noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

I found this 1923 advert for the International Harvester Company on eBay recently. I'm only posting the top half because the lower half just contains a load of boasting about their trucks that has nothing to do with Los Angeles. I didn't immediately remember the Simons Brick Co, but the name has come up a couple of times before. MichaelRyerson mentioned "the arrival of the three Simons brothers in 1880" in post# 14216 and tovangar2 even posted a picture of one of their bricks in post# 12443.


eBay

The advert below is from the 1923 CD, the same year as the advert above. It publicizes the "Simons Vacuum Wall System" and their hollow tiles.


LAPL

I'm guessing that the Simons brothers were part of Simons and Hubbard. This is their listing from the 1886/87 CD.


LAPL

The first mention I found of the Simons Brick Co is in the 1900/01 CD, where their address is listed as 223 Stimson Block. By 1909 they were at the 125 W 3rd Street address as seen in the 1923 CD advert above. By 1927, their advert lists these plants.


LAPL

By 1932, the Simons Brick Co had moved their main office to 1195 S Boyle Avenue. They were still there in 1942, the last listing I found.

[tovangar2]

As MichaelRyerson mentioned in his post you referenced above, William Deverall's "Whitewashed Adobe" has an excellent history of the Simons brickworks.

Nice bit of info re Simons here

The documentary ("The Brick People") referenced in the article is here


http://calbricks.netfirms.com/brick.simonssimons.html



P.S.


Simons ceased operations in 1952, leaving a rather large hole in the ground at Plant No. 3 (formerly Simons, California).
How it was filled is described below (I assume this is LAT, it wasn't identified):






http://losangelesrevisited.blogspot....-co-album.html

Tourmaline gave us the visuals on the Stanley Mosk County Courthouse here

[lemster2024]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for the link Slauson_Slim! Interesting indeed

Great slides of the University Club of Los Angeles HossC.
I always get it confused with the Athletic Club (of course that one is still standing).
_________



below: This 1931 photograph is currently on sale at eBay. I feel I should know this building, but I can't place it at the moment.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOS-ANGELES-...item2345f55a9d

reverse

This is the former Student Union building on the U.S.C. campus, across from the Tommy Trojan statue. The street running across the photo is Hoover, before it was closed off to traffic and renamed University Avenue. As an undergrad, I used to sit across from this building at lunch and between classes. I'd post a pic for comparison but I've forgotten my password for the image storing program I was using...sorry! Use the Googlemobile and navigate to the heart of the campus and you'll see this structure....I think the intersection was Hoover & McClintock? Just a guess....

[agakhan61]

My files show a Frolics Garden at Washington Blvd. in Culver City opening May 24, 1932. Very popular with movie stars.

Stark's Bohemian Cafe also featured drag shows with Francis Renault in 1932. He was known for his lavish gowns and was billed as the greatest female impersonator since Julian Eltinge. Fanny Brice was a frequent visitor at Stark's.

Stark's opened in 1928 as the Pom Pom Cafe, became Stark's in 1930 and closed its doors in November, 1932 due to the declining health of Eugene Stark. The club had its share of troubles including police raids in June 1932 claiming the club violated a "county dance ordinance."

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

below: This 1931 photograph is currently on sale at eBay. I feel I should know this building, but I can't place it at the moment.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOS-ANGELES-...item2345f55a9d

Originally Posted by lemster2024

This is the former Student Union building on the U.S.C. campus, across from the Tommy Trojan statue. The street running across the photo is Hoover, before it was closed off to traffic and renamed University Avenue. As an undergrad, I used to sit across from this building at lunch and between classes. I'd post a pic for comparison but I've forgotten my password for the image storing program I was using...sorry! Use the Googlemobile and navigate to the heart of the campus and you'll see this structure....I think the intersection was Hoover & McClintock? Just a guess....

It doesn't look like the Googlemobile can get into the campus. I found the picture below on Wikipedia where the title says "USC Gwynn Wilson Student Union". I don't know if the roads have been renamed, but on Google Maps the building appears to be at the intersection of Trousdale Parkway and Childs Way, which are the same street names as a USC campus map I found.


Wikipedia


--------------


Thanks for the interesting article on the earth removal from Bunker Hill, tovangar2.

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Thank you oldstuff, except Zobelein died in 1936 as his modest memorial attests:


find a grave - angelus rosedale cemetery

Joseph Maier (1851-1905), on the other hand, was pretentious until the last, and beyond:

find a grave - angeles rosedale cemetery

I wonder how three 35-acre parcels turned into a 350-acre ranch? And which is correct? Just how big is the combined Zobelein property on the 1921 Baist map? I cannot work it out.

There's this article too, from my post yesterday: http://articles.latimes.com/1997/sep/07/local/me-29791

Sorry for the wrong date. That's what I get for working without my glasses.

On another note, I think that the beautifully carved scroll and lily pattern on Zobelein's tombstone is every bit as beautiful, if less pretentious as Maier's. The stone carver who did Zobelein's was truly an artist.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Rene & Jean was a French Restaurant started sometime in the early-to-mid '30s by Rene Faron, Leon Bevillard, and Jean Ibert. The first locations appear to have been 719 W 6th St and 3070 W 7th St, the latter formerly the home of 1920s restaurants called Hickey & Jackson and Martini & Gallotti. By 1936, the downtown location had moved to 639 W S Olive; both Olive and 7th were operated at least into the '40s. Later, the 7th St location appears to have been operated alone, by 1956 becoming "Jean's French Restaurant." Below is a colorized shot of the Olive location and a b&w version with the addition of a burglar alarm that's the same make or monitoring company as the one at the 7th St location seen at bottom. Just below is the interior of 639 S Olive. In 1938, Rene was the president, Jean the treasurer, and Jean's wife Belle the secretary. All three location are now gone.





