Quote:
Originally Posted by GatoVerde
French Consulate building at 445 East Aliso Street, undated from LAPL
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061650.jpg
I'm having trouble figuring where this building actually stood. By its address it would seem that it should have been on the south side of Aliso near the corner of Alameda, but I'm not sure. I have also panned through resources and could night find any other definitive images, or any reference to this location online.
I thought maybe the French quarter might have been discussed or perhaps someone here knows something about the history pertaining to this building, and to the French quarter in general.
Thanks.
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Hi
Green Cat!
I believe that building is shown below as 447 Aliso, with LODGINGS written on it, just above the street name ALISO.
On the map the building has a porch all around, and in the photo -- based on what's between the first and second
floors -- the building looks like it might have had a porch removed:
1906 Sanborn Map @ LAPL
It looks like by 1921, the building was renumbered to 451:
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/19410/Plate+004/
Anyway, I went back as far as the first LA City Directory (1872), but did not find 445 Aliso (or any address on
Aliso) as the location of the French Consul. However, the first French Consul, Jacob Moerenhout (or Morenhaut,
or a few other variables), who served from 1859-1879, may have lived there prior to 1872.
Don Louis Sainsevain, a prominent member of the French community in Los Angeles, and the Sainsevain Winery
were across the street from 445 Aliso (the view out the front of 445 would have been right at El Aliso), so I
would not be surprised if the French consul once lived there.
History of the French Community in Los Angeles:
https://web.archive.org/web/20060811...id_article=304
Jacob Moerenhout in the 1872 LA City Directory (right-hand column, about halfway down):
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb....melton/la8.jpg
Jacob Moerenhout's 1859 arrival in LA as recounted . . .
[a] in the November 5, 1859
Los Angeles Star (pg. 2, col. 2, below the notice about the death of Don Juan Bandini):
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...9coll68/id/267
and [b] in Harris Newmark's
Sixty Years in Southern California:
https://archive.org/stream/sixtyyear...e/254/mode/2up
2021 Update: This building, numbered 447 Aliso, was also an early home of the USC College of Medicine. A drawing
of the building is in the
1891-92 USC Yearbook (at the link, go back one page to see the address).