noirish Los Angeles

[UphillDonkey]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Nice cover photo, Engineeral!

I don't know if you can walk across it any more, or if it's even advisable, but they did film on the bridge in 2016 for a montage sequence in La La Land.



Actually, the La La Land Locations website I got this photo from, HERE, indicates that one can indeed still walk across this bridge.

I drive under the bridge almost daily on my way to swim at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center pool. You can still walk over the bridge but the anti-suicide fencing and notices kind of spoil the experience.

[Engineeral]

The July 1928 Pacific Electric employee magazine had the cover photo below:

showing the company's funicular railway - part of the route up Mount Lowe. I don't think I would ride that attraction, although there must have been some sort of safety brakes - maybe something that clamped on a rail if the cable tension came off.
Source: https://archive.org/details/pe-mag-1...age/2/mode/2up

The magazine has the following write-up about the cover picture, focusing on the prominent yucca flower at left (and on the hillside below too?).

YUCCA ON COVER PICTURE

The Yucca, or “God's Candles,” as it is becoming familiarly known, is one of the outstanding wild flower growths peculiar to. California's hillsides, and thriving particularly well in the Southland. A beautiful species of this plant adorns a prominent foreground in this month's cover picture.

The Yucca hears the largest cluster of flowers of any plant in the temperate zone, authorities tell us. The individual plant lives about twelve years, blooms once and dies. Frequently small plants come up from around the root, but most Yuccas originate from seeds produced by the huge blooms, After the blossoms wither, the seed is blown by the winds to nearby points where it takes root.

So enthusiastic were campers and visitors to mountain retreats where this plant thrives that the plants were rapidly being exterminated by the large number of them that were cut. Consequently a law forbidding the cutting of them was placed in the statutes and the flower will be preserved as a natural beauty of our hillsides.

Flower lovers are beginning to plant them in their home gardens, raising them from seed, and one of the beauty spots of Southern California which has attracted widespread attention is a whole hillside covered with Yuccas in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park.


I seem to recall seeing a very similar image, without the yucca flower, but with the woman waving and the conductor with his hat on the middle platform. Maybe the yucca is "shopped in"?

[ethereal_reality]

.



We've had this issue in the past. The page numbers can vary depending on. .um. . .how your computer screen is set. (or something like that )..I'm on page 3000.



The Lady on the Balcony.


I hope this building is distinct enough that one of you noirishers recognizes it. (cuz I don't)


eBay

There's even a caryatid.


Get to work minions.
.

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

The Lady on the Balcony.

I hope this building is distinct enough that one of you noirishers recognizes it. (cuz I don't)


eBay


.

Don't ask me why, but I remembered the lady holding up the front entrance near the lower left corner:



La France Apartments entrance @ CA State Library


Coincidentally, the post below was done almost exactly nine years ago from this moment:

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

The La France Apartments were at 681 S. Burlington, between Wilshire Blvd. and 7th Street.

Dec 9, 1917:

USC Digital Library -- https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/Share...4ar74m688mj85f

GSV

The La France in 1978:



CA State Library


Mrs. Fighiera's name is on the La France's building permits. The architect, Francis Xavier Lourdou . . .



January 7, 1912, Los Angeles Times @ Newspapers.com


. . . was born in -- surprise! -- France:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...xavier-lourdou


The La France's occupancy permit is dated February 18, 1914, and the demo permit is dated May 19, 1999.


And three cheers for 3,000 NLA pages!

[GaylordWilshire]

Amazing, FW


Here's another flamboyant Francis X. Lourdou design--the Brunswig house on Adams Boulevard.

Its full story, with more images, is here.

[ethereal_reality]

.


detail

Alma Rubens?



eBay


.

[odinthor]

e_r: Silent film actress and Ricardo Cortez's sometime wife . . .


https://immortalephemera.com/68916/r...dan-van-neste/

[Lorendoc]

Yes 3000 pages or 60,000 posts...and uncounted hours of enjoyment. Many thanks to e_r and the usual suspects!

[Lwize]

25 posts per page (60,000 / 25 = 2400) FTW!

This is what our forefathers intended.