All LAPL

I don't think we've ever seen a picture of the 3070 West 7th Street location after it became "Jean's French Restaurant". This postcard shows that the name had already changed by 1954.



eBay

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by HossC

Thanks for the interesting article on the earth removal from Bunker Hill, tovangar2.

That was a good one, wasn't it?.

Part of Bunker Hill may have ended up in Montebello, but bricks made of Montebello clay built much of LA, even including the paving at Olvera Street. Plus millions of Simons bricks (3,800 tons) were shipped north starting in 1906 to rebuild San Francisco after the earthquake. It was the 1933 Long Beach quake that finally put an end to using bricks as a building material in an earthquake zone. Simons went out of business less than 20 years later.


http://simonsbrickyard.blogspot.com/...-is-my_26.html

[lemster2024]

Originally Posted by HossC

It doesn't look like the Googlemobile can get into the campus. I found the picture below on Wikipedia where the title says "USC Gwynn Wilson Student Union". I don't know if the roads have been renamed, but on Google Maps the building appears to be at the intersection of Trousdale Parkway and Childs Way, which are the same street names as a USC campus map I found.


Wikipedia


--------------


Thanks for the interesting article on the earth removal from Bunker Hill, tovangar2.

Thanks, HossC ! Once the streets are blocked off, USC has a tendency to start renaming stuff...since the '70's as part of its massive building campaign, there was a concerted effort to make the campus more pedestrian friendly. The main thoroughfare down the middle of the campus when I was there (1973-77) was still called University Avenue (but it was actually Hoover). The other interesting thing most alumni know about this building is that way up, one of the small gargoyles is that of a monkey thumbing his nose at the figurine across from him...too bad it's not visible in this pic!

[HossC]

I found the following text and image at folklore.usc.edu:

"When they were building Student Union back in the early 1900’s or whenever it was that it was being built, the architect had a certain way he wanted it to be built. He wanted the main entrance to open up towards Tommy Trojan, but the president at the time wanted a convenient entrance that he could park his car in front of, so he demanded that the front entrance of the building opened towards like Trousdale. The architect got mad and up at the top of the building there are little gargoyles like every like three spots in the design and right over the main entrance to the building he put, he made a gargoyle of a monkey “thumbing his nose,” which back then was the equivalent of sticking your middle finger out at someone."


folklore.usc.edu

Although the articles I checked all seem to refer to the monkey as a gargoyle, I think it's actually a grotesque. Gargoyles are decorative waterspouts.

[ethereal_reality]

I love that cheeky monkey.


We've located numerous 'Hollywoodland' homes that date from the original housing development,
but I don't believe we've seen this particular one on NLA.


originally from the Los Angeles Herald Examiner


This charming 1926 home stills stand at 3358 Deronda Drive.


GSV

If you like, you can see the interior here:
http://modernlivingla.com/2014/08/ex...anyon-spanish/


While I was up on Deronda Drive, I drove the google-mobile a bit further and was somewhat surprised to run into, not one, but two gates.

I've marked the gates with red lines.





There is a very nice looking two story home directly behind the gate on the left. (and numerous other homes...as seen in the aerial)


GSV


On the right there is a much larger gate.


GSV

...and in-between the two, there is a Mulholland Hwy. street sign (even though you're unable to go there)


detail / gsv

So...I'm a bit confused how a street can be blocked off like this. What if the drive had been blocked off a half mile down the hill?
Would that have been allowed? -even though it's a public street
__

lemster2024, thanks for identifying the mystery building in my 1931 snapshot.
I always forget about the many fine buildings that are on the USC campus.

_

[Those Who Squirm!]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Thank you, but I'm still confused by "The 2 Johns Sample Rooms" bit as it boxed within a common border with the beer advert. Were/are "sample rooms" a thing?

I'm assuming the sample rooms were tasting rooms, as large breweries frequently offer to their visitors and tourists. The name "Two Johns" does seem odd; could it be there were a father and son in the business, both named John?

[ethereal_reality]

This is an interesting photograph that I recently found in an old file of mine. (an enlargement of a photograph found on http://waterandpower.org/

"Ducommun Street Yard, 1930"




There are several interesting details:

#1 The tall smoke-stack at far right. (at first glance I thought it might say "Soap King', but the first word doesn't appear to be 'Soap')

#2 The attractive building with the belfry-like 'turret'.
The only thing I could think of was the Amelia Street School.

...but the building doesn't match the Amelia School (see the Amelia School here)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=23757

[ethereal_reality]

...and in the same area.

"(1953)- Overall view of Water Yard at Ducommun Street."



http://waterandpower.org/

What pray tell is a Water Yard?

__

[HossC]

Both images are part of a load of information about the Ducommun Yard at waterandpower.org.

[Hollywood Graham]

Name on the smoke stack was White King, a large selling soap in L.A..

[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by Hollywood Graham

Name on the smoke stack was White King, a large selling soap in L.A..

According to this Los Angeles Times article, the Los Angeles Soap Company had ceased production by 1987:

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-12-...es-soap-s-home

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

Both images are part of a load of information about the Ducommun Yard at waterandpower.org.

I read through the information (I admit, rather quickly), but I didn't see a description of the building with the belfry-like 'turret'. Did I just miss it?
__

[tovangar2]

Soap and water, both good reads. Thx!

[ethereal_reality]

You don't find many vintage images of Los Angeles with an advertisement for Falstaff Beer.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Falstaff-Bee...-/111612587104



...but here's one.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/30993133@N04/

"J-line southbound on Seville Avenue somewhere in Walnut Park (looking north)"

This is interesting....I've never heard of 'Walnut Park' before.
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