noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

Well, how about Gaylord_Wilshire?

[Fab Fifties Fan]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Beverly Hills with the magnificent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in the distance.



LAPL


Would one of you automobile aficionados tell me the make of this beautiful white car?

yep G_W called it. 1937 Dodge Business Coupe. They came with or without rumble seat.

~Jon Paul

[3940dxer]

National Schools (aka National Electronics Schools) at 4000 S. Figueroa, near 40th Place. (From old exam booklet.)



The building is gone. (Google street view.)

[GaylordWilshire]

Possibly posted before, but it's interesting to note how much more urban--and interesting--the intersection of Figueroa and Santa Barbara/MLK appeared 80 years ago.LAPL
Looking south on Fig toward SB/MLK.

[GaylordWilshire]

LAPL

[GaylordWilshire]

LAPL

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Possibly posted before, but it's interesting to note how much more urban--and interesting--the intersection of Figueroa and Santa Barbara/MLK appeared 80 years ago.LAPL
Looking south on Fig toward SB/MLK.

The same intersection on the night of March 6, 1966.



LAPD

The description of the photo according to LAPL is "looking south on Figueroa at Exposition Blvd." *
The city streets have become a perilous no man's land of crime, due to curfew in effect 9pm, Saturday night.

*Exposition Blvd. is an error...it should be Santa Barbara/MLK.

_____


below: The Coliseum Hotel. (this is the hotel that appears on the left in the above photographs)


LAPL

[ethereal_reality]

A couple more views of the intersection....this time in 1955.




uncanny.net

http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/fiveline.htm





uncanny.net

http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/fiveline.htm

[GaylordWilshire]

LAPL

Google Street View

Here's a church I wasn't aware of before: the University Christian Church under construction at the ne corner of
Santa Barbara and Budlong in 1924, and now. Not sure what's going on with the scoring or chalk marks on the east
face or how it was to tie in with the wing now to the east. The UCC congregation moved out toward the airport
around 1960; the old building is now the University Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Sometimes I look at pictures of this part of town--especially to the east toward Figueroa as seen in recent shots of
the SB/MLK-Fig intersection--and, where the entire cityscape isn't now given over to filling stations and strip malls and
there are still some neighborhoods of big old frame houses and bungalows under classic palms---and I wonder, what
happened? I know there are all the usual reasons of demographics, but I am still amazed by how much was just seemingly
so easily let go.

[ethereal_reality]

What a beautiful church Gaylord_Wilshire.
I've used google street views to view many of these old neighborhoods. What surprised me the most was the abundance
of old frame houses. There seems to be 10x more than I had previously expected.
I'd like to post some of the better ones on here but I was afraid you guys might think it was boring.



Let me point out the Fox Figueroa Theater.


uncanny.net




below: A wonderful photograph of the Fox Figueroa Theater.



LAPL



https://digital.lib.washington.edu/a...tructures/906/

_____

[GaylordWilshire]

e_r: I for one would not find it boring--I'm practically obsessed with L.A. domestic architecture up to WW2.

As for the Figueroa Theatre, I see that it also houses a branch of the McColloch Drug Co. It was small chain--the only other one I've ever seen a picture of was at Main & 9th:

LAPL
The buildings, if not the traffic tower, are still there. I assume those are clocks above the 4th floor on the far building;
they've been removed. Interesting how far off the corner that Acme signal is. Makes you wonder about the primitive
signaling and signage for cars in those days--supposedly there was less traffic then, but then there is plenty of
documentation of how congested downtown was--anyway, primitive traffic control, cars with zero safety features--
the accidents, as we've seen here from time to time, must have been really gruesome.

[3940dxer]

When I started exploring this thread a photo of the Hotel Nadeau caught my eye. I can't find that page now (despite much searching!), but would like to reply to it and add some comments.

I like ghost towns and in reading about them the name Nadeau comes up again and again. Remi Nadeau was a French-Canadian entrepreneur who came to California in 1861. He built up a very successful freight operation that catered to the burgeoning silver and gold mines in eastern California. This was quite brilliant - the mines went boom and bust, but Nadeau's stage company always stayed busy. In most cases, gold. silver, lead, and other metals were brought from the mines to San Pedro by Nadeau's animal teams, and then went to San Francisco by ship. (Back then there was no efficient route over the Sierras.)

He also built a large hotel in L.A., which had the city's first elevator. It was at 1st and Spring, where the L.A. Times building is now.

The great grandson of Mr. Nadeau is an accomplished historian who has published many excellent books about the early days of L.A., California, and the mining camps.

There are a lot of great images in the book - I'll start with some images of hotels and Chinatown.

The first two images here are from USC and LAPL, the rest are from City-Makers, The Story Of Southern California's First Boom 1868-1876 (pub. 1965).
















Here are an line drawing of Downey Block, the Lafayette Hotel "bus" and Chinatown:










(I wonder what hill that is in the background?)

