noirish Los Angeles - Page 164

LAboomer52 · #**3261** Posted **Mar 15, 2011, 8:51 PM**

I've seen posts about Architect Paul Williams mid century home built in this neighborhood, which was established in 1913 by developer George Crenshaw
Lafayette Square is a four-block Los Angeles neighborhood of stately homes built mostly in the decade following World War I. Many prominent Angelenos have called it home, including W.C. Fields, Fatty Arbuckle, former heavyweight champion Joe Louis and trivia buffs might recognize the "Leave It to Beaver" house from the TV series.
Thought I'd share this ad found in the LA times historical archives for y'all to chew on!

GaylordWilshire · #**3262** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 12:30 AM**

LAboomer52: I love that ad-- "Build Your Beautiful Home in LaFayette Square And Live Forever".... gotta love the promise of immortality with your real estate....

LaFayette Square is interesting in that it's the last developmental gasp of West Adams--great houses, lovely streetscapes, and unlike alot of the old district, still intact. One thing about 1727 Buckingham Road--the house that some claim was used as the Cleaver's in Leave It to Beaver--well, it wasn't. I've been to see the house--and Google Street View will confirm that--while it is very similar to the house on the Universal back lot actually used in the series (seen also in the 1955 movie The Desperate Hours and in a number of later TV series), the bay window is on the opposite side of the front door, among other differences. I've wondered if the backlot house wasn't modeled on the one on Buckingham--perhaps a set designer lived there or nearby or had visited it. (See http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1799) Anyway, there were alot of L.A. houses in that vein--including Fred MacMurray's house in Bel-Air:

LAPL

Back to Crenshaw.... Crenshaw--the man--lived just to the east:

LAPL
1419 S. Wilton (now replaced by a 4-story apartment building)--it became the Philanthropy and Civics Club in 1924...
One source has Crenshaw then living at 1675 Wellington, although he is listed in the 1923 LACD at 1945 Wellington
Road--south of Washington Street and LaFayette Square in a subdivision I've seen referred to as Wellington Square,
perhaps his own extension of LaFayette. Both 1675 and 1945 are still there, and quite similar--perhaps they're by
the same architect. ((Btw, the 2008 City of Los Angeles "LaFayette Square Preservation Plan" refers to Crenshaw as
living at both 1675 Wellington and 1675 Buckingham--I don't know if this is a mistake, or if Crenshaw, as developers
often do, actually did live in several different houses during his developing.)

Now for some noir Crenshaw...(not wanting to forget ethereal's original idea)...

USCDL

USCDL

In a single caption for the shots (no pun intended) above, the USCDL refers to both the 300 and the 3000 block of Crenshaw... just a little detective work brings us to the correct 3000 block, 3020 S. Crenshaw to be exact, to what was once the Crenshaw Theater and was, at the time of the 1958 murder above, something called the L.A. Jazz Concert Theater. (I take it that the area had developed into something of a jazz mecca.) But wait... while the wonderful '54 Buick has most likely retreated to a Pomona junkyard, and the body perhaps to Rosedale... the theater and the parking lot where the body once lay is still with us:

Google Street View

Paul Laszlo designed the Crenshaw Theater...

Google Street View

Here's a photo by Julius Shulman back in the day:

arcspace.com

Ninja55 · #**3263** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 2:16 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5254/...9f7be076_b.jpg

Sorry Andrea517, I posted them back as soon as I found out what I did. I've got some more for you. Don't be bummed.

My great aunt died in this crash. Without all the safety features we have now days, the passengers took all the force of the crash.

Ninja55 · #**3264** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 2:18 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5215/...cebc170f_b.jpg

This is a mystery photo in my albums. Does anybody recognize it?

Ninja55 · #**3265** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 2:19 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5016/...ae6cbb73_z.jpg

Okay Andrea, is this your grandma??

Ninja55 · #**3266** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 2:21 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5055/...44ca1984_b.jpg

Uncle Bert Rovere and some of his stage ladies. (I have his sword still. Knights of Colombus engraving all over it.)

Ninja55 · #**3267** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 2:22 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5020/...4e2e9285_z.jpg

Two more actors from the floor show at the Paris Inn

Ninja55 · #**3268** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 2:23 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5297/...4b099234_z.jpg

Ninja55 · #**3269** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 2:24 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5218/...2a93c6f6_b.jpg

Bert could do it all!

Ninja55 · #**3270** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 2:25 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5212/...f809df74_b.jpg

LAboomer52 · #**3271** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 2:47 AM**

Gaylord Wilshire:Thanks for the info on George Crenshaw, which I have wanted to learn more about. And you are correct about the Leave it to Beaver house, which infact is on the Universal Backlot.

If anyone noticed the Swastika Logo of his company, ...I wondered if he might have been part of the substantial community in Los Angeles of American businesspeople who were sympathetic to the fascist strains of capitalism brewing in Europe. I have done a bit of research on the American BUND (The Bund’s Los Angeles headquarters was located in “Deutsches Haus” near downtown on Alvarado and 15th St. and was the site of grand celebrations and pep rallies for Hitler’s progress. You may be aware of the Silver Shirts' Hitler youth camp in Sunland in the 1930's, and the rumored para-military compound located in a Canyon in Brentwood, (Rustic canyon) adjacent to Will Roger's Estate, a sprawling fifty-acre property known as the “Murphy Ranch” which was a self-sufficient community with three thousand fruit trees, underground tunnels and bomb shelters, several houses and a power station capable of producing electricity.

