noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Oops...not quite big enough to read. Here it is larger.






What is 'Swiatek Interests'?


















ucla ephemera collection


The really fascinating part is the reverse side.

[ethereal_reality]

The reverse is an amazing pictorial presentation of the south Bunker Hill properties.




ucla ephemera collection


I'm working on making it larger/
by converting it from Adobe to Windows (at least I think that's what I'm doing)


lol..I'm not exactly a computer genius.

[ethereal_reality]

This is somewhat better.

(I should have replaced the post above...sorry for the redundancies)





ucla ephemera collection

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I'm having deja-vu with Mabel Monohan's home.
It seems like I've been in that house.
Do you have the name of the street? (I see '1718' on the curb)

Your Bunker Hill material is fantastic, ethereal. As for poor Mabel--her house is at 1718 W. Parkside Ave. in Burbank. While reading about the Graham case, I saw that it sold for something like $750K about two years ago. Btw, Mabel--or is it Mable?--is buried in Rosedale, right in the heart of noir territory:


Lisa Burks

[ethereal_reality]

Here it is in segments...so you can at least see the photographs.













































ucla ephemera collection

[gsjansen]

these are images of bunker hill from the 1940 WPA los angeles study model

all images are USC Digital Archive

Heart of former Bunker HIll residential life: 3rd St. between Olive and Grand, viewed from Northwest looking Southeast




Bunker Hill, looking West down 3rd Street




West side of Bunker Hill, viewed from Northwest, camera above 2nd St looking South by Southeast



and of course, before you build it, ya gotta draw it..............

Block Number 637, bounded by Olive, 2nd, Clay, and 3rd Sts




Block Number 633, bounded by Grand, 3rd, Olive, and 4th.Sts




Block Number 632, bounded by Grand, 2nd, Olive, and 3rd.Sts

[tykxboy]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here it is in segments...so you can at least see the photographs.

Judging from the quote of Mayor Poulson and the "50%" graphic on the front, this looks like a nice propaganda pamphlet against whatever plans the city/mayor has for their destruction/etc.

Very interesting!

[sopas ej]

Wow, this is all very interesting Bunker Hill stuff! Very fascinating.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I also like that photo of the Mercury station wagon. I really like the license plate, that old "California Exempt" plate with the "E" in a shield. It's also the older, larger California plate, before the dimensions of North American plates were standardized to 12" by 6" in 1956. Prior to that, license plate sizes varied by the different states.

Perry Mason Online

The Mercury wagon that carried Barbara Graham to the electric chair, as well as the one passing the Hall of Justice
above in a Perry Mason episode, no doubt came off the Lincoln-Mercury assembly line right in L.A.--well, technically it was in
Maywood, in the Central Manufacturing District, part of which is shown here:

USC

I've never been able to find a picture of the L.A. L-M factory, but there were several Ford Division plants around Los Angeles County.
Model T's were assembled downtown at 12th and Olive until 1914, when operations were moved to a new factory at
7th and Santa Fe:

USC

It still stands:



Model Ts and As were built there until 1930, when the Long Beach factory opened:

USC

It served until 1959, when Pico Rivera came online, lasting about 20 years. Fords, Lincolns, Mercurys, several GM
nameplates, Chryslers products, Studebakers, Nashes, and Willyses were all once built in L.A.--but now, nothing.

[sopas ej]

That's amazing that the old Ford factory building at 7th and Santa Fe still exists. I know that other LA area car factories have been demolished. I believe the site of the GM plant in Van Nuys is now a movie multiplex complex; I've driven through Pico Rivera and have seen a few large shopping centers built, I assume one of them was on the site of the old Ford factory.

[gsjansen]

if you were a guest in the beautiful Victorian Melrose on Grand avenue between 2nd and 1st street in 1904, this would be the view from your room looking SE towards the old city hall



USC Digital Archives

at least the Bradbury Building (and continental building....thanx sopas ej!), are still standing.......................sigh

[sopas ej]

Great view, gsjansen. This puts things in perspective for me. I was on Bunker Hill just this past weekend, riding Angels Flight yet again (I don't know how many times I've ridden it since it reopened). I was looking towards the Continental Building, which is the tall building you see in the right of the photo you posted. It looks very similar in height (if not taller) to the old City Hall. Though it's only 13 stories tall, it rises 174 feet. It was THIS building that made LA enact a 150-foot height limit, which was in effect from 1904-1957 (with the exception of the current City Hall of course, and a few other civic buildings). Contrary to what many believe, it was for esthetic reasons that LA had a height limit for buildings, not the fear of earthquakes; the city fathers didn't want LA to become a "skyscraper" city, casting the streets in shadow.

