noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for your help Chuckaluck. I'll try to figure it out with your suggestions.
__


Here are a couple interesting photographs of Hollywood dated 1929. I don't believe we've seen them before on NLA.

streets-unknown

ebay

above: I am intrigued by that small patch of eucalyptus trees up on the hill. I don't see a home on the lot, so I wonder
who planted them (since eucalyptus are non-native to California).



ebay

Especially intriguing in this view is that stand alone house on the hillside.
___

It looks like there's a barricade at the cross street, lower left. (perhaps they're getting ready to pave it)
If only they had included the names of the streets on the reverse of the photos.
__

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Is it possible that these two photos are two halves of the same panoramic shot, perhaps with a little missing in the middle? The lower right corner of the bottom photo has "Holly" written on it, so maybe the photo was originally wider. I also think it looks more like 1919 or so than 1929.

The full panorama is in this old post:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6990

[HossC]

I went back to the original image and downloaded the largest version. I then set about realigning and fixing the joins/folds, and generally tidying it up. Here's the result (lots of right scrolling ).


Original at the Library of Congress

As GW's original post stated, this is described as "Hollywood - Los Angeles, N. from Carleton Way and Van Ness Sts." That intersection is now under the middle of the Hollywood Freeway, although I doubt that many of the houses would have survived anyway.

In the background, just to the right of center, is the Immaculate Heart High School/College which GW posted pictures of in post #3427. It used to stand on the northwest corner of Western and Franklin.

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by HenryHuntington

"And Chop Suey. (Any idea what exactly the "X" banner designates?)"

Railroad Crossing. Also note the warning sign and bell adjacent to the building at the right side of the frame and the track in what I'd guess is Alameda St. before LAUPT was built.

Great set of pics, BTW! Thanks for posting!

The "X" banner seems strangely primitive or temporary but clearly embodies the form modernly associated with RR crossings. I do not recall seeing similar flags at other railroad intersections. (Now they will start appearing everywhere.) The signal equipment on the other side of the street (foreground) seems more obvious (to me). Is one of the objects a swinging pendulum, a la WigWag? In '25, one might assume signals were electric and "automatic" but perhaps these were manually operated?

Also, what are the tall shadowy structures in the background? Manufacturing? Refining? Hampton Court?


November 1925

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Have we discussed this tunnel-like entrance below the Los Angeles County Courthouse? (circled in red)


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...oll65/id/20104

We have seen several depictions of demolition and construction around the much lamented Old County Court House but I do not believe this one has been posted. Even if I am wrong, it seems worth a second glance. Have to wonder what amazing antiquities-artifacts were overlooked way back when. Had there been any specific reports of fossil finds from this specific location?












http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/compou...d/19849/rec/63

[spoonman]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

streets-unknown

ebay

above: I am intrigued by that small patch of eucalyptus trees up on the hill. I don't see a home on the lot, so I wonder
who planted them (since eucalyptus are non-native to California).

__

Can't say about those Eucalyptus trees in particular, but there was a time when Eucalyptus we're considred the perfect tree for creating railroad ties as they grow so quickly. They we're planted all over San Diego (Scripps Ranch area in particular) to be used for the new Southern Pacific railroad (which ultimately connected to LA prompting Spreckles built the SD-AZ railroad). Turns out the trees we're terrible for railroad ties as they splinter easily, etc.

Makes me wonder if they we're clustered there in that picture to be used for Pacific Electric?

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by HossC

I went back to the original image and downloaded the largest version. I then set about realigning and fixing the joins/folds, and generally tidying it up. Here's the result (lots of right scrolling ).

Nice work. Especially if you are using a smaller laptop monitor. Additional thanks for your efforts here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=20570

I agree with Fred about using maximum resolution to more fully appreciate most pictures. Time to go monster monitor shopping and ditch the 12" amber monochrome?

[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck

And Chop Suey. (Any idea what exactly the "X" banner designates?

Tourmaline 
Railroad Crossing. Also note the warning sign and bell adjacent to the building at the right side of the frame and the track in what I'd guess is Alameda St. before LAUPT was built.
Also, what are the tall shadowy structures in the background? Manufacturing? Refining? Hampton Court ?
........................................................................................................
It is Marchessault (looking East) and Alameda. The slope is still there.
The shadowy structures have to be refining beyond Lyon Street.

[Flyingwedge]

From Los Angeles, California/The City Beautiful aka Report of the Municipal Art Commission for the City of Los Angeles, California (1909):


http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=18

[CityBoyDoug]

Outbound Long Beach train running through the grade crossing at Florence Avenue.....1953.


