noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

mystery studio 1912
ebay





details








strong man





full view/a little closer

[HossC]

Thanks for finding those pictures of the Sixteenth Street School and Engine Company No. 10, Flyingwedge.

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

2. The middle third, looking northwest. The intersection above the lower left corner of the photo is 18th and Figueroa -- there's a big jog -- where Patriotic Hall is today. The two north-south streets
that run off the bottom of the photo are Hope (left) and Grand (right). At the bottom center of the photo, we see the tip of St. Vincent's, north of Washington on Grand.

Just over 110 years later, and apart from the construction of the freeways, skyscrapers and Convention Center, and the destruction of virtually all the original buildings, not much has changed .


Google Earth

[unihikid]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

1948 self-serve.

ebay

Ok this has been bugging me for almost 20 years. Before they tore down the original outlaying buildings of Famer's Market,they had a display near Antique Alley(where i had a weekend job),and in the display they showed pictures of a "100 pump" gas station made by Gilmore...it looked like it was located near what is now Pan Pacific Park,but i couldn't find anything on it. This was around the time they were celebrating the 60th anniversary...could this be the 100 pump station?

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by FredH

A few days ago, I found this photo of a gas station from 1931. The address is listed as 211 N. Figueroa St.


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co.../17705/rec/262


I was curious as to what was at this location now, so I looked on Google Maps
(211 N. Figueroa is shown by the "A")


Google Maps


The area I outlined in red looked familiar, so I took a closer look.


Google Maps

This is the area we discussed a while back. It is on N. Freemont Avenue. The roadbed led up to Court Circle and the stairs used to go up to houses.


I took another look at the area behind the gas station on the 1931 photo.


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co.../17705/rec/262

Are these stairways, and the road behind them, the same ones that were left behind next to the 110 Freeway? The location looks pretty close.

What do you guys think?

While I don't have a picture, I drive by the area every day and currently, where the houses were and then the vacant lot outlined on your map is a giant hole and some shoring on the freeway side. They are building something big(judging from the size of the hole) It runs down that block quite a ways, along side the freeway. There is also another large structure taking shape opposite that, across Temple, next to the freeway which covers the entire block from the freeway to Figueroa. It is, according to the sign, Luxury Condos with retail spaces. The staircases, made of steel and craned in, are 4-6 stories high and are currently going nowhere above the ground level construction. Not a wonderful Victorian in sight!! The last one was bulldozed out of that area about seven years ago.

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Some of the same area was included in a 1902 Charles Pierce aerial taken from a balloon, which may have been released from at or near Chutes Park. I've enlarged and split the panoramic photo into
thirds (with some overlap), but here's the link to the whole thing at the Huntington Digital Library: http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single.../id/4229/rec/2

1. The left third, looking west. The intersection with the jog at lower left, above the signed "Pierce," is Figueroa and 23rd; the intersection above the lower right, where there's a westbound streetcar,
is Figueroa and Washington. East-West streets between 23rd and Washington, left to right, are 22nd St (stops at Fig), 21st St. (jogs at Fig), and 20th St. (stops at Fig). West of Figueroa,
between 23rd and Washington, the next five north-south streets are Lovelace, Estrella, Bonsallo, Park Grove, and Norwood (there's a large school building on the NW corner of Norwood and 21st).
South of Washington, Estrella turns into Chester Place (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2037).


On the southwest corner of Figueroa and 23rd is the home of Mrs. Michael Connell, shown here after 1910:

USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/2584/rec/20

On the east side of Figueroa, in the middle of the block between Washington and 20th Street, is the home of Mrs. E. Gardwin at 1924 S. Figueroa. It looks like there might be a garden on the lot
to its south. I like the chimney support in this c. 1900 photo:

USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/2583/rec/70

2. The middle third, looking northwest. The intersection above the lower left corner of the photo is 18th and Figueroa -- there's a big jog -- where Patriotic Hall is today. The two north-south streets
that run off the bottom of the photo are Hope (left) and Grand (right). At the bottom center of the photo, we see the tip of St. Vincent's, north of Washington on Grand.


