noirish Los Angeles

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

The five-globe DTLA lamps were so festive and gave such a sense of place. The different lamps for various neighborhoods gave real identity in the sprawl. I'm endlessly grateful our neighborhood still has its original lamps. The then-new lamps seem to have inspired Parkinson's exterior illuminations to the Alexandria Hotel and, as we have just seen, were mimicked in the King Edward Hotel's original lobby lighting fixtures.

Others shared your interest in the pentaglobes. Behold the lighting in front of 818 West Seventh Street.

[tovangar2]

The deco detailing is original. 318 was built in 1933 and last sold for $3.6 million in 2003: http://www.redfin.com/CA/Los-Angeles...0/home/7089838


gsv

Singles (with a nice deco bathroom) may be had for $850 per month: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/31...15293296_zpid/

But I wouldn't recommend it: http://bedbugregistry.com/location/C...0Kingsley%20Dr


P.S.

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Others shared your interest in the pentaglobes.

Thank you Godzilla. "Pentaglobes". Good word.

The Fine Arts, over the road, has a pair also:


gsv

Plus there's many more on the next block east.

I was thrilled to see this too:

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck

1925
Lapl
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=7411

There's something about them though that makes me want to get my slingshot out of retirement....

[GaylordWilshire]

tovangar: Couldn't help but notice this too...


Google

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Snowden's competition? Green and Ratto operating the Union Livery Stables and Feed. Address and date equally mysterious.
Lapl

Godzilla: After looking for this stable in L.A., I came to the conclusion that instead it was up in Amador County....


CNDC

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Godzilla: After looking for this stable in L.A., I came to the conclusion that instead it was up in Amador County....


CNDC

Thank you for your efforts.

Would have guessed they were near the old French Consulate at 445 East Aliso Street. vvvvv

Date unknown.
Lapl


They may be renowned for brewing strong coffee but they will wait a summer of Sundays before getting my business way up in Amador!


On the continuing subject of mystery edifices, while looking for liveries, I noticed this shell of a building that is alleged to have been at Griffith Park. Undated, of course. (Horse-drawn observatory? First Autry Museum franchise in Amador County?)

Lapl

[alester young]

I have recently discovered this brilliant site and have for the last month been working through the thread (I am currently on page 290). The mixity of architecture and social history is compelling -it's a form of travel that can't be bought at the travel agents.

My initial interest in L.A. urban architecture/ history was from having read Raymond Chandler's books in my late teens and early twenties. It has been facinating to see what Bunker Hill was really like. In some ways Chandler probably was a catalyst in Bunker Hill's downfall -the popularity of his books maybe concretised the area's poor image as crook town. Although the area was lost, it may have taken the pressure off Downtown and led to the survival of some of the wonderful Beaux Arts and Art Deco buildings there.

I don't know whether this has yet been covered in the thread, but L.A. locations frequently crop in music videos:

Pico/ Union -West Pico Boulevard between S New Hampshire and Dewey Avenue in Massive Attack's Unfinished Symphony. Filmed c. 1990 -1993? The street scene looks much more animated than on current Google Maps.

??? First Street Bridge (1:48 on) in Beastie Boys Sabotage. If not First Street Bridge it looks like one of the Los Angeles river bridges. Any ideas? In the video there are also shots of a motel (unidentified) and also a building with interesting green art deco reliefs. White building at start = city hall? The music might not be to everyone's tastes, but the video shows a fair bit of L.A.

Interestingly, I haven't been able to find any location credits on the internet.

I like the distressed old 1980s Ford Crown Victoria!!! Not quite in the same league as a classic as Lucille Ball's Caddy earlier in the thread. In time, maybe?

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

tovangar: Couldn't help but notice this too...


Google

Let's hope it was only bedbugs.

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Thank you for your efforts.

Would have guessed they were near the old French Consulate at 445 East Aliso Street.
Date unknown.
Lapl

lapl

I gotta admit, I was wondering about that too. Mr. Snowden's secondary designation as a "market" made me think he may have also been operating as a boucherie chevalines, which made me start scouting around for the location in LA's old Frenchtown (pipped at the post by wonderfully diligent and knowledgeable GW). But Snowden may well have just been selling horses still on the hoof.

Thank you for the view of the former French consulate. I'd never seen it before. There was once a "thriving" Frenchtown that grew up around Vignes' El Aliso Winery. What happened to it? If it was pushed out by industry, it doesn't seem to have reformed anywhere.