During the late 30's and 40's LaFayette Square fell into the domain of white flight to become an affluent part of the "black" community. After the '92 "riot", properties were being sold for 200,000 ! Since then, it has transitioned into a very integrated and wholesome place to live, and serves as a model of how the past can be treasured and enjoyed. So many other areas of central, mid city, and south LA could be restored and become vibrant again. West Adams is another example of what could be possible.

austlar1 · #**3272** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 4:09 AM**

Re: Crenshaw's swastika. Maybe or maybe not. It was widely used in other non political contexts before being taken up by the Nazi movement. The ad posted here dates from 1913, so it seems somewhat doubtful that there was a hidden meaning. On the other hand, I wonder just what kind of deed"restrictions" were in place on the land being offered for sale. I suspect there were some racial and probably religious restrictions regarding prospective buyers of those lots. Here is a somewhat informative history of the swastika that explains the history of the symbol in more detail.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article....uleId=10007453

LAboomer52 · #**3273** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 4:20 AM**

http://digital-library.csun.edu/cdm4...B=1&DMROTATE=0
Located at 634 West 15th Street, this and many other cool photos in CSUN's Oviatt Library Digital Archives.

LA_ArchStu213 · #**3274** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 7:43 AM**

[IMG]

[/IMG]

hello everyone, im new..i reallly like this forum...i have literally gone through every pic...over a long period of time...but i have a question...
this is a pic posted few months earlier...but i had a question, if anyone has any information on the following block...its the 17th street segment between Figueroa and georgia....any help will be appreciated...thank you

im not trying to take over the credit of the person that posted this pic...i just do not remember where is it exactly...i save this picture when i saw it at the time.

LAboomer52 · #**3275** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 8:23 AM**

[/QUOTE]
Just up the street, at the corner of Crenshaw and Washington Blvd. one month after this ad appeared in the Times, French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) became one of the first celebrities to be injured in an automobile accident in the City of Angels.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct...-then-20101023
This LA Times article, in retelling the tale, mentions many aspects of 1913 LA we like to ponder.

jg6544 · #**3276** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 5:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by austlar1

Re: Crenshaw's swastika. Maybe or maybe not. It was widely used in other non political contexts before being taken up by the Nazi movement. The ad posted here dates from 1913, so it seems somewhat doubtful that there was a hidden meaning. On the other hand, I wonder just what kind of deed"restrictions" were in place on the land being offered for sale. I suspect there were some racial and probably religious restrictions regarding prospective buyers of those lots. Here is a somewhat informative history of the swastika that explains the history of the symbol in more detail.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article....uleId=10007453

Five will get you ten, those restrictions prohibited selling or renting to anyone but white, Anglo-Saxons and maybe White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants.

Does anybody know anything about Victoria Park, which is just to the north?

OldFontuckyHomer · #**3277** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 5:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LAboomer52

Just up the street, at the corner of Crenshaw and Washington Blvd. one month after this ad appeared in the Times, French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) became one of the first celebrities to be injured in an automobile accident in the City of Angels.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct...-then-20101023
This LA Times article, in retelling the tale, mentions many aspects of 1913 LA we like to ponder.[/QUOTE]

Wow. She really doesn't look very good after that accident.

GaylordWilshire · #**3278** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 7:17 PM**

Re the swastika in the Crenshaw company logo... I would agree with austlar and say that it was probably more part of a graphic artist's design than any kind of political statement. A friend of mine in a mid-19th-century brownstone around the corner on 12th Street has a couple in the original parquet floors of her apartment, and they're not uncommon here (I've always thought it remarkable that they've survived in NYC). And I've seen them in American-Indian weavings, sometimes oriented left, sometimes right, as in the Nazi way.

Re deed restrictions in L.A.--their history is interesting, involving even Hattie McDaniel of S. Harvard Street, the upshot being that the U.S. Supreme Court decreed in 1948 that racial covenants on property can't be enforced by the courts.

Re Victoria Park--I'm not clear who the developer was, but I think it was started several years before LaFayette Square. Here it is in 1918:

USCDL

Quote:

Originally Posted by LA_ArchStu213

[IMG]

[/IMG]

hello everyone, im new..i reallly like this forum...i have literally gone through every pic...over a long period of time...but i have a question...
this is a pic posted few months earlier...but i had a question, if anyone has any information on the following block...its the 17th street segment between Figueroa and georgia....any help will be appreciated...thank you

im not trying to take over the credit of the person that posted this pic...i just do not remember where is it exactly...i save this picture when i saw it at the time.

LAPL

The First Church of Christ Scientist is gone--not in your photo's highlighted square but it was across the street from the 16th Street School, which for some reason was on 17th Street and is in your pic.

LAPL

The LAPL refers to the pics above and below as the 17th Street School--the newer building is seen in your shot. (Old insurance maps refer to the school as the 16th Street School, even though it's on 17th.)

LAPL

The church seen in the sw corner of the highlighted block in your pic is still there:

Google Street View

LA_ArchStu213 · #**3279** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 8:38 PM**

@GaylordWhilshire: thank you very much...and yes i know about the apartments next to the school above....i lived there 13 years...but was evicted due to the fact that it was going to be demolished, but that was in 2008, and is still there...abandoned. i been looking for information on that apartment..its on 626 W 17th Street...i seen some pics on an earlier thread from the patriotic hall looking into this direction. Some tenants in the apartment had been living there since 1952, and the building was already old when they arrived into it....but thanks alot!

GaylordWilshire · #**3280** Posted **Mar 16, 2011, 9:07 PM**

Well, according to census records, your former building was built in 1914:

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...=1300308742788