from
http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal10a.html -- this is a fascinating postcard because
it bears no relation to reality. Most postcards don't; and that's ok. But taking "artistic license" and putting it on a
corner? Puh-
leeeze. Gratuitous fanciful rooftop signage is a hallmark of early hotel postcards but -- placing it on a corner, was that supposed to entice out-of-town rubes to whom the card was sent? In any event, there was in fact an alley to the south of the Seminole. That the postcard makes it look like a street we'll chalk up to Angeleno boosterism.
Guess who built the Seminole? R. B. Young & Son, who built the Young Apts I wrote about earlier today. It opens in the spring of 1911. 72 apartments of two and three rooms each, and 12 single rooms. The exterior was of red pressed brick and marble trimmings. The Orenas being the wealthy Spanish family who owned the block.
What's most notable in your eBay image
e_r is that they've added the large Franco-Renaissance northern addition to the Seminole
(yep, all one structure according to atlases of the times). I further drool over the cast iron & glass marquis.
ebay
Now go back (scroll up) to that image and look at that lone house at 630 S Flower. The houses next to it have had their driveways laid out, but they're still empty lots. By the car I'd guess this to be about...1915? I'm no car expert. But I think I'm about right. And the reason those plots are empty? Our current economic sitch is nothing compared to the Panic of 1910, much less the Recession of 1913-14, where business and trade activity dropped 20-25%. Lest we forget the insane downturn of 1918-19 due to the postwar unemployment jazz. (Never ceases to amuse that people think that whatever's happening
now is somehow the a) first and b) worst it has or ever will happen...) In any event, empty plots with driveways. Telling. I still can't believe I don't own this image. I always marry the inquisitive to the acquisitive. So sue me.
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