Ken Harrison

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

From Los Angeles, California/The City Beautiful aka Report of the Municipal Art Commission for the City of Los Angeles, California (1909):


http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=18

Thanks for the post.

1909 - The world's most beautifully lighted city in la monde?

Wonder whether the author visited Paris at night, which I have heard called “La Ville-Lumière.” Have to admit that the vision of those globes all lit must have been quite a sight, at least for the streets that were paved. But something tells me that many larger cities might stake their own well deserved claims to being well lit.


1905 - St. James Park
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...9573DMKL6I.jpg


1886 - Third and Broadway northern view (Let there be light?)
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...IVXAPS39AC.jpg


Vermonica
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/...p226/p2261.jpg

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Also, what are the tall shadowy structures in the background? Manufacturing? Refining? Hampton Court?

Originally Posted by AlvaroLegido

It is Marchessault (looking East) and Alameda. The slope is still there.
The shadowy structures have to be refining beyond Lyon Street.

You can see some of the industrial structures near the word "Boundary" in this picture posted by MichaelRyerson:

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Site of new Union Terminal, bounded by Macy, Lyon, Aliso & Los Angeles St., 1934

Here's a better view of them taken after the completion of Union Station


Detail of picture at USC Digital Library

The full picture shows the Aliso Street viaduct under construction, so it must have been taken in the early 1940s. There's more on the construction of the Aliso Street viaduct in post #18016.

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Tetsu

Stumbled onto a photo that makes me pretty sad, but it's a hell of a find so I figured I'd better post it anyway.

(Don't think I've seen it posted here yet, so my apologies if it has!)



Construction of the 4th Street viaduct, photo dated 1956. Photo is looking west along 4th from the corner of 4th & Olive. In the foreground we see the steps that once led up to the Fremont Hotel. In the background you can clearly make out The Salt Box. Next to it you can see what I think is the roofline of its neighbor at 333 S. Bunker Hill Ave. You can also see the Stuart Oliver house (just to the right of the top center) and the site of the Hildreth mansion next door.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the viaduct built from 1954-56? I'd guess this photo was taken in 1954, as it looks like they haven't actually started digging out the road or leveling out the ground yet.

That's obviously the end of the Fremont -- although its retaining wall survived.

But back in the beginning . . .

Los Angeles Times, November 13, 1901



Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1902




The 1910 Trip of the HMMBA to California and the Pacific Coast by George Wharton James (Press of Bolte & Braden Company, San Francisco, 1911) @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...ew=1up;seq=109

Well, maybe she signed the register on Admission Day, but the hotel didn't open until later in the month:

Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1902

Jessie Benton Fremont died December 27, 1902. I think they brought the register to her, rather than her going to the hotel:

Fremont in California @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=26


Title page to above referenced book

Believe it or not, this is also the last photo of Jessie Benton Fremont, but the background has been changed, and she looks like a guy:

Jessie Benton Fremont: A Woman Who Made History by Catherine Coffin Phillips (John Henry Nash, San Francisco, 1935) @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...ew=1up;seq=359

The hotel crest mentioned above is on this 1902 menu:

http://huntingtonblogs.org/wp-conten...ksgiving-1.jpg

Fremont Hotel interiors:

Fremont in California @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=34


Fremont in California @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=32

Back outside, c. 1902-09:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co.../id/943/rec/78

1912:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...4/id/622/rec/9

1925 looking north:

CA State Library -- http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...G2YEPXUT5Y.jpg

More Fremont Hotel posts:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...&postcount=994
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2697
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=17272 (retaining wall)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=19884

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

1946 [Hilton] Town House (Guessing that some of those buildings to the right of the the structure are at approximately 2900 Block of Wilshire and covered on GW's Blog: http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...1_archive.html
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...YESF3UNIVC.jpg

Town House built in 1929. Converted to operate exclusively as a hotel in 1937, featuring one of the most glamorous nightclubs in the city, the Zebra Room. Conrad Hilton bought the Town House in 1942, who sold it to Sheraton Hotels in 1954. Sheraton renamed the hotel the Sheraton-West Hotel in '58. Sheraton sold the hotel to the Kyo-Ya group in 1972, although Sheraton retained management. In 1978 the hotel's name reverted to the Sheraton-Town House.

When was the iconic neon erected?



http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...VTR3TPXJ6V.jpg



http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...7VB53LV2EU.jpg



http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...KYXFEAJHCM.jpg

[shadyguy]

The Stuart K. Oliver house has always fascinated me with it history and being the last man standing on Bunker Hill.
If I understand the house was a more modern structure which the owner used in his fight against the Cities phrase of run down eye sores to be torn down.
Exactly what year was his house built and was there a previous house on this sight ??

