noirish Los Angeles

[Blaster]

Originally Posted by Lomara

Thankee kindly for the welcome. I found my way here after watching my L.A. Confidential bluray in honor of Curtis Hanson's passing, and started googling the locations yet again. I fell into this thread somewhere around page 1450, and I'm still back in the 1500's, but I check the current page to see if anything catches my eye, and 674 did, and I found the MLS listing, and here we are.

Did you visit the property? I thought about doing that but I'm certain I'm not a good enough actor to pretend I've got $2m to spend on a house. Maybe if I went and rented a Tesla model S first...

If it were my home, I'd go with a classic off-white interior, darker hardwood floors. Not sure about that kitchen though. I'd have to enlist a friend who does production design. (Hey, maybe SHE could help me pretend to be a buyer? The perks of living in L.A. ... )

I grew up in Downey, and for 14 years I lived across the street from the old McDonald's on Florence. I've been into Downey history for most of my adult life, so if that topic comes up, I'll be sure to jump in.

In the Koreatown area it's not uncommon to find these bright colors being used indoors and out, as well as yards with little or no vegetation and minimal landscaping. I have heard realtors refer to these homes in a deprecating manner as having been "Koreanized."

[HossC]

I'm sticking with Julius Shulman's "Job 2110: Miscellaneous buildings, 1955" today.



Getty Research Institute

I thought this one might be difficult to track down until I zoomed in and saw the writing above the door. It says "Wiancko Engineering Co", and the number 255 is on the glass next to the door. That led me to a 1959 edition of the Ottawa Citizen where I found the advert below.


news.google.com

I checked 255 N Halstead Avenue in Pasadena on GSV, but all that's there is a Best Buy .

[Lomara]

Originally Posted by Blaster

In the Koreatown area it's not uncommon to find these bright colors being used indoors and out, as well as yards with little or no vegetation and minimal landscaping. I have heard realtors refer to these homes in a deprecating manner as having been "Koreanized."

Wow, I had not heard that before.

Has anyone done the virtual tour of this property?

http://674crenshaw.com/public/vtour/...y/530400?idx=1

It's basically just a slideshow with the photos in the listing, but it also shows the property layout and matches each photo to a room on the layout, so you know which rooms you are actually looking at, and on which floor.

After looking at the slideshow, I think those floors might be original, or at the very least, not installed within the last 10-20 years. They look like real wood.

That backyard is just a sad parking lot, isn't it? Yuck. The slideshow page also shows a $2,199,900 price now. I see lots and lots of MLS listings with errors in them all the time. I wonder if it's just a typo?

[HossC]

I can't find any previous mentions of the Essick Manufacturing/Machinery Co on NLA.



The picture above is a detail of this aerial view. I've found various addresses between 1920 and 1950 Santa Fe Avenue, probably because they owned several of these buildings. Here's the description:

"Photograph of an aerial view of the Essick Factory near downtown Los Angeles, 1910-1940. The various industrial buildings span four blocks, a road extending from the lower righthand corner to railroad tracks to the left of center. Surrounding the tracks, cleared ground is visible. This site was the parent to branch plants in Little Rock, Arkansas; Elizabeth, New Jersey; Santa Ana, California; with subsidiary T. L. Smith Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Lufkin, Texas, and the Sterling Machinery Company, formerly of Kansas City, Missouri."

USC Digital Library

This is how the area looks today. Most of the buildings south of E 15th Street have gone.


Google Maps

Just above E 15th Street, I believe this is the old Essick building from the first picture above.


GSV

As an aside, here's an overhead view of the area. I know there are a couple of places where ordinal streets meet, but is this the only place in LA where two cross? In this case, due to realignment, a small portion of E 15th Street is south of E 16th Street.


Google Maps

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location.


eBay

The best clue is probably the writing on the awning at far right------------>




Here's a close-up, but the writing is a bit too blurry to be able to read.


detail



I believe this triangular area is attached to a building that's so washed out it's practically invisible.







Something like this perhaps?


detail

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[Lomara]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Great memories Earl. Thanks for sharing-
__



This is a bit of a mystery. There appears to be a run on feed!

Downey CA
ebay


ebay


ebay

So what's going on? Could it be a polling place?

So, I searched the forum for anything with Downey in it, and found this post from 2013. I didn't see anyone post a location, so I hope if they did, they will point me to it because I went on a goose chase all day.

I did not find where Tetzlaff's feed store was, but I did find out a few things about a man named Tetzlaff.

First things first: I found a Martin B. Tetzlaff Middle School in Cerritos. Is that our Tetzlaff? Who was he and why is a school named after him?

Well, all of the school district websites didn't answer that question. So I don't know what he did to get a school named after him. My google-fu has failed me on this part, but I'm not done.

I did find him, his wife, and his daughter in the 1940 census. He was born in 1906 and came here from Russia. His wife is from Los Angeles, so he must have met and married her here at least 4 years before the census. Their daughter is 4 in the census.

(12th line from the top)


Public census record 1940

Here's the thing, though: He lived in unincorporated Artesia, part of Downey Township. Is that where the Downey designation comes from on these photos? Maybe....


Public Census Record 1940


Public census record sourced from stevemorse.org http://stevemorse.org/census/eddef12...93&image=00110

Whomever put their information for the Tetzlaff's into Ancestry.com also recorded them living in Downey, which is not right. The census page says unincorporated Artesia, in Downey Township. (ED 19-125, for those following at home)

I checked the census pages for Downey proper, and the ED designation is very different (ED-19-132 to 137), so there's really no question that Tetzlaff and his family did not live in Downey proper. Downey is shown to be Unincorporated Downey in Downey Township on the census.


Public census record 1940, sourced from Downey Historical Society http://www.downeyhistoricalsociety.o...ES/383pg32.jpg

According to the census, he drove a truck for Dr. Ross Dog & Cat food co, and had been at that job for 62 weeks. Could he have made the jump from that to running a feed store in a few short years? Seems likely to me. He would have met people running the grocery and mom & pop stores, and would probably know what things were needed in local communities. The area was all agricultural and mostly dairies at the time, so maybe he saw a hole that needed to be filled. Maybe that's how he got his name on a school? By keeping all the farm communities in feed and supplies during the war?

Unfortunately, that's where I am going to leave this. I am at a dead-end for now. But it was fun finding out a bunch of land was in Downey township. I'm guessing everything from the old Rancho Santa Gertrudes property was marked that way in legal records before the cities in it were incorporated.

[HossC]

I haven't found any more information, but I did find another picture of Tetzlaff's Feed Supply. There's no mention of Downey - the description says "Los Angeles, California - June 11, 1938: As it was. Date is approximate; true date unknown." I've enlarged the original image.


www.dispatchpressimages.com

[ethereal_reality]

While searching my files for that missing Tetzlaff photograph, I found this photograph that I thought Lomara might find interesting.


found on eBay years ago

but I haven't located the missing Tetzlaff photo yet.

__

[Lomara]

Originally Posted by HossC

I haven't found any more information, but I did find another picture of Tetzlaff's Feed Supply. There's no mention of Downey - the description says "Los Angeles, California - June 11, 1938: As it was. Date is approximate; true date unknown." I've enlarged the original image.


www.dispatchpressimages.com

Thanks Hoss. In the other photo from 2013, the number 21018 can be seen above the front door, where an address would be displayed. No street was numbered that high in Downey prior to incorporation, so that's what started me looking for a person named Tetzlaff instead of a place.

[Lomara]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

While searching my files for that missing Tetzlaff photograph, I found this photograph that I thought Lomara might find interesting.


found on eBay years ago

but I haven't located the missing Tetzlaff photo yet.

__

You're right, I do find that photograph interesting! I wish we had more information about it, since Downey could refer to other places around California named after Gov. Downey.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location.


eBay

The best clue is probably the writing on the awning at far right------------>

The sign just to the right of the streetcar appears to say "...RTIN PIVO". I found the Martin-Pivo Radiator Corp at 1607 E Olympic Boulevard, so this could be near the northern end of the Long Beach Line's four track section.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I believe this triangular area is attached to a building that's so washed out it's practically invisible.

My read of the triangular shape is that it's the back of an billboard at the far end of the two-story building. I think the wires and lack of contrast confuse things.

[HossC]

Here's another subject from Julius Shulman's "Job 2110: Miscellaneous buildings, 1955". This is William Miller Instruments, Inc.



This time we get a second angle.



Both from Getty Research Institute

I found several sources which give the address of William Miller Instruments, Inc as 325 N Halstead Avenue in Pasadena. That's just down the street from Wiancko Engineering. The whole block seems to have been rebuilt sometime in the '90s, so there's nothing left to see.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Great memories Earl. Thanks for sharing-
__



This is a bit of a mystery. There appears to be a run on feed!

Downey CA
ebay


ebay


ebay

So what's going on? Could it be a polling place?

+++++++++++++++++++

These people are lined up to buy a baby chick to raise and have for dinner during WW II and before. Not sure what the chick cost but I believe it was less than a dollar..

[ethereal_reality]

Didn't they get awfully hungry waiting for the chick to get big enough to eat?

I would think a hen for eggs would have been a better choice.
__


http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/...Sign-p300.aspx

[ethereal_reality]

ebay

Originally Posted by HossC

The sign just to the right of the streetcar appears to say "...RTIN PIVO". I found the Martin-Pivo Radiator Corp at 1607 E Olympic Boulevard,
so this could be near the northern end of the Long Beach Line's four track section.

