noirish Los Angeles

[gsjansen]

William Reagh, one of the top Los Angeles photographic chroniclers, did a series of then and now comparisons of images he had taken of the downtown los angeles streetscape in the 1950's and 1960's. Reagh went back to the same vantage points in the late 1980's to show the amazing changes that took place.

All images are California State Library


Looking north at temple and figueroa 1959 / 1986






looking east on fith street toward figueroa 1959 / 1986





Looking south on hope street from temple 1959 / 1988





Looking north on flower from 4th street 1965 / 1988





Looking southwest from city hall over little tokyo 1965 / 1988






Looking southeast towards downtown from west knoll drive 1967 / 1989





Looking south on figueroa from 1st street 1968 / 1976 / 1988






Looking west towards downtown from macy street and pleasant avenue 1968 / 1987





Looking east from 4th and beaudry 1968 / 1987

[gsjansen]

looking east on sunset at the intersection of broadway 1940 / 1986 (the 1940 view looks dead on at that "old roundup", the Bama Club)





third street looking west from on top of the third street tunnel 1939 / 1987






southwest corner of 1st and broadway 1939 / 1987

[ethereal_reality]

usc digital archive

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past

This is my mother with her first car, July 1938. Note the location. Could it be the same auto court?





-Scott

What a great photograph of your mom Scott.

I was studying the cabins in your photo to see if it was the same court...
and then I realized Silverlake Court is actually written on the border of your pic. I was like, WOW, it is the same place! How cool is that?

[GaylordWilshire]

marlenedietrichdotorguk

Yes, Scott--that's a great picture of your mother in skorts with her '36 Pontiac. Above is another beauty who drove a '36 Pontiac--Gary Cooper in a scene from Desire, 1936. (The other car and its driver are nice looking too--that's Marlene Dietrich behind the wheel of her disabled Auburn.)

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

usc digital archive



What a great photograph of your mom Scott.

I was studying the cabins in your photo to see if it was the same court...
and then I realized Silverlake Court is actually written on the border of your pic. I was like, WOW, it is the same place! How cool is that?

According to the 1939 Los Angeles phone book, the Silver Lake Auto Court was at 2500 Glendale Blvd (NOrmandy 9245.) Scott's mother might have found her car right down the road at 2383 Glendale Blvd--Silver Lake Used Cars was there (MOrningside 1-0936).


The police fell for the Pontiac's Silver Streaks too:

LAT

These '38 Pontiacs are most likely fresh off the GM line a few miles away in South Gate. BTW, Savage-Haldeman Pontiac was at 1200 S. Figueroa (PRospect 0321).

[sopas ej]

Scott that's a cute picture of your mother; the car, the auto court and her outfit. I would imagine that her outfit would've been considered very daring back then?

Gaylord I like that you mentioned those old business telephone numbers with the old exchange names. I learned some years ago that many phone numbers in my town of South Pasadena used to be "SYcamore 9-0825" or whatever. And just like how nowadays some people consider certain area codes to be prestigious (myself NOT included), back then people considered certain telephone exchanges to be prestigious. According to my friend's grandmother who was born in L.A. in the 1920s, a "DRexel" number was considered very upscale.

gsjansen I really like those then and nows. Very interesting.

[Los Angeles Past]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

What a great photograph of your mom Scott.

I was studying the cabins in your photo to see if it was the same court...
and then I realized Silverlake Court is actually written on the border of your pic. I was like, WOW, it is the same place! How cool is that?

Glad you liked the pic, ethereal! I was hopeful but still skeptical when I first saw the auto court aerial, but I now think that it IS the actual place when Mom was photographed with her first car. On the right-hand side near the entrance are cabins where the two windows are on either side of the door (like in Mom's picture), and also near the entrance is a tall cypress/pine tree (note the boughs of a conifer visible in the upper right of Mom's pic). Also in the upper right can be seen the top of a power pole. If you look at the line of power poles on Glendale Blvd in the aerial shot, the one just out of sight on the right is right about where the one in Mom's picture would be. So based on all this, I think the red arrow best indicates the point of view of the photographer.





I think Mom's picture was taken several years later than the aerial, though; maybe as much as a decade later. All of the vehicles in the aerial are definitely vintage twenties or earlier, not the mid-thirties as was Mother's car.