P.S.
Jean-Louis Vignes/Don Luis del Aliso was a fascinating person: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Louis_Vignes with a career full of "firsts".

[Chuckaluck]

Regarding Music Videos, they ordinarily require musical accompaniment. If a moog is unavailable, a serious professional could always try something more substantial made by the Los Angeles Art Organ Co.

Lapl


The text notes claim the building was constructed around 1910. This seems inaccurate since the company may have packed up and moved to Hoboken in 1905.

The Los Angeles Art Organ Company was based, as its name suggests, in Los Angeles, California. The firm was the successor to the Murray M. Harris Organ Co., which was reorganized following Harris's ouster from the company.[1] William Boone Fleming was the Factory Supervisor. The Los Angeles Art Organ Co. operated only from around 1903 to 1905 at which point it was moved to Hoboken, New Jersey and renamed the Electrolian Organ Company, with Eben Smith as its president.

The biggest accomplishment of the Los Angeles Art Organ Company during its very short lifespan was the creation of the lavish instrument that was on display in Festival Hall at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The instrument was the largest in the world at the time of its construction and contained more than 10,000 pipes. The organ, even though it wasn't completed on time and was only partially functional during the first weeks of the fair (due in large part to the enormous financial burden the construction was placing on the firm), was played by some of the most famous virtuosos of the time.[1] Most notably is probably Felix Alexandre Guilmant (see Alexandre Guilmant) who played a series of 40 concerts in a six week period. The organ was extremely well received and the Los Angeles Art Organ Company was awarded a gold medal from the World's Fair for its construction. This instrument is now installed in Philadelphia, PA and serves as the core of the famous Wanamaker Grand Court Organ.".http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Ang..._Organ_Company

http://www.wanamakerorgan.com/about.php

Where was the building located? A book may hold the answer: http://www.amazon.com/The-Los-Angele.../dp/0913499439 But as a shot in the dark, 1923 Listings appear for "Artcraft Organ Co." at 6725 Santa Monica Blvd. An additional listing is for 1924 S. Main St. "American Photo Player Company" is listed under Pipe organs at 835 S. Olive along with Robert Morton Organ with a factory in Van Nuys

[GaylordWilshire]

GoogleSV



Random notes on 318 & 324 South Kingsley.... There seems to be little readily available info on these interesting buildings; this surprised me especially in the case of 324, given its obvious connection to The Towers at St Andrews and 6th. Not that there is much on that building either, but you'd think there must be something somewhere on the two distinctive buildings. Anyway, the stretch of Kingsley between 3rd and 4th streets was part of the Norwood Terrace Tract, first developed in 1906. The apartment buildings in the area, including 318 & 324, most likely replaced single-family houses during the housing crunch brought on by the L.A. population explosion of the '20s--there were big profits to be made by maximizing units per lot. The info on the rounded corners and "one piece" curbs is interesting. The original curbs actually seem to still be in place--note the small round drain holes common in early L.A. subdivisions.


LAT



Also interesting is the alterations in street names that came between 1910 and 1914. (L.A. did some major realignments and address renumbering between these years with the annexation of Hollywood, for one thing.)

Historic Map Works



Finally, an ad for 318 from the year it was built--apparently it was originally called the Lynwood--and a couple of notes on The Towers, built in 1934. Perhaps its companion 324 S Kingsley was built that year too.

LAT

[Godzilla]

The Santa Monica Blvd. address is interesting as 6700 is currently occupied by a venerable Hollywood name, Eastman Kodak Co. and its processing laboratory. (Las Palmas Ave and Santa Monica Blvd.) This leads one to wonder what happened to the not-unattractive Kodak building downtown formerly at 643 S. Hill?

6706 Santa Monica Boulevard - Kodak

1930

CalStLib

Contemporary
google


Kodak Building - 643 S. Hill (Long gone!)
Lapl

[BifRayRock]

Believe everything you read?

1910 "C.C. Pierce is moving."
CalStLib

1899 - Corner of Seventh Street and Grand Avenue. (Early version of express photo processing?)
CalStLib

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Silent film star Alma Rubens, 1899-1931.


http://silenceisplatinum.blogspot.com/

The house where she passed away.


http://michaelgankerich.wordpress.com/

R.I.P. Alma Rubens

__

I meant to thank you ethereal for your kind post on Alma Rubens. I am often sympathetic to those who engage in high-risk behaviors and exhibit chemical neediness (probably my ADHD...duh).