[Martin Pal]

We can all agree on 60,000 posts!
___

A noirish look at the Hollywood sign. It's looked a lot like this lately, but this was taken in 2014. Source: Flickr

[ronev760]

Hey Guys!

This thread is so informative and I thank all of you that contribute. You are a great mix of fantastic minds. It is nice to have this as a reference.

I come here with a question: Why are many historic masonry building's first floor below street level? There are many pictures of first floor windows half way below the sidewalk. Have you heard of the term "mud flood" ?


RE

[ethereal_reality]

.

Welcome to NLA, ronev760.

Good question but unfortunately I don't have the answer.



A mystery location.

Here's an intriguing slide of a large mansion that appears to have been coverted into a religious organization.



eBay



There's writing on the slide but I can't make much of it out. I see the words Los Angeles and Bills Burfley(?)







A second slide has the date. (and we see Bills again)



35mm slide - Feb. 1964


.

[sadykadie2]

I think that "B" is a "Z". Zurfley. Not a whole lot clearer, but there it is

[Noir_Noir]

rescarta.lapl.org


943 S. Hoover Street was home to the Women's University Club from the mid-1920s to 1948.



lapl.org

I cannot find a build date - it appears on the 1907 Sanborn.

It was the home of United States district judge Oscar A. Trippet for about ten years from 1909.

It was demolished in 1970.

[GaylordWilshire]

943 S Hoover was built as 943 Carondelet...


LADBS


LA Express 6-25-1906


LAT 12-06-1908


There were several street realignments and name alterations concerning Hoover Street going on between the time that James Henderson built the house and when he sold it to Trippett, and in later years; I was confused about how the Hoover dogleg seen on the '21 Baist map was straightened out and the street was extended through the site of 943 until I found this BP:


LADBS

[HossC]

Here's 943 Carondelet/Hoover on a 1931 aerial photo. Looking at Historic Aerials, Hoover was also widened when it was straightened.


mil.library.ucsb.edu

[ethereal_reality]

.


Excellent sleuthing you sleuthy sleuths!..Thanks so much Noir Noir, GaylordWilshire and HossC.


And you too, sadiekadie2...How have you been?
.

[ethereal_reality]

.
ONE DAY LATER.

Here's another photograph of a mystery mansion recently listed on eBay...(no longer listed)






And the reverse.



hmm. .Adams near Hoover. .. I should probably know this one. (but don't)

Anyone have an idea?


.

[ethereal_reality]

.


And here's a second photograph from the same eBay seller...(no longer listed)




An interesting and unexpected ridge visible in the distance.




The reverse.



As you can see, it says Magnolia near 7th Street. (with a small question mark hovering above)





May 1, 1910
.

[Carter_Auto_Motive]

Hello, all!
This is my first post here, having found this forum a week or so ago while doing some research related to a Los Angeles address in the 1930s, and now that I've looked through (I think) every post from the beginning, hopefully I'll be able to contribute a bit eventually! My area of interest is race cars of the late 1920's through WWII, and Los Angeles was a hot bed of tracks, builders, and drivers through that era. I'll get back to that later, but for now, I wanted to take a stab at @ethereal_reality's recent posts.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
ONE DAY LATER.

Here's another photograph of a mystery mansion recently listed on eBay...(no longer listed)

Anyone have an idea?


.

This one looks to be 1109 W. Adams, and if the 1910 date is correct, it was at that time owned by one Spencer H Smith of Manhattan.

There's a ton of info on the property, as well as a bunch of other Adams St properties, among others, here.

Also at the above link is this bigfoot film footage-quality picture of the house, likely taken not long before its demolition based on the cars parked out front.


Historic Los Angeles Adams St Blog

And here, from Historic Aerials, the 1921 Baist.


Historic Aerials

And the 1911 LA CD:



LAPL

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.


And here's a second photograph from the same eBay seller...(no longer listed)


An interesting and unexpected ridge visible in the distance.


As you can see, it says Magnolia near 7th Street. (with a small question mark hovering above)



May 1, 1910
.

I couldn't come up with much on this one, just the real estate company on the sign in the picture, from the 1910 LA CD.


LAPL


Hopefully I followed all of the posting rules properly, but if I did not, please feel free to let me know so I can delete/correct anything that needs it!