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Wow, that's very similar to the famous Earle C. Anthony Packard showroom in San Francisco:

packardinfo.com

I think they're Maybeck interiors.

P.S.

lapl

Packard Building, 1000 Hope St at Olympic (1913, addition 1928), Los Angeles
Earle C. Anthony's Packard dealership in downtown Los Angeles.
It was the site of America's first neon sign which simply read "Packard."
(now Packard Lofts LA)

P.P.S. Apparently, according to Bernard Maybeck, Architect of Elegance by Wilson, Mark, the Los Angeles showroom, housed in a wing attached to the Hope & Olympic building (?) was torn down in the 70's, as was Bernard Maybeck's Oakland showroom for Earle C. Anthony Packard. Sorry, it's gone.

Also:
"1928, Los Angeles, Packard Automobile sales room and office interiors, Earle C. Anthony
nm, Los Angeles
Bernard Maybeck; John Parkinson and Donald B. Parkinson, Architects.
Richly decorative, the Los Angeles showroom still effectively housed automobiles of the 1970s.
In the Los Angeles Packard building, designed by John and Donald B. Parkinson, Maybeck's work was limited to the interior finishes and the styling of the executive office suite."
-http://www.verlang.com/sfbay0004ref_bm_11.html

2006 LAT article w/ pix: http://www.veniceinvestments.com/pdf/reopens.pdf

Automobile dealer Earle C. Anthony's family home 1927 by architect Bernard Maybeck | 3431 Waverly Drive | Ivanhoe Hills Los Angeles

http://www.you-are-here.com/building/family_home.html

America's first neon sign, made for Earle C Anthony's LA dealership, 1923, by Georges Claude (the neon sign inventor), Paris:

thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com

Neon and Earle C Anthony, a seemingly inexhaustible topic?


Although it has probably been mentioned on NLA, Earle Anthony's "Packard neon" may have been "one of" the first of its kind in LA. Recent scholarly research seems to have debunked most of the "first" myths concerning the signage but many questions remain unanswered. http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-c...htmlstory.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zE03azLgks

If reports of substantial expense for early neon signs are to be believed, one might expect construction and display of these signs to have been very newsworthy. I'm curious whether a sign with so much presumed and alleged fanfare wasn't contemporaneously captured on film in all of its colorful glory, even if the color was added by hand. The above mentioned scholarly reports establish that available photographic evidence regarding the neon (or neons) is scarce or practially nonexistent. Its/their color/s and address remain elusive. One source discusses red or blue and then there is Hope Street or another address as the most likely electrical plug ins. http://www.packardclub.org/forum/vie...=1597&start=10 A 1993 Los Angeles Times article dipped its toe in the Anthony-Neon debate by proclaiming the "signs" were orange and blue, and displayed at Anthony's Wilshire and La Brea dealership. http://articles.latimes.com/1993-06-...re-boulevard/2 Another Times article (1991) mentioned the Wilshire-La Brea-Packard neon having glowed in 1929. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-04-...691_1_neon-art These later attributions do not seem supported by the relevant directories and other common reference sources. Other sources repeat the same La Brea-Wilshire connection. http://www.wilshirecenter.com/history/ (One can only guess that these articles are referencing the huge sign for the Fox Ritz Theater, but that is a guess and it is possible that the Ritz sign was not originally neon or another electrified gas.) Digging a little deeper into the LA Brea-Wilshire-neon-EC Anthony mystery, is a 2008-LA City Planning Dept. report. It references a 1950 Sanborn map showing that a building at Wilshire and La Brea was used as an auto sales and service facility, and that 1935-LA Times ads indicate the existence of Ray F. Chesley's used-car dealership. The report also mentions R.L. Lail & Co.s' used
Chevys and Olds. But perhaps most importantly, the report states: "[I]n the mid 1940s through 1950s, [the property] appears to have been known as the Packard-La Brea dealership. http://cityplanning.lacity.org/EIR/W...lResources.pdf See also http://neon-sign-8.wikifoundry.com/



Did EC Anthony have an interest in a car dealership or other business at or near the venerable La Brea and Wilshire intersection - with a note worthy neon sign? (I do recall a used car lot there and have heard or read a rumor about a Duesenberg that may have languished on such a lot in the '50s or possibly the '70s.) Do/Does a color photo exist of one of EC Anthony's early LA Packard neon's?