Quite amazing! If I may ask, how did you find the auto court image on the USC site? I've tried every search combination I can think of, but I've had no luck finding that particular photo there thus far.

-Scott

[Los Angeles Past]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

marlenedietrichdotorguk

Yes, Scott--that's a great picture of your mother in skorts with her '36 Pontiac. Above is another beauty who drove a '36 Pontiac--Gary Cooper in a scene from Desire, 1936. (The other car and its driver are nice looking too--that's Marlene Dietrich behind the wheel of her disabled Auburn.)

According to the 1939 Los Angeles phone book, the Silver Lake Auto Court was at 2500 Glendale Blvd (NOrmandy 9245.) Scott's mother might have found her car right down the road at 2383 Glendale Blvd--Silver Lake Used Cars was there (MOrningside 1-0936).

Yep, Mom's car was a 1936 Pontiac alright! I'm no expert, but based upon what info I've been able to find online, I think it was a '36 Pontiac "Master Six Coupe."

-Scott

[gsjansen]

there is a person on flickr by the name of Kansas Sebastian, who has posted some very nice images of Silver Lake, (as well as some other areas.

he actually posted a then and now shot of the Silver Lake Auto Rest


Flicker / Kansas Sebastian Silver Lake Set

his commentary on the photo is as follows;

View of Silver Lake Heights Tract, looking East from the neighboring hill, toward Mount Washington.
ca late 1920's and 2010

The Ralph's market faces Glendale Blvd on the site of the old Silver Lake Auto Rest. India Street begins behind the Ralph's at Silver Lake Boulevard. Silver Lake Ridge crosses India st, just near the crest. Electric and McCreedy Streets wrap around the hill on the right.

Dating this picture is especially difficult. The house at the Southwest corner of Silver Ridge and India, 2545 Silver Ridge, was built in 1921, and does not appear in the picture. The house built in 1924, at 2224 India St, the Southeast corner, does appear in the picture. Our house on the Northeast corner was built in 1937 so obviously doesn't appear in the picture. Other houses in both photos were built in 1926. Either the County Tax Assessor's office is incorrect or the house at 2545 Silver Ridge was moved to it's present location. One final clue, the sidewalks on India St were layed in 1927, probably at the same time the street was paved.

The upper photo most-likely dates to the late 1920's -- probably 1927 when the street and sidewalks were new. Although, if anyone can date the cars, that would be fantastic!

here is the link to this photo on his flickr page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansas_...an/4651175105/

[Los Angeles Past]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

there is a person on flickr by the name of Kansas Sebastian, who has posted some very nice images of Silver Lake, (as well as some other areas.

he actually posted a then and now shot of the Silver Lake Auto Rest


Flicker / Kansas Sebastian Silver Lake Set

his commentary on the photo is as follows;

View of Silver Lake Heights Tract, looking East from the neighboring hill, toward Mount Washington.
ca late 1920's and 2010

The Ralph's market faces Glendale Blvd on the site of the old Silver Lake Auto Rest. India Street begins behind the Ralph's at Silver Lake Boulevard. Silver Lake Ridge crosses India st, just near the crest. Electric and McCreedy Streets wrap around the hill on the right.

Dating this picture is especially difficult. The house at the Southwest corner of Silver Ridge and India, 2545 Silver Ridge, was built in 1921, and does not appear in the picture. The house built in 1924, at 2224 India St, the Southeast corner, does appear in the picture. Our house on the Northeast corner was built in 1937 so obviously doesn't appear in the picture. Other houses in both photos were built in 1926. Either the County Tax Assessor's office is incorrect or the house at 2545 Silver Ridge was moved to it's present location. One final clue, the sidewalks on India St were layed in 1927, probably at the same time the street was paved.

The upper photo most-likely dates to the late 1920's -- probably 1927 when the street and sidewalks were new. Although, if anyone can date the cars, that would be fantastic!

here is the link to this photo on his flickr page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kansas_...an/4651175105/

Wow! That's really something! Thanks so much for that.

[ethereal_reality]

^^^That is an amazing before & after photo (and complimentary text).

I didn't realize the distant mountain in the auto court photo was Mount Washington until the info in gsjansen's post.
Here are a few interesting photos I've been intending to post of Mount Washington.




Few people remember that Mt. Washington had an incline railway. (photo dated 1910)


usc digital archive







or it's own newspaper (notice the column "Incline Work Progressing").


