noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Very interesting posts gsjansen & sopas_ej.

I see in the above photos (post#1279) that the German United Methodist Church
lost the top portion of it's twin towers at some point.


And Beaudry, thanks for naming the various mansions on Bunker Hill....it makes the view that much more interesting.



Below: View from State normal School, 1909.


usc digital archive

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

this 1910 view looking east must be from the Engstrum as that is definitely the intersection of 5th and grand.

a very nice view of Pershing square before this view was obliterated by the construction of the Edison building. boyhowdy! man did this joint get hemmed in but quick by surrounding structures down the road.

what with beaudry's posting of the happy fella on the north side of the Engstrum, and this image on the east side.....dayum, this joint offered at one time, some of the finest view wise hotel rooms in town! I'd love to find a view looking west before the construction of the Sunkist building


USC Digital Archive

I agree, from the Engstrum. The towers of the church got progressively less ornate and shorter, much in the way the Auditorium Building/Auditorium Hotel did (lots of pix here).

[ethereal_reality]

I'm not sure if these photos from 1913 have been posted before.



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Above: Does anyone know the history of The Conway, Maryland Apartments, or the Key West Apartments?
I love the architecture of The Conway. I'm also curious about the sun room/skylight on the roof of the Maryland Apt.

I also see a Hotel Sequoa in the middle distance.

[Beaudry]

Looking west from the Engstrum, you'd peer into the Touraine. You would have looked at the Zahn Mansion until 1912...before they built the Rubaiyat (south of the Briggs) -- The Briggs has been renamed the Barbara Worth. (I like this shot because it's a "back view" of BH -- you can see how the Rose Mansion was hemmed in by the Fremont in front of it, and the 1923 Mutual Garage kitty-corner at 4th & Grand) This is 1933 so a couple years before the Sunkist and so the Mount View apts still run along 5th. Then:



The Sunkist, the retaining wall...check out the pictures of the model at the end of this.

These pictures came from this page of this guy's cool Chandler page!

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

usc digital archive


Above: Does anyone know the history of The Conway, Maryland Apartments, or the Key West Apartments?
I love the architecture of The Conway. I'm also curious about the sun room/skylight on the roof of the Maryland Apt.

I also see a Hotel Sequoa in the middle distance.

I'm guessing these were taken from atop the Normal School. The Key West was at 533 S Grand so was replaced in '27 by the Mayflower Hotel. Everything along the other side of the street became the Biltmore, the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Garage, and Pacific Mutual Life Insurance in the 20s.

I confess to not knowing anything about their history but agree that they are very cool...

[gsjansen]

great images ethereal_reality, these are indeed from the normal school, (no where else they could possibly be from.)

wow, to think that the Engstrum, survived all those years to witness the changes of 5th street through the decades.....................speechless....absolutely speechless............i love this!!!!!

[gsjansen]

Originally Posted by Beaudry

[

thank you, now i understand the overhead photo of the library fire all that much more.

still, it looks like a mighty fine view to the west............

[ethereal_reality]

Here is an excellent view of the San Carlos Hotel with it's ornament still intact. The year is 1913.



usc digital archive

[gsjansen]

wow! what a shot

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

usc digital archive

it clearly puts into perspective the image posted by Beaudry, particularly regarding the location of the briggs and the hildreth in relation to the Engstrum



it also positively confirms that the this image is indeed taken from the Engstrum



here is an image i found shot from the intersection of 4th Street at Figueroa looking east.


LAPL

the photo is not dated, it shows the Briggs on the south side of 4th, and then the hildreth mansion on the north side of 4th.

is that the Engstrum poking it's head up a few buildings to the left of the central library, (or is that the top of the tower of the normal school)?

this photo nicely shows that until the construction of the miserable 4th street viaduct, 4th did not extend heading west further than hope street, due to the steep terrain.

did i say wow already????


WOW!

[gsjansen]

USC Digital Archive

1965 view from above Beaudry between 4th and 5th

is that still the briggs at the intersection, of hope and 4th.............errrrrr where did 4th go?....oh there it is, all the way down there!

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here is an excellent view of the San Carlos Hotel with it's ornament still intact. The year is 1913.



usc digital archive

The following photos are a continuation of the 1913 panorama beginning in the above photograph.



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Above: What is the 'tower' with guy wires rising just to the left of the Mammoth Shoe House sign??
You can also see it along the right edge of the previous photo. Look closely, and you can even follow the guy wires.




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[sopas ej]

Wow, so many cool pics!

Beaudry I really like the one that shows the 5th Street retaining wall in detail; you can see the tunnel entrance to the Edison Building which still exists, and you can see the arches. I'm wondering if those arches were also some kind of tunnel entrance, maybe to the Sunkist Building? Or were they purely decorative? I really like the On Bunker Hill website too. I have yet to further explore the website on Raymond Chandler. I have a book called "The Long Embrace" written by Judith Freeman; the author chronicles Chandler's life and visits the places he lived; it's a very interesting book.

________________________________________________________________


Looking north on Garfield Avenue at Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, 1930s. Notice the metal "STOP" sign embedded into the roadway. Before road striping became standardized, these were installed in the early 1920s to mark the center of the road at an intersection and as a STOP sign.

LAPL

I never thought I'd see these in real life until I stumbled upon one some years ago in my town of South Pasadena. I finally took a picture of it today, May 16, 2010. I wish I had taken a picture of the other side of it because it says "SAFETY KEEP TO RIGHT."