The prominent white building with domed roof just above 18th and Figueroa is the 1st Church of Christ, Scientist, at 635 W. 17th Street, seen here c. 1904:

USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si.../id/8308/rec/9

On the west side of Figueroa, the third house north of 17th Street (on the SW corner of Figueroa and 16th) was owned at one time by Joseph Maier. This is a c. 1890 photo:

LAPL -- http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061946.jpg

The area between Grand and Hope -- with Pico on the South -- that looks like a baseball field is Fiesta Park: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11441

South of Fiesta Park on Hope, just north of 15th Street, is California Hospital, shown c. 1900-05:

USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/2647/rec/17

3. The right third, looking north. In the lower right corner, with its roof conveniently painted for future researchers, is Palace Stables at 1801 S. Main. The intersection of Hill Street and 18th Street
is at the center of the photo at the very bottom. The next three streets north of 18th are 17th, 16th, and 15th. Today, the Santa Monica Freeway runs here between 17th and 18th Streets:


One block east and six blocks north of 18th and Main, with the shiny roof, is St. Joseph's Catholic Church (1901-83) at the SE corner of Los Angeles St. and E. 12th St. Here it is c. 1901-15:

USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/8855/rec/46

And between 16th and 17th, on the west side of Hill Street, we have the 16th Street School and Fire Station 10 (1920s photo with Metropolitan High School to the west):

LAPL -- http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics13/00026001.jpg

1900:

lafire.com -- http://www.lafire.com/stations/PhotoGallery.htm

1899:

lafire.com -- http://www.lafire.com/stations/PhotoGallery.htm

According to the 1900 Census, Joseph Maier, his wife Mary and sons Fred and Edward lived at 1605 South Figueroa. Mr Maier, who was born in Germany in 1851, was a brewer by trade. Both sons were born in California, the eldest in 1876. He appears in the voter registrations in Los Angeles in 1879 and at that time was listed as being a saloon keeper. He was naturalized as a US citizen in Los Angeles in April of 1879.

In the voter lists, he is again found in 1892, listed as being a brewer and residing at 459 Aliso Street, Los Angeles. This later voting list indicates that he was six feet tall with fair skin, brown eyes and brown hair. Amazing the amount of information they had in the voter registrations in those days!

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The leveling of Bunker Hill.
So where did they put all the dirt?
__

Another poster had asked that question recently, but no answer's been forthcoming as yet.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by unihikid

Ok this has been bugging me for almost 20 years. Before they tore down the original outlaying buildings of Famer's Market,they had a display near Antique Alley(where i had a weekend job),and in the display they showed pictures of a "100 pump" gas station made by Gilmore...it looked like it was located near what is now Pan Pacific Park,but i couldn't find anything on it. This was around the time they were celebrating the 60th anniversary...could this be the 100 pump station?

Could this be it, uni? I think it was at Fairfax & 3rd.

USCDL

I think we've seen this station before, but I couldn't find it.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull

I'm reading a biography of Barbara Stanwyck by Axel Madsen at the moment and it mentions that Stanwyck "helped at the Beverly Hills Hotel USO canteen." I've never come across any mention of there being a USO canteen at the Beverly Hills Hotel and I was wondering if anyone here had ever come across any info or photos of it?

This is not a lot of information about that USO, but it’s from someone who was there.

I’ve read a lot of things concerning Hollywood and the Canteens and such during WWII over the years. I remember reading about a canteen in the Beverly Hills Hotel somewhere once and wondered about that, but never looked into it any further. I recalled that it was on a blog where a woman who had found boxes of letters her father had written had posted one he’d written about when he arrived in Southern California.

(I love that the internet has provided a place for people to share these kinds of personal letters, stories and such that otherwise would have remained with the families or lost entirely. Pictures, from the WWII era, say, that may have been only seen by a dozen people for decades are now posted online and available to be seen by millions!)

Anyway, I thought I’d try to find that link again if it wasn’t going to be too time consuming and I happened to find it quickly!

Here is part of some correspondence mentioning this USO, from a letter dated Jan. 9, 1943 and written by a man who was known as “Lad”. Link follows.

"Wednesday morning it was nearly noon and I went to the Y and cleaned up and then went into LA for lunch. I wandered around a little but it is too big to get very far on foot so I went back to the car and was just driving aimlessly toward camp went four soldiers asked me if I was going to Hollywood. I had not thought of that, so I said “Sure” and off we went.

At the USO there I talked with some of the hostesses and found out what I could about the town and then decided to go out to the Beverly Hills Hotel where there was another USO. I tried to get someone to go out with me and show me some of the prettier places and views, but was unsuccessful.

I went back to Hollywood to the Hollywood canteen and stayed there the rest of the night dancing and snacking (new word here in LA and vicinity) until the place closed at 12. With a fellow I met there, I went to the Palladium and did some more dancing to Tommy Dorsey, he really is very good.

