noirish Los Angeles

[MichaelRyerson]

Ben Blue's
LA Times, Sept, 1959

Larry Harnisch's blog The Daily Mirror
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...nice_division/

[ProphetM]

Last fall my family and I took a Route 66 LA road trip, driving on every alignment of Route 66 there ever was in LA County. (And there were a lot of them!) I've been going over the photos my wife took with her camera and captioning everything before putting them online. Some of the stuff I have to Google to identify specifically - the proper intersection, the name of a building, etc.

In one of these searches, Google spat this .pdf out at me from some dark corner of the archives at metro.net:

Master Plan of Highways - County of Los Angeles Regional Planning District - 1941

112 pages of soul-crushingly dry reading, punctuated by fantastic old photos and maps every 2-10 pages, including some before/after from the 1920s-1941. Here's an example from pages 81-82, put together with a modern Google Street View:

(Click for full size)

Metro.net/Metro.net/Google Street View

Lots of other great pics in there, check it out!

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck

1935 Pacific Electric Map, that seems to go hand in hand with the above image. Quite large. Efforts to reduce size have been for naught.

Links below.

Front:
http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPG...it_company.JPG

Reverse:
http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPG...ny_reverse.JPG

[BifRayRock]

.

[ethereal_reality]

BifRayRock, you need to reduce the size of the map you posted or delete it.
Most people will give up on the thread while waiting for it to download.

Thanks for understanding.

__

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

BifRayRock, you need to reduce the size of the map you posted or delete it.
Most people will give up on the thread while waiting for it to download.

Thanks for understanding.

__

Yeah, although I love that they're so huge, the huge file size may not be good for some people. One thing I like about hosting my pics at Picasa is that I can inline pretty much any size I want just by changing one little piece of the URL, and can link directly to the full-sized as well. Speaking of which, I just finished uploading all my pics of last year including my LA trip, so I have a picture for the sleuths out there:


(Click image for full size)


This lovely art deco building sits at the northwest corner of Colorado & Verdugo in Glendale. The addresses are 1377-1385 E. Colorado and 237-239 S. Verdugo. The space on the corner is 1385 E. Colorado.

What I've found out about it so far is slim. The LA County assessor says it was built in 1922. At UCSF's site there is a 1969 advertising proposal to the American Tobacco Company by Pacific Outdoor Advertising, which lists the huge billboard on the roof. The Glendale library has a a couple vintage pictures of the west end of the building -

Henry's Malt Shop, date unknown

Brown Owl Ice Cream, 1946 or 47

That's all I got. Anyone know anything about the history of this now 90-year-old building? It appears to have been kept up (or restored) quite well; