noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

ebay
__

[ethereal_reality]

-anyone recognize this excellent art deco building? (notice the sign on the roof....is that an A within a M?)


ebay/reverse
__

[HossC]

I've found the building, and the good news is that it's still standing at 8800 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills. A couple of the property websites agree on a build date of 1938, but there isn't much other information about it. I'm not sure what the letters on the roof say, and the sign has now gone. There may still be a glimmer of hope for e_r as loopnet.com claims "Rare building top signage negotiable".


GSV

Here's a listing for the building from the 1960 Street Address Directory:


rescarta.lapl.org

[GaylordWilshire]

Judging by ER's card (esp the cars), the building appeared to me to have been built perhaps even 10 years earlier than 1938..and it turns out that it almost was 10 years (even LAC assessor info isn't always reliable)....


LAT July 14, 1929


As for the "AM" sign--it's for the the builder's "Austin Method" mentioned on the reverse of the card...


Automotive Industries Vol 43 (1920)/from "Austin Standards for Railway Buildings" (1918)



Prior NLA:

LAPL
From http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2991



And more on the intersection of Wilshire & Robertson:

The northwest corner:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10069


The southeast corner:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6898

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

ebay
__

Roscoe Shrader was an artist of note (Googling his name will produce a good deal of material)--he was also the assistant director of the Otis Art Institute by 1923. In the 1920 CD he is listed as living at 1927 Highland Ave...in 1926, "N" was added to the Highland, and he is now an instructor at Otis. In the '27 and '29 CDs, he's still at 1927 N Highland, though is now dean of Otis. He had moved to La Cañada by 1932 but was dean of Otis until 1949. (He died in 1960.)


According to this interesting bio, "The Shrader family lived on Highland Avenue in a home which was listed as one of the 'Three Best Houses in Los Angeles' in the February 1920 issue of The House Beautiful." Not finding any more pictures of it, although I'd like to think it's hiding behind the Holiday Inn on Highland...


GSV

[HossC]

I believe this is the Shrader house in 2003. It seems to have survived until sometime in 2006, when it made way for the northern side of the Holiday Inn. The house at the bottom still exists, and is visible in the Google image posted above.


Google Earth

The property was still standing when this description appeared in 'An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles'.


books.google.co.uk

[ethereal_reality]

Great information on the Shrader House GW and HossC!
as well as the Wilshire Drug building (Austin Method)
__




A guest took this interesting snapshot out one of the windows of the Stillwell Hotel.
-notice the blowing curtain on the left.


ebay


detail/ I'm not sure what all we're looking at here.

[ConstructDTLA]

^I believe its the dome to the RKO Hill Street Theater. Sad that most the structures in this image are now parking lots.

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

some interesting photographs from life magazine between the years of 1949 and 1958

looking south on flower and figueroa from across sunset boulevard 1958. if you look at the lower left of the photograph, you can see the buildings on the south side of sunset between fig and grand who's demise Beaudry had posted a page ago or so about



looking west across figueroa at the start of construction of the stack interchange between the hollywood, arroyo seco, and harbor freeways 1949. once again, the sunset block between fig and grand is visible in the lower right





looking north across 6th street of at the harbor freeway construction 1953




looking east during construction of the 101 arroyo seco parkway from figueroa 1949. the old school building is still standing and is visible on the left side of the photograph



looking east on wilshire boulevard from curson avenue 1949

A few images to complement these amazing photos? (Wish they were larger format)




DTLA from Harbor Freeway Construction. Circa '49 (Don't recall this perspective)




http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...DL46QSRS4Q.jpg



Sixth Street Bridge
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...JHYYEL6L38.jpg


Sixth Street Bridge
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...4HDA4QIMBP.jpg

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

well then i'll just add this postcard of the search light on mount echo to keep the post on topic

Shedding a little more light.




http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...HG3Y6A4LRC.jpg







http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r...TD/MTLOWE1.jpg


http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...J4E7QIK67J.jpg


http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...694EN3MUTP.jpg


http://www.mountlowe.org/wp-content/...-8-940x591.jpg


Quite a bit more here:http://www.mountlowe.org/our-collection/page/9/

[ethereal_reality]

N. Eastern Ave. & Converse St.

Power Distribution Station No. 50

GSV


-along Converse Street

GSV




What I thought was a fairly substantial art deco/streamline building turned out to be just 'walls'.

google_earth

I wonder how many stations there are like this one? -you know, al-fresco..hidden behind a faux building.


detail


It even appears that the entrance was glass.
__

[ethereal_reality]

At first I thought this was Forest Lawn.

ebay

[ethereal_reality]

before/after
ebay

GSV

-it's fun to compare. The art deco entrance has gone untouched. -neat little discovery.
__

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I wonder how many stations there are like this one? -you know, al-fresco..hidden behind a faux building.

There's another of those distributing stations on Ventura, although it's not art deco.