That night I drove way up above the Beverly Hills residence section and again spent the night in the car. The view was gorgeous and I spent quite some time just sitting in the sun and looking. Then back to the Beverly Hills Hotel USO to clean up and eat. I spent the early afternoon there reading and talking with various women and soldiers and then went back to Hollywood and saw “Random Harvest” which I enjoyed just as much as the book.

Then I went back to the Hollywood canteen until 12 and then to Florentine Gardens for more dancing. After a cup of coffee at about 2:30 I drove back to Arcadia. I had to report here on Friday but at that hour of the morning there was nothing doing so I slept, again in the car."

http://greatestgenerationlessons.wor...beverly-hills/

[GaylordWilshire]

LA TimesMarch 1, 1942




From http://beverlyhills.granicus.com/Met...meta_id=154218


http://www.raremaps.com/

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Tetsu

What a great view. In this photo is another place that really interests me, the Forthmann House which once stood at 629 W. 18th Street, in the pic just to the left of the Patriotic Hall I believe. Thankfully it was moved to Hoover Street near the USC campus and restored. I'm really interested in seeing more photos of it in its original location, if they exist. Here it is today:

Wikipedia

I think the panorama posted yesterday by Flyingwedge shows the Forthmann house and its environs in 1902. I know the quality isn't great at the maximum zoom level, but here's a close-up of what I believe to be the right part of 18th Street. The Forthmann house should be the first two-story house on the right of the street through the middle.


Detail of picture at Huntington Digital Library

According to the Baist maps, the large building on the right is the 16th Street School, even though it's on 17th Street. This is not to be confused with the 16th Street Public School which we discussed recently - that's a couple of blocks east. The map below is from 1910.


www.historicmapworks.com

[unihikid]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Could this be it, uni? I think it was at Fairfax & 3rd.

USCDL

I think we've seen this station before, but I couldn't find it.

It looks like it but it was a much longer shot,but ill rest with this thanks GW

[GatoVerde]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

That's the old Los Angeles Cracker Co. Building! It's been remodeled since this c. 1886 photo, but the width of the 2nd and 3rd floor windows in front match (although in the old photo the middle window is a door), and the 2nd and 3rd floors on the side match.

California State Library

Previously posted here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=15667

From "A History of California and an Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs: Also Containing Biographies of Well-known Citizens of the Past and Present, Volume 2," by James Miller Guinn, 1915, p.166:

"The Civil war had just come to a close Mr Winter came to America at the age of twenty four years This was some years before the completion of the first railroad across the plains California was therefore still isolated from east by weeks of travel with prairie schooner pony express Gold mining had ceased to be only industry of the state People had begun develop ranches and start business enterprises Solidarity of interests made the inhabitants of state harmonious in action for the general welfare The young German felt the opening to excellent and he engaged to assist in a owned by an uncle at Oroville where he his early practical knowledge of business conditions in the west Pleased with the outlook bought the bakery of his uncle and for some conducted the only business of the kind in Oroville but the climate proved unhealthful to and he disposed of his interests there The place of his residence San Diego had twenty five hundred inhabitants at the time of arrival Notwithstanding the small and general business dullness he believed that equable climate would attract permanent in due time and he determined to embark in business Together with a brother Joseph Winter he for ten years conducted the only bakery in town Meanwhile Los Angeles was beginning attract the attention of keen foresighted and he decided to shift the scene of his to the rising city of promise The year found him as an associate in a business numbering several capitalists and men of practical experience one of the organizers of Los Angeles Cracker Company that bought old mill on Lyle street and embarked in the manufacture of crackers The prosperous history of the concern familiar to all who have kept posted the industrial development of Los Angeles power from the Los Angeles river was for a brief period but during the floods of a change became necessary and steam power thereupon introduced making an improvement great importance in the subsequent growth of establishment With the development of the business it became possible to absorb the California Cracker Company whose title adopted with the consolidation of the two industries The output of the factory was large quality excellent and the methods of the most modern hence a gratifying marked its history throughout the entire up to the sale in 1899 to the organization known as the Pacific Coast Biscuit Company."

http://books.google.com/books?id=0hc...any%22&f=false

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by HossC

I think the panorama posted yesterday by Flyingwedge shows the Forthmann house and its environs in 1902. I know the quality isn't great at the maximum zoom level, but here's a close-up of what I believe to be the right part of 18th Street. The Forthmann house should be the first two-story house on the right of the street through the middle.


