noirish Los Angeles

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Beaudry

Anyone recognize this place?



It's terribly familiar and I seem to thing it was up around New High Street or thereabouts. (I think there was a post a couple years ago and we talked about how it used to have a more prominent tower?)

Thanks in advance!

It used to have three towers! That's the 1887 Clinton Block aka Sunset Hotel at the NWC of North Spring and Ord.

Here it is, de-towered (above the pedestrian's head), looking west on Ord in 1948:



2001-0410 at CA State Library



This image is dated c. 1935; the Clinton Block is north across Ord, beyond the vacant lot. The building's distinctive corner is
at the right edge:



00067304 @ LA Public Library



Here's a c. 1920 view showing two of the towers (note "Sunset Hotel" atop west wall above Wrigley's ad):



CHS-6378 @ USC Digital Library



The Clinton Block is on the left in this undated photo looking NE -- we finally see all three towers:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

cracked glass slide

found on an old cd of mine

The Sunset/Hill Hotel and the San Fernando Hotel and points beyond...including a bridge.
__

Here we're looking SE at it in probably late 1887:



Denver Public Library



It was still hanging on as a one-story building in February 2023!

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by riichkay

A familiar intersection, Sunset Bl. at Highland Ave. looking east....undated but I found a reference to the Datsun "How's this for openers?" campaign in the spring of '72, and I believe that's a yellow Ford Pinto facing us, the Pinto debuted in Sept. '71.....so we are in that time frame....
[...]
_________________________________________________________________

I don't remember the Texaco station nor that "Riviera Motel" at 6757 Sunset Blvd. there, either. Especially something that looked like this:

Card Cow

Last fall, it was announced that this was going to be built on that corner:





More info here:
https://la.urbanize.city/post/develo...hland-site-44m

[Martin Pal]

I don't recall mentioning this.

The often mentioned area of Sunset Blvd. and Crescent heights, where the Lytton Bank was located and before that the Garden of Allah, now pretty much looks like this:



It was all leveled to make way for the 8150 Sunset Blvd. Project, a Frank Gehry designed building. That design was subsequently scrapped. A new design was to be constructed. Apparently as of this year:

8150 Sunset Blvd Project is a Bust – Lot Once Home to Garden of Allah is for Sale

It appears the 8150 Sunset Blvd Project is a bust. The lot located on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights is back on the market. A listing for the land that was once home to The Garden of Allah and the recently destroyed Lytton Savings Bank Building is appearing in multiple websites advertising the sale of the 2.5-acre property.

https://wehotimes.com/8150-sunset-bl...h-is-for-sale/

True or not I don't know, but a commenter wrote: Townscape is known for bait and switch. They had multiple iterations of projects for this land, but within the development community, it was well known they never planned to build anything here. They wanted to clear the land and then sell it.

A new iteration of the Garden of Allah should be built.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

A new iteration of the Garden of Allah should be built.

With a model of the Lytton Bank in reception to bring things full circle.

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

It used to have three towers! That's the 1887 Clinton Block aka Sunset Hotel at the NWC of North Spring and Ord.

Here it is, de-towered (above the pedestrian's head), looking west on Ord in 1948:

Yes yes yes! Thank you so much.

[ethereal_reality]

.
Here are a couple of interesting amateur snapshots currently on eBay.


Here's the one I happened upon first. Luckily, the seller provides clues in the description.

"OLD PHOTOGRAPH CARS YARROW'S HOUSE MAYHEW HOLLYWOOD LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA PHOTO."


eBay

Does anyone recognize the area? ....(if I were to guess I'd say Silverlake)




The second snapshot clarifies what the seller meant by "Mayhew" ..(it's handwritten below the photograph)

"VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPH YARROW'S HOUSE MAYHEW HOLLYWOOD LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA PHOTO."


eBay

But no street number.






Well, actually there are street number but they're too small (and far away) to read



. . .even if you squint.

.

[Noir Lady]

Could it be 1407/08 Maltman Avenue, Los Angeles?

[Noir_Noir]

Nice tip-off Noir Lady. The chief detective will be pleased.



rescarta.lapl.org


"Lloyd R. Yarrow and Bert Massey, incoming and outgoing chief liquor control officers, Los Angeles, 1935"


digital.library.ucla.edu


1407-1409 Maltman Ave.


GSV

[Noir Lady]

Thank you, Noir__Noir for filling in all the details.