GSV/Google Maps

Just out of shot on the right of the aerial picture is the El Royale Motel. You can see previous posts on it here:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2192

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2209

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

At first I thought this was Forest Lawn.

ebay

From grave-cast.com:

"Valhalla Memorial Park is at 10621 Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood. Founded in 1923 by two Los Angeles financiers John R. Osborne and C. C. Fitzpatrick. Valhalla, encompasses sixty-three acres of inter-winding roads, an overabundance of tree, and shrub varietals, among other landscaped creations. Some of the key architectural highlights and points of interest you should definitely checkout if you visit this beautiful cemetery include but is not limited to: the beautifully designed water fountain and pond in the center of the memorial park."

There's more info on the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery Wikipedia page, including a partial list of the memorials. The most notable seems to be aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.


grave-cast.com

A couple of previous mentions of the Pierce Brothers Valhalla Park Cemetery:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5220

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8774

[ethereal_reality]

-thanks once again HossC. It had slipped my mind that an airplane crashed into the Valhalla Memorial Park entrance portal.
So I'm glad you included the two vintage noirish links.
__






I've searched for a good twenty-five minutes trying to locate this elaborate residence in the thread.
I tried wolf's lair, falcon's lair (out of desperation), 2869, simply lair, Hollywoodland,
and Durand Drive and came up with zilch.

-built in 1927, by developer L. Milton Wolf

http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/wolfslai.htm




today/2869 Durand Drive

http://jameskillough.files.wordpress...olfs-lair2.jpg




-the massive stone wall (with secret passages mind you) along Durand Drive (with the 85 year old estate nestled above).

http://jameskillough.files.wordpress...wolfslair1.jpg


Wolf's Lair (named after the developer) -not to be confused with Valentino's Falcon's Lair.

http://underthehollywoodsign.files.w...1/img_1436.jpg



I read where Mr. Wolf kept his pet monkeys in one of the turrets.

http://oldnewcharm.blogspot.com/2011...olfs-lair.html
__





John Lautner designed the guesthouse in 1961.

http://oldnewcharm.blogspot.com/2011...olfs-lair.html
__




I just found this.

Wolf's Lair includes your very own Tiki Bar.

http://blog.humuhumu.com/2008/06/26/...nly-75-million

[ethereal_reality]

-gone by 1925.


ebay
__

[Flyingwedge]

Tryon Ridge is just west of the Fern Dell Dr. entrance to Griffith Park and where N. Western Ave. turns into Los Feliz Blvd.

1924; it looks like there's a pool on the side of the hill behind the rectangular house at the bottom:

LAPL -- http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics42/00070725.jpg

Roughly the same view in March 2011 from GoogleEarth; the boomerang-shaped Western/Los Feliz intersection is at the right side of the photo, just east of the large T-shaped Immaculate Heart/AFI building. Fern Dell Dr. ends at Los Feliz just east of Western:

The three houses with arrows pointing to them can also be seen in the b/w photo at top. The rectangular house at the bottom is 1951 N. St. Andrews Place (1921/1929); in the middle on the left is 2000 N. Gramercy Place (1900/1924); at the top is 2166 W. Live Oak Drive (1924/1930; dates per LA County Assessor).

Here's 1951 N. St. Andrews; the roof of the house to its left can also be seen in the 1924 photo. Lots of interesting stairways and retaining walls on the hillside; perhaps even an incinerator below the lower left corner of the pool, if that's what it is/was:

Bing Maps 2012

This is 2000 N. Gramercy; if it really was first constructed in 1900, perhaps we've seen it in a photo earlier than 1924?:

Bing Maps 2012

2166 W. Live Oak, March 2011:

GSV

2166 W. Live Oak, c. 1935:

LAPL -- http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics03/00011286.jpg

The LAPL caption for this photo reads: "View of a large Spanish style home, located at 2166 E. [sic] Live Oak Drive, belonging to one of the Twentieth Century-Fox film players. In the background the Griffith Observatory is clearly visible."

Who could that have been? Don Ameche? Tyrone Power? Sidney Toler? Maybe that's Sonja Henie on the balcony?

# # #

Also in the neighborhood is 5432 Red Oak Drive. Here it is in 1931:

USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co.../id/3478/rec/2

July 2012; except for the removal of the stairway next to the garage, it appears about the same. The front wall of the house looks pretty thick:

GSV

[GaylordWilshire]

Great tour, FW...

I'd like to think that if you squint, you'd see Fox star Jane Withers on the balcony of 2166 W Live Oak... although movielanddirectory.com has her living there much later than the picture would have been taken. Anyway, Jane's star turn in Bright Eyes is worth remembering--the one in which Shirley's mother is a maid for Withers's family before she gets killed by a Pacific Electric bus in Pasadena or some swanky suburb:


davelandblog.blogspot.com


PS: Weird bit of trivia from the IMDB: "She delivered the eulogy at Rita Hayworth 's funeral."

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

That map has provided me with some new places I'd never heard of to check out! Richlor's "Planked Hamburger" doesn't sound too appetizing, lol!

Apparently there are two ways to prepare "planked Hamburger". The first, and probably the one they refer to here, is to cook the hamburger on a wooden plank over indirect heat, similar to planked salmon which is cooked on a cedar plank. For hamburger, they would use a hickory or alder plank which would impart a smokey flavor to the meat.

The second would be to surround the meat in mashed potatoes. I have a recipe for planked meatloaf that is done this way and it is quite good. This method is probably baked. Either one sounds tasty to me!