the Yosemite Hotel (Rhodes & Ruddock Block/Yosemite Block/LA Stock Exchange) at far left, and then the Hough Block (111-109, with Rowan signage), and 107-101 Broadway make up the center of image at corner, and up First there's the low facade of the Southwest Printer's Supply Bldg and side of the Lora Hotel.
Near-identical shot, little earlier at 1920, resides in the LAPL --
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And then the buildings begin to
morph...
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Note how 105-107 has been modernized in this 1939 image. The zigzag pediment almost looks like folded-plate! Streamline chop suey neon on the Chinese herb place...around the corner from police central, one has to picture disillusioned flatfoots cogitating over cases cold as their noodles. But I noirishly digress...
I was most familiar with this corner from the Hylen image (from 1950 I'd say, judging by the billboard), looking up B'way across First toward the lot where the
Tajo used to be and toward the Law Building...
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...where the buildings have been terrifically updated, more bay window removal and parapet changes...the Hotel Yosemite at 113-119 from the top image is a parking lot...and their modernization (modern? now it looks less like folded-plate and more like a crenellated battlement) didn't prevent the inevitable.
In 1956-7 the entire block bounded by 1st, B'way, 2nd and Hill (in the above image, if you turn the camera a bit to your left, you'd see
this) was leveled to build the California State Bldg:
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...which we now know as a big pit:
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Which may or may not become
this.