Mt. Washington Eagle 1909 / possibly latimesblog








...or it's own version of the Hollywood Sign.



unknown / possibly latimesblog



LAPL

The sign was atop a covered reservoir, and was advertising real estate (much like the Hollywood sign would do 10 yrs later)

[ethereal_reality]

Another photo of the Mt. Washington Incline.



usc digital archive



A view of the same location today.


Miehana/flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/miehana...n/photostream/

[ethereal_reality]

The two incline cars were named Florence and Virginia.



LAPL via highlandpark.wordpress.com


Above: You can see the Mt. Washington sign in the distance.






...and a postcard.


ERHA


Here is a link with tons of information.

http://www.erha.org/washington.htm

[ethereal_reality]

I was double checking some of my Mt. Washington information,
and I just found this current photo of the Los Angeles & Mt. Washington Railway Incline Station.




usc digital archive


by Walter on highlandpark.wordpress

[GaylordWilshire]

LAPL
(The library labels this pic as "Butterfly Queen"...)

LAPL
(Hattie later divorced Mr. Crawford, who was in real estate; she also divorced her next husband, a Mr. Williams, who was an interior decorator...and left him exactly one cent in her will.)

The 1939 Los Angeles phone book reveals that Miss Butterfly McQueen (she is listed as "Miss Butterfly McQueen") and a Harriet McDaniel (you know her as Hattie) lived next door to one another on West 31st Street in Jefferson Park at the time of Gone With the Wind (nos. 2181 and 2177, respectively, although Wikipedia puts Hattie at 2173). I can find no other references to their neighborliness on the web, but the listed houses still stand (Butterfly's pink Craftsman was obviously there in 1939, and I'm assuming that Hattie's Mediterranean cottage was built before then too):

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=...355.15,,0,7.04


I can't find any early shots of these houses, though I've posted here previously an early one of Hattie's later house at 2203 S. Harvard in West Adams Heights (the purchase of which cemented Hattie's reputation as a shrewd and unstoppable civil rights trailblazer), built in 1911. Here's a "now" shot of that one:

Waltarrrr


While the following then-and-now shots are not of the McDaniel house, they are of one just around the corner at 2241 S. Hobart, the 1910 Johnson house. (The owner was one of the founders of the Grand Central Market.) The link to the slide show is a must-click--it gives a fantastic view into upper-middle-class life in Edwardian Los Angeles.

West Adams Heritage

West Adams Heritage

And don't miss this link: http://www.westadamsheritage.org/gal...?g2_itemId=681

[gsjansen]

a nice noirish image of the grand opening of the statler


LAPL

[dktshb]

This is definitely the most interesting thread on this forum. Great job to all the contributers.

A CVS pharmacy just moved in here on the bottom floor so I guess that is just a little progress:

[BrianSac]

This thread is truly amazing! I can't believe I didn't find it until now.

I've made it to page 55 so far. Early 20th Century LA looks like London, Paris or SF. Why were the preservationists unsuccessful in LA, yet successful in SF for the most part? Sacramento also lost a huge part of its historical riverfront and chinatown to redevelopment and the I-5 freeway.

I guess I never really thought about what Downtown LA looked like in the 00's, 10's, 20's and 30's. We now know where the set designers from the Addams Family and Munsters got their inspiration.

The deco and streamline pics are just as amazing!

[gsjansen]

NBC studio complex located at the northeast corner of Sunset Blvd. and Vine. Many of America's most popular radio programs were broadcast from these facilities for over three decades. It was designed by famed architect John C. Austin and built in 1938

All images are from Calisphere

Architectural model 1938




looking north east at the construction site 1938




sunset boulevard elevation 1938 shortly after completion of the building



Vine street entrance 1939




Sunset boulevard studio entrance 1939




wide angle view of the NE corner of sunset and vine 1939




entrance lobby 1939




demolition 1964.........................

[gsjansen]

harold hotel on east 5th street between wall and san pedro. image is looking north on san julian - 1978


LAPL

[ethereal_reality]

The NBC Studio at Sunset and Vine was one of the best examples of streamline art deco EVER.
If only we could go back to 1964 and save it.

That's the first time I've seen the mural in the lobby in gsjansen's post.
It looks spectacular. Also the destruction photo was new to me...I gasped in horror.


Here are a few photographs I have of the studio.



calisphere




calisphere






calisphere





calisphere