Photo by me

I'm wondering why it still exists. But I'm glad it does.

[gsjansen]

now kids, don't try this at home........yoiks! I get all woogley inside just looking at this stunt. what a girls gotta do just to get a part in this town!


LAPL


Actress Monica Lewis stands on a ladder underneath the tower clock on the Eastern Building, at 849 S. Broadway. "A reminder that standard time returns at 2 a.m. tomorrow. Actress Monica Lewis gets set to turn back clock an hour atop downtown building". Photograph dated: September 23, 1950.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

now kids, don't try this at home........yoiks! I get all woogley inside just looking at this stunt. what a girls gotta do just to get a part in this town!

Actress Monica Lewis stands on a ladder underneath the tower clock on the Eastern Building, at 849 S. Broadway. "A reminder that standard time returns at 2 a.m. tomorrow. Actress Monica Lewis gets set to turn back clock an hour atop downtown building". Photograph dated: September 23, 1950.

Naturally, Monica Lewis and a lofty downtown clock reminds me of Harold Lloyd in Safety Last (1923), who, it turns out,
is just a few doors away from the Eastern Columbia in this shot:


doctormacro

For some reason, I always thought the illusion of height has something
to do with the "clock building" having been up Bunker Hill, but the actual explanation is in this interesting video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynuOQvVaFMo



And here's a still from Lloyd's Never Weaken(1921). I see the Union Oil Building in the background, but can anyone identify
the building under construction?


doctormacro

Btw--you were all very busy over the weekend--great, great stuff guys.

[BrandonJXN]

Anyone have pictures of Bunker Hill during it's redevelopment during the 60's?

[gsjansen]

there is a scene in the move "The Turning Point" with William Holden, and Alexis Smith, (and everybody's favorite cuckold patsy Ralph Bellamy), where William Holden, and a witness who he is interviewing get chased out the back door of a restaurant on Hill Street by hoodlums. They elude their prey by running up the circular fire escape of the Hotel Central, which is located on clay street between 3rd street and 4th street.


California State Library

After reaching the top flight of the fire escape, William Holden then runs down a corridor, and exits out the front door of the Clayton Apartments on to Clay Street which is next door to the Hotel Central.


California State Library


were these two buildings internally connected to each other, or was this just another hollywood cinematic directorial license?

[gsjansen]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

Anyone have pictures of Bunker Hill during it's redevelopment during the 60's?

they're kind of depressing. here's a few.

here's a particularly nauseating image taken in 1969


California State Library

This is looking south from approximately 2nd street on what used to be Bunker Hill Avenue. Grand avenue is on the left. and what is kind of hope street is on the right.

This particularly repulsive aerial from 1970 captures the CRA's scorched earth policy in all it's horror


LAPL

Here's an aerial taken in 1965


USC Digital Archives

There are still a few homes and buildings on bunker hill avenue. almost everything west of hope has been cleaned from the face of the earth

I might as well add one more from 1966 of a CRA official gazing down at the handiwork from the roof of the casa alta, (next door to the Ems), on Olive Street.........probably wondering where he can get some goats to munch and clear out the tumbleweed and scrub between olive and clay


USC Digital Archive

[ethereal_reality]

gsjansen, very interesting trivia about the circular fire escape featured in 'The Turning Point'.
It's amazing you were able to place it (AND find a photo).
You're quite the 'noir' sleuth.

The clock photos were great fun as well.
The first one with Ms. Lewis made me tingle in my nether regions (what you called..'woogely').
The sight of her balanced on that damn ladder at the top of the Eastern Columbia Building is extremely vertiginous.

[ethereal_reality]

Speaking of vertigo inducing, can you believe a pilot actually took off from the roof of the Los Angeles Railway Building at 1060 S. Broadway.




Above: It was for a scene in a 1920 silent film. (the title of the film escapes me now)*
If I remember correctly, he fell almost five stories before he swooped up and landed at a nearby airport.






Below: A much later photo of the Los Angeles Railway Building showing it's height.
I'm not sure why the arrow is there.




usc digital archive



*After much 'googling', I believe the film is 'Stranger Than Fiction' (1921) starring Katherine MacDonald.

[gsjansen]

in "Kiss me Deadly", Mike Hammer begins his search into the reason why Cloris Leachman's character was killed, his 1st stop is supposedly 127 flower street.

however, the house that he go's into, which is supposed to be the flower street address, has a great retaining wall entrance walkway from the street with an amazing labyrinth of stairs and verandas that Mike Hammer walks up. whenever i searched for a photo of the house on Flower Street, I could never find it.

i stumbled upon this photo which is definitely the house that is supposed to be the flower street address. The photo indicates that the house is located at the intersection of Sunset and hill.


LAPL

here is another image taken from further away showing the entrance walkway from the street.


California State Library

apparently the automobiles are parked on hill street, thus making the foreground street to be sunset boulevard.

does anyone have any information on this house?

i happened upon this undated photo, (my guess is 1900 or so). It's called a panorama of Elysian Heights.


LAPL

it appears to me, that it is taken from on top of fort moore hill looking north west. The house at the intersection which is to the right of the woman standing with the children, appears to be the same house. (it's a tad far to really make out). so if this is the house, i am then further assuming that sunset boulevard is the street that runs at the bottom of the hill, and the intersecting street is north hill street.