[3940dxer]

In the first days of exploring this thread a photo of the Hotel Nadeau caught my eye. I can't find that page now (despite much searching!), but would like to reply to it and add some comments.

In my explorations of California history and ghost towns, the name Nadeau comes up over and over. Remi Nadeau was a French-Canadian entrepreneur to came to California in 1861. He built up a very successful freight operation that catered to the burgeoning silver and gold mines in eastern California. This was quite brilliant - the mines went boom and bust, but Nadeau's stage company always stayed busy. In most cases, gold. silver, lead, and other metals were brought from the mines to San Pedro by Nadeau, and then shipped to San Francisco. (Back then there was no efficient route over the Sierras.)

He also built a large hotel in L.A., which had the city's first elevator. It was at 1st and Spring, where the L.A. Times building is now.

The great grandson of Mr. Nadeau is an accomplished historian who has published many excellent books about the early days of California and the mining camps.

There are a lot of great images in the book - I'll start with some shots of downtown and old hotels.

The first two are from USC and LAPL, the others are from Remi Nadeau's City-Makers, The Story Of Southern California's First Boom 1868-1876 (pub. 1965). The post card seems to be a "colorized" version of the photo above it.

















Here are an line drawing of Downey Block, the Lafayette Hotel bus and Chinatown:










(I wonder what hill that is in the background?)

[FredH]

Pearblossom Highway cuts across southeast Palmdale, California in the Mojave Desert. I believe it was a widening and straightening of various roads heading east. One of the old roads that was cut off in the process is here:


Google Street View

(yes it snows in the high desert)

I read that Remi Nadeau ran mule teams between Los Angeles and silver mines in the northern Mojave desert. I wonder if this is what's left of one of his old routes?

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

(I wonder what hill that is in the background?)

Great post 3940dxer! Nadeau was a very interesting man.

per your question: I don't see a hill in the above photo....I believe it's a 3 or 4 story building (I could be wrong).

_____


below: The ram-shackled building along Calle de los Negros was eventually replaced by this rather impressive building.


usc digital archive




below: In the 1940s the 'calle de los negros' building sported a tacky new entrance
that was advertised as the "shortest route to Union Station".


LAPL


gsjansen covered these details much better than I have back in Jan. 2011.

Here is the link to his amazing post.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2519

_______

[ethereal_reality]

If you look closely you can find the 'calle de los negros' building in the lower left of this striking aerial photo.


usc digital archive


I have a question...is that Brew 102 at upper left with the smoke emanating from the smoke stack?
Also...what is the extremely long building just beyond this factory/brewery? Is it a R.R. building?

At the extreme upper right is the bottom half of the enormous Los Angeles County Hospital.

_____

[3940dxer]

FredH and ethereal_reality, thanks for the replies.

Fred, I appreciate the photo and you may well be right about the route name. In the eastern Sierras and in the Mojave I've seen his name in many places. I think his grandson Remi Nadeau, though in his 90's, is still alive and has been active in recent years. I've been wondering if he is reachable by email and might respond to questions. He is a true authority on California history and has a huge collection of family photos and artifacts, going way back.

e_r, those are great photos. I'm not sure what "Old Los Angeles" was but I imagine a little searching would explain it. I don't understand how there could have been very much distance between the two stations if they were both in downtown L.A., but I'm probably missing something. And good one on spotting Calle de los Negros in the aerial shot - I'd never have noticed that.

[GaylordWilshire]

USCDL

The Home Company? The Rome Company?

[transitfan]

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

National Schools (aka National Electronics Schools) at 4000 S. Figueroa, near 40th Place. (From old exam booklet.)



The building is gone. (Google street view.)

Wow! I didn't know they had torn down that building, it was still there when I moved from So. California in mid-1998. I used to see it every day going home from work at USC. Until the Harbor Transitway opened, my 446 bus, would turn east onto MLKing Blvd from Figueroa to get to the entrance to the southbound Harbor Freeway.

[PHX31]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

What a beautiful church Gaylord_Wilshire.
I've used google street views to view many of these old neighborhoods. What surprised me the most was the abundance
of old frame houses. There seems to be 10x more than I had previously expected.
I'd like to post some of the better ones on here but I was afraid you guys might think it was boring.



Let me point out the Fox Figueroa Theater.


uncanny.net




below: A wonderful photograph of the Fox Figueroa Theater.



LAPL



https://digital.lib.washington.edu/a...tructures/906/

_____

Beautiful theater and a great sign. Interesting, if you look at the sign in each picture they are different. At some point it was the "Figueroa Theater"... and at another point it became the "Fox Figueroa Theater". I wonder which came first. Probably Figueroa Theater --> Fox Figueroa Theater. Looks like they had to expand the sign upwards slightly to include "Fox".... unless they made a whole new sign that looked almost the same just slightly taller. They sure don't make signs like they used to.