Detail of picture at Huntington Digital Library

According to the Baist maps, the large building on the right is the 16th Street School, even though it's on 17th Street. This is not to be confused with the 16th Street Public School which we discussed recently - that's a couple of blocks east. The map below is from 1910.


www.historicmapworks.com

Here's an old post of mine--which had a broken link in it, now fixed--that has pics of the old 16th-on-17th Street School as well as its replacement:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=3278 (scroll down)

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by unihikid

It looks like it but it was a much longer shot,but ill rest with this thanks GW

nineteen40s


A nighttime shot--sure we must have seen this here before....

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

Our inaugural photo. Does anyone know where it was taken from? I'd like to do a now version of this great night time shot.

Don't know if anyone ever answered your question (in fact don't even know if you're still around) but I long ago did this plot-line off of that image. It appears to have been shot up on N. Hill Place, probably adjacent to the Villa Cabrini Orphanage. I used the northeast corner of the City Hall tower and the northeast corner of the Hall of Justice(actually just slightly off that corner).


Plot line re New Year's Eve 1951

Still one of my favorite all-time pics in the thread.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by HossC

I wasn't aware of an earlier Hotel Figueroa, this one at Fig & 16th:


USCDL

LA Herald, Dec 7, 1892


Haven't found any other pictures of it....

[Flyingwedge]

Today it's at 2091 S. Harvard Blvd. -- with the Santa Monica Freeway across the street -- but when it was built by James Cuzner of the Kerckhoff-Cuzner Mill and Lumber Company, it was at 1991 S. Harvard.

The Los Angeles County Assessor website says this house was built in 1904 and that the house next to it was built in 1905; since the lot next door looks empty, I'll say this is a c. 1904 photo (although there are cracks near that small 3rd floor window, and zooming in reveals what looks like recent repair work):

USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...5/id/502/rec/2


GSV

More and better photos, plus history on the house (it's being restored after a bad fire) here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansas_...n/11389207835/

An undated (c. 1930?) photo of Olvera Street, showing the Kerckhoff-Cuzner Mill and Lumber Company in the background at the NE corner of Alameda and Macy:

LAPL -- http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics17/00008486.jpg

1921 Baist Map:

Historicmapworks.com -- http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/19411/Plate+005/

[GaylordWilshire]

FW-- I can't quite tell if you're suggesting that the Cuzner house was moved, but I don't believe it was. At first I thought the 1991/2091 confusion might have to do with the considerable house renumberings and street-name changes that occurred with various later city annexations--it appears to me that the Cuzner house stands today where it was built. There is considerable confusion among the Times and the Herald about the house's address:



A Times illustration published May 14, 1905; at right, the Herald's flopped photo of Nov 26, 1905



From the Times, May 14, 1905



From the Herald, Nov 26, 1905


To add to the confusion, this appeared in the Herald on July 19, 1903:




(Speaking of Wilshire Boulevard, which we weren't, Edelman would go on to become the Hellman's go-to architect when they built along that street:

3240: http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...boulevard.html

3325: http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...e-see-our.html

3350: http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...e-see-our.html)


For those who think pre-razor-wire Los Angeles was so lovely and civilized--it seems that hardly a big house in the best sections of town wasn't burglarized at some point or other--here's a bit of Cuzner noir (in case architectural detail gets boring to anyone) from the Herald of Dec 19, 1908:




LA Times/CDNC

[Noircitydame]

Originally Posted by HossC

LAPL seems to have given their City Directory resource a makeover. Normally I don't like change, and a few sites I use have taken several backward steps in so-called upgrades in the past year or so, but my first impressions of this upgrade are positive. Check out the new look at:

http://rescarta.lapl.org/ResCarta-We...cWebBrowse.jsp

I think they've added a few earlier directories, but still nothing between 1942 and 1956.

I noticed that too; it does seem a little better -I like that you can search for something across all the available years at once now, instead of having to go into each year one at a time, and being able to scroll through thumbnails of the pages is also nice. But I can't figure out how (or if) you can save certain pages, like you used to be able to do, as an image.

[GaylordWilshire]

Well, actually, NCD, you could always do that with "Simple Search"... of course I like that there are more CDs available... but the frequent error message "The service is unavailable" is annoying. Hope they get the bugs worked out soon... As for saving, just do a screen grab....