1928
http://waterandpower.org/Historical_..._Brea_1928.jpg http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=11841


Feb 25, 1930 Lots graded and ready for development

http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=11843



1930
http://waterandpower.org/Historical_...shire_1930.jpg

1954
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...ngGeneralo.jpg http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show....php?p=6068007





1915 - Earle Anthony auto showroom PRE-NEON,
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...I3S9F22X2D.jpg



BUT - Jan 15, 1914 (?) Not LA,
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ins9eDGCoo...0/IMG_6633.JPG


1929 Packard, 1000 S. Hope (Look to far right above and between what appears to be garage entrance and exit. Could that be one of LA's earliest neon signs? )
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...HLEJMJQLIE.jpg


Guessing the above Packard sign would have been on the outside directly above these two building openings.
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...5N4H1CDRHJ.jpg


1930 Nearby United Artists theater, no evidence of neon. (Puzzling why UA would advertise Fox Theater unless there was some sort of an economic tie-in.)
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...F2HHR6Y42K.jpg


1931 - Was it neon or incandescent?
http://miraclemilela.files.wordpress...931.jpg?w=1200


1940 http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/21737/rec/2








http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11861

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

There is an interesting series of photos depicting Bob's Air Mail Service Station at 5453 Wilshire - next door to your former residence. The quad-engined ("4" propellers/12 blades) and twin-boomed aircraft "The Happy Landing" memorably forms the center piece of a Mobil gas station. (Notice the Neon at the leading edge of the wings: "It's Faster - It's Better") (Some of the photos may be attributable to LIFE, others seem to be part of Pomona Pub Library's collection. All of the photos are circa '36. One or two have been posted here before, but am presently unable to locate them using the search function.) At least one of the photos depicts a painted advertisement for "Wilshire Cochran Apartments." The second photo is also noteworthy because under its nose is "A&P Parking" which was the subject of other posts on this forum.

I have wondered how the aircraft came to be placed there. Was it flown to one of the nearby airstrips (at Wilshire and Fairfax) and taxied to the Cochran site, or was it moved a la the "Spruce Goose" and "Big Rock," and later assembled. I also wonder how long it lasted. Until the Lee Tower construction?
______________________


Long gone former residents of that neighborhood in the '40s(?) (who remembered the Ritz Theater and also described another "art" theater ("Fox La Brea" 857 South LaBrea http://sites.google.com/site/wilshir...es/fox-la-brea ) have also mentioned that there was another gas station on the SW corner of Cochran and Third Street (Chevron?). Evidently, it was replaced by a mini-mall in the 80's. The A&P was replaced by "Roman Foods." But is it possible that the A&P moved west to larger quarters? Could it have moved to the location eventually occupied by an appliance store called "Adray's"? Or, was it Adray's that occupied Van DeKamps, or was that DuPars?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

http://imgzoom.cdlib.org/Fullscreen....nd=calisphere#



http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogsp...acific-in.html


[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

1940 - What became of Bob's? http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/21737/rec/2


Where it all happened.



See also http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11862 and http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11861

[Lwize]

(panoramio.com)

OK, Noir Sleuths:

The Los Angeles Mormon Temple, located in WLA on Santa Monica Blvd at Overland Avenue. It's been there since the late 1950's, and is on a sizable chunk of land, considering the area was developed thirty years prior as residential.

What was on this land prior to the 1950's temple? Was there an earlier Mormon temple? A school? Something else? Just open land?

Dazzle me with your intel.

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

From Los Angeles, California/The City Beautiful aka Report of the Municipal Art Commission for the City of Los Angeles, California (1909):


http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=18

More examples of imaginative lighting > http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=14579

http://static.squarespace.com/static...g?format=1500w

[HossC]

This picture caught my eye as I looked through LAPL's collection earlier. As well as being an attractive building, the main business of Berman Furs ties it nicely with our recent fur discussion. LAPL date the picture at circa 1937.


LAPL

The building at 9169 Sunset Boulevard is still there today. Even though it retains many of its original features, for me, the dark window and door frames make it look like a modern copy.


GSV

The building next door also has some simple but effective styling details. It must date from after 1937 as it's not in the LAPL picture. I spotted this building in a YouTube video called LOST LOS ANGELES - Sunset Strip 1964 (it's at about 1:45-1:48). Back then it was painted green and the first floor looked different (original design?).


GSV

[GaylordWilshire]

LAPL


Hal Roach got into all kinds of things besides movies--Chevrolets, and jewelry. That's his shop at 9167 Sunset.

More: http://www.berkeleysquarelosangeles....ach-house.html