[odinthor]

This of Yarrow and Massey turns out to be much more Noirish than one might have expected. The details are too byzantine and lengthy for me to reproduce or even summarize here; but it involves corruption, manipulation of liquor licenses, the State Board of Equalization, phone calls with disguised voices, a secretary with chutzpah and a little red book and a little maroon book, a man named Parrot, and indeed a host of colorful characters male and female.

Here are just three little items which caught my fancy, the first one being a bit of background on Massey:


LA Times, 7/8/1923


LA Times, 7/24/1935

The proceedings of the inquiry seem to have been made for a noir film. This detail of the testimony made me chuckle:


LA Times 6/23/1936

You'll be pleased that Yarrow was clean, but due to regulations he could not serve longer than the unexpired term of the person he replaced, Massey, and so had to step down from his position (and returned to his old job).

[Hollywood Graham]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
Here are a couple of interesting amateur snapshots currently on eBay.


Here's the one I happened upon first. Luckily, the seller provides clues in the description.

"OLD PHOTOGRAPH CARS YARROW'S HOUSE MAYHEW HOLLYWOOD LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA PHOTO."


eBay

Does anyone recognize the area? ....(if I were to guess I'd say Silverlake)




The second snapshot clarifies what the seller meant by "Mayhew" ..(it's handwritten below the photograph)

"VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPH YARROW'S HOUSE MAYHEW HOLLYWOOD LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA PHOTO."


eBay

But no street number.






Well, actually there are street number but they're too small (and far away) to read



. . .even if you squint.

.

If that is Maltman then the 2 story building on the right is probably the old Micheltorena St School torn down in 1935 because of damage from Long Beach earthquake. It was rebuilt..

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

A new iteration of the Garden of Allah should be built.
_________________________________________________________________

Originally Posted by HossC

With a model of the Lytton Bank in reception to bring things full circle.
_________________________________________________________________

HossC! LOL!

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by Hollywood Graham

If that is Maltman then the 2 story building on the right is probably the old Micheltorena St School torn down in 1935 because of damage from Long Beach earthquake. It was rebuilt..

I played with the Topaz "AI Based" image sharpener and it looks like the street number on the left hand door was one four something seven something. FWIW.

Cheers,

Earl

[Noir Lady]

I believe there are letters after the numbers i.e. 1407A and 1407B to designate separate duplexes

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by Noir Lady

I believe there are letters after the numbers i.e. 1407A and 1407B to designate separate duplexes

I agree.

Cheers,

Earl

[ethereal_reality]

.

Here's yet another photograph from the 'Yarrow' photo-album.



Link..eBay


As you can see it says, "Crestmont from Maltman Ave."


For quick comparison here's the similar photograph I posted the day before yesterday.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

eBay

In historical terms it's too bad the seller isn't selling the photo album intact instead of selling everything piecemail.

.

[Engineeral]

Another cover from the Pacific Electric employees' magazine, from May, 1946. A lot of the roads are basically unchanged. The magazine described the cover image as: COVER PICTURE—Portion of the beautiful Hollywood Parkway through Cahuenga Pass. Pacific Electric's double-tracked rail line in the center of the divided highway increases by many times the efficiency of the parkway for transportation purposes. Source is Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/pe-mag-1946-05-may


A view from Google Earth (date not available there) shows many similarities to the magazine image:

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

It used to have three towers! That's the 1887 Clinton Block aka Sunset Hotel at the NWC of North Spring and Ord.

Here it is, de-towered (above the pedestrian's head), looking west on Ord in 1948:



2001-0410 at CA State Library

That would mean the building at the right is Philippe The Original or at least part of it now. Some of the brickwork at the top is gone but the window looks the same. At first I thought the partially hidden sign in the old photo was the start of "Hot Sandwiches" Now I think it is the start of a hotel sign. The way the space upstairs at Philippe is divided seems like it could have been a hotel in the past.
Add edit: Philippe didn't move to the current location until 1951, three years after the old photo was taken.

GSV

[ethereal_reality]

.
And, sadly, here's the old Sunset Hotel (formerly Clinton Block) as seen from the middle of the intersection.


GSV

It should be a crime to treat a once dignified building this way.

If there's a basement I'd like to rummage around in it.


Of course it was already past it's prime in Beaudry's painting.



It's none of my business but did you buy this painting, Beaudry?

.



.

[odinthor]

Just for the record, here's the Clinton Block on the 1909 Birdseye map.



--which reminds me of an old question: The Birdseye map was copyrighted in 1909 . . . but can we determine when it was actually sketched? Are there buildings of 1909 which aren't on the map? 1908? 1907?



For anyone who needs a link to this very useful map:

https://www.loc.gov/item/2005632465/