Anyway, over the weekend looking at the Continental Building, I tried to imagine what the area looked like when it was first built. Now I know.

[gsjansen]

City hall is nearing completion in this 1927 aerial


USC Archives

The Bradbury mansion is visible in the lower left hand corner, it has yet to be turned into a parking lot for city hall.

Chinatown still exists, as this a good decade before the construction of union station.

the old times tower building, hall of records and old courthouse makes a nice tryptic

here is a view looking north up spring. in this shot, you can see the old times tower, and the old courthouse peering over the top of the hall of records


USC Digital Archives

[sopas ej]

Looking at those old factory photos made me do a search on the old Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company building.


USC Archive


USC Archive

So much detail for a factory building! That first photo looks like it could be an old college campus. Judging from the women's hairstyles and fashions of the 2nd photo, my guess is that it was taken in the later 1920s.

The factory itself opened in 1920. It was located in the area of Central Avenue and 66th Street. It closed in 1977, and I believe it was demolished some time in the 1980s. LA's huge main Central Post Office was built on the site. It just looks like a big non-descript warehouse type of building, not worth posting a picture of. It replaced the Terminal Annex adjacent to Union Station, which was LA's main post office from 1940-1989. Thankfully, that building still exists and I believe it's on the National Register of Historic Places.

Terminal Annex, 1940

USC Archive

Opened in 1940 and serving as LA's main post office/mail processing facility, within 10 years, mail operations had already outgrown the building. It was expanded somewhat, but by the 1980s it was considered an inadequate and outdated facility, hence the move to the new but undistinguished building in South Central LA built on the old Goodyear factory site.

[gsjansen]

Water shoots out from nozzles set atop Los Angeles City Hall in a demonstration by Fire Department, 1928


USC Digital Archives

23 stories high, but they made it! photo shows how water was shot out of nozzles set beside the Lindbergh beacon light atop the New City Hall 23 stories up. Skeptics said the fire department could not force water that high but Fire chief Scott proved his men could do it" Photo dated Apr. 7, 1928

[gsjansen]

i believe this photo solves what happened to the city hall linbergh beacon

city hall getting a new roof in 1956


USC digital archives

[tykxboy]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

City hall is nearing completion in this 1927 aerial


USC Archives

The Bradbury mansion is visible in the lower left hand corner, it has yet to be turned into a parking lot for city hall.

Chinatown still exists, as this a good decade before the construction of union station.

the old times tower building, hall of records and old courthouse makes a nice tryptic

Despite working with maps for a living (and a hobby), I have always had a hard time with the mental spatial associations between the different parts of downtown Los Angeles. This thread and especially this picture has really helped clarify for me the whole layout and composition of the downtown area. Even after jury duty and a few school walking trips, I never realized just how close City Hall is to the original plaza, Olvera Street, and Union Station, and the 2nd and 3rd street tunnels. I always knew that the advent of the skyscrapers pushed downtown more to the west, but inspecting these photos and maps has put it all into perspective for me. Now, if only I hadn't moved away, I could go check it out in person...

[gsjansen]

looking west across the future site of city hall at the hall of records nearing completion 1919


USC Digital Archives

If you look just tot eh left of the hall of records, you can see the court flight tracks and one of the cars at the op station.......wow!

[gsjansen]

looking across old china town west towards civic center. the federal building is nearing completion.

all this will be wiped away in the next couple of years for the construction of union station


USC Digital Archives

to truely put in perspective where this image is shot from, pico house is on the far right in the middle of the photograph. A portion of the Brunzwig building is visible across the street from pico house on the far right just above pico house

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I like those photos of downtown LA, ethereal. I was just there today. Yesterday, in my search for old photos of the Engstrum Hotel, I stumbled upon other photos that made me stare at them all night last night... I'm now fascinated by the area around the Los Angeles Central Library. Apparently that area used to be a lot more hilly than it is now.

Amazing stuff. I've also always liked that area and how 5th split to run up Hope. And the Engstrum! It's always been a favorite of mine as well, I think because it hung on so long. I'm gonna throw some more Engstrum out there:



Here's a couple from my personal collection.



1919. Looking south at the tower of the State Normal School, and the Bible Institue (AKA Church of the Open Door) behind. To the left is the Knickerbocker Building which still stands, sort of, down at Olive near 7th.



This one I love. That's one happy guy. I especially like that it's taken from the back of the Engstrum, which makes it an even more unusual image. Over his shoulder is the Briggs at 407 S Hope; behind the Briggs is the Hildreth.

Here's some stuff about the Engstrum that I think makes fascinating reading. The idea that we could have one remaining Bunker Hill hotel enchants me. Especially since it was apparently in good hands.