For the record, the house (a nice enough 2 1/2 story effort) where she died is at 114 N Manhattan Place in that nice cache of homes just west of Western. Not as many intact blocks though as Larchmont to the west or Harvard Heights North (or whatever one calls it) to the east:


gsv

Rather a startling blue, plus the balcony rail looks to have been replaced, but there's a nice pair of Canary Island palms and an intact neighbor to each side.

One can see the little pop-up third story here:

gsv

[FredH]

Another stable on Aliso.


lapl

Bakery right next door to the horse stables! Nice.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

What a beautiful building, ER. And it is clearly by the same architect--with even the same detailing--as The Towers (seven blocks west at 553 S St Andrews): http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10326

Ignoble end for a beautiful building: http://articles.latimes.com/1989-11-...nting-graffiti





P.S. Thank you GW for recommending Whitewashed Adobe. Apart from some serious reservations about Deverell's overall argument, and a few glaring gaps, I enjoyed it, especially the chapter on our river, its floods and eventual rather misbegotten control, particularly this passage:

"The nighttime 1825 flood came with such a terrifying roar that people dashed from their homes and ran into what hills they could find nearby. After this great flood, residents later remembered, the only thing that could be seen standing above the new downtown lake created by the floodwaters was a lone, giant sycamore tree." (pg 101)

It was, of course, El Aliso.

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Finally, an ad for 318 from the year it was built--apparently it was originally called the Lynwood--and a couple of notes on The Towers, built in 1934. Perhaps its companion 324 S Kingsley was built that year too.

LAT

Reference to a cafe "in conjunction" and "in connection" helmed by a celebrity chef? Assume this meant there was a separate business selling food on the premises. Or maybe it means "affiliated" so that the cafe was not on the premises, but there was delivery/room service?

________________________


Charmont, 330 California Ave., Santa Monica
Smpl

Villa Riviera, Long Beach
USC Digital


________________________

Another undated and unknown apartment attributed to "Hollywood."
Lapl

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by FredH

Another stable on Aliso.


lapl

Bakery right next door to the horse stables! Nice.

Baked apples next to road apples?

Casting an eye toward nearby Alameda Street . . .

June 6, 1898 Alameda north of Aliso Street.
Lapl


1929 Alameda and 4th Streets
Lapl

Sunset meets Alameda. Late '30s? Maybe the "exit only" sign is one sided? Horseless carriages clearly rule the day.
Lapl

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck

Another undated and unknown apartment attributed to "Hollywood."
Lapl

That's a beaut. I hope someone identifies it. The cleanness, massing and rhythm makes one think of early Irving "Jack" Gill.

[Lwize]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

^^^
I didn't know that log structure existed.

4th and Broadway, 1968

LAPL

4th and Broadway, January 13, 2013

Photo...
...by me--->

In the current photo, the Ross Cutlery building (just above the bus) lost several stories since 1968. Sylmar quake force it?

[Chuckaluck]

1874 - North Main St., looking south. (Plenty of stables but where's a bakery? Wish the image was larger. )
Lapl

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Thank you for your efforts.

On the continuing subject of mystery edifices, while looking for liveries, I noticed this shell of a building that is alleged to have been at Griffith Park. Undated, of course.

Lapl

The only mention I could find of a possible match was the Don Antonio Feliz Manor House here: http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=123 (fourth to last paragraph) which was supposedly demolished in 1921. (this is just a guess - where'd you get the photo?))

The extant Griffith Park adobe (now Park Ranger HQ) was apparently only an outbuilding to the manor:

2012:

the city project/flickr

1900 (hmmmm...this pic looks like it could have been taken the same day as yours):

waterandpower.org

More info:
http://www.laokay.com/halac/RanchoLosFeliz.htm

http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/curse.html

http://mimlay.com/blog1/2007/06/17/t...griffith-park/

BTW, the Griffith family memorial is at the old entrance to Hollywood Forever Cemetery (obelisk at lower left below). Notice how the old administration building (upper right in the photo) got clipped by the "new" wall when the entrance was moved and the present Stiles O Clements-designed administration building was constructed.

gsv

"New" Administation Building:

gsv

There used to be a grand lawn along the whole length of the cemetery wall facing Santa Monica Blvd. The land was sold off (in the 90s?) for a strip mall.

Westwood Memorial Park did this too, only they moved actual graves back from their Wilshire and Glendon frontages, which is how the cemetery became isolated in the center of the block:

gsv