Hoss, I drove the google-mobile around in the area but wasn't able to match any of the buildings that appear in the vintage transit photo.
__




But as I headed west on Olympic I noticed another building at 1235 E. Olympic Boulevard (outlined in red below)


google_aerial



This building was obviously quite beautiful back in the 1920s or 1930s.


gsv

Like so many other older buildings, the once grand arched windows are now boarded over.


detail.


I looked up the building permits, but the initial construction permit appears to be missing
despite there being a long list of alteration/repair/mechanical permits. (a total of 50 for this one building!!!!)

http://ladbsdoc.lacity.org/idispublic/


I thought perhaps someone here at NLA might be able to dig up some history associated with this building.
_

[Flyingwedge]

Does anyone recognize this unidentified location?



487940 @ Huntington Digital Library, Ernest Marquez Collection

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

But as I headed west on Olympic I noticed another building at 1235 E. Olympic Boulevard

This building was obviously quite beautiful back in the 1920s or 1930s.


gsv

Like so many other older buildings, the once grand arched windows are now boarded over.

I thought perhaps someone here at NLA might be able to dig up some history associated with this building.

It was the Gotfredson Truck Corporation back when 1235 E Olympic was 1235 E 9th. GW posted about it in post #17993, although two of the three images now seem to be missing. The text and pictures below are from www.gotfredson.org:

"In March of 1924, plans were announced to construct a Gotfredson Truck Corporation factory branch at 1235 East 9th Street near downtown Los Angeles at a cost of $100,000. Gotfredson hired the oldest and most respected architectural firm in Southern California - Morgan, Walls and Clements -- to design the building on a piece of property measuring 235 feet by 175 feet.

Gotfredson planned to use the Los Angeles branch initially as a sales and service dealership and eventually develop it into an assembly plant for the West Coast. He hired 12-year California resident and experienced automobile manager G. O. Fries to run the L.A. operation. Benjamin Gotfredson flew to California in person to attend grand opening ceremonies of his Los Angeles factory branch on Friday, August 1, 1924.

The Los Angeles branch was hailed as a modern work of architecture. The American Institute of Architects, Southern California chapter awarded the building a first prize for "beauty and efficient arrangement" in the category of one-story commercial building erected in 1924. In fact, the branch was two stories in the front and one story in the back. Sales offices and a large showroom with picture glass windows occupied the front of the building. The rear accommodated parts and service departments. Commenting on the A. I. A. award to a Los Angeles Times reporter in 1925, Fries said "We knew we had one of the most beautiful buildings of its class in the city; but we had no idea that we would be the recipients of this special distinction." A good manager never misses an opportunity for some good press. "The building does credit to our product, the Gotfredson truck. And the truck, if I do say so, certainly reflects credit on the building; for it is sturdy, attractive in line, efficient in performance and exceptionally durable and economical," Fries said.

Seven months after opening the Los Angeles dealership for the sale of new Gotfredson trucks, Fries announced in February of 1925 that the branch would begin selling used trucks as well. The dealership used a vacant lot east of the building to display the vehicles, which were refurbished by mechanics in the Gotfredson facility. "The work is done in the shops, but we have an outdoor display park, where truck operators can both inspect and test these units to their full satisfaction," said Fries. These used trucks apparently were acquired through trade-ins during sales of new Gotfredson trucks. "Gotfredson trucks have created their own demand in this territory, and in making sales we have acquired some good used equipment," Fries reported."

Here's a 1926 image of a Gotfredson truck.


USC Digital Library

[ethereal_reality]

A couple of weeks ago we had a 'mystery' photo of an employee parking lot at Universal Studios in the late 1960s.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=36854



The following slides were taken during a studio tour in 1966.


eBay

I had forgotten all about that rather underwhelming 'Universal City' sign

I've been trying to figure out which hill it's on. (Jungmann?) -Hoss?





eBay

A Man Could Get Killed? I'm not familiar with this movie.










eBay




eBay

The massive sound stages of Warner Bros. Studios are visible in the distance.





eBay

Everyone's favorite, the Psycho house.





eBay

I believe this is Lana Turner's "dressing room".




A glimpse inside.


eBay

I bet those boy scouts could care less.

_

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

The Los Angeles branch of Gotfredson Truck Corporation was hailed as a modern work of architecture. The American Institute of Architects, Southern California chapter awarded the building a first prize for "beauty and efficient arrangement" in the category of one-story commercial building erected in 1924. In fact, the branch was two stories in the front and one story in the back. Sales offices and a large showroom with picture glass windows occupied the front of the building.

Thanks for your research Hoss. I always appreciate your help.




From winning an architectural award.......to looking like this!

__

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A couple of weeks ago we had a 'mystery' photo of an employee parking lot at Universal Studios in the late 1960s.





A glimpse inside.


eBay

I bet those boy scouts could care less.

_

...I believe those are Cub Scouts.. ER, were you in Boy Scouts?. I was both...Cub Scout and Boy Scout.. I was kind of a laid-back Scout overall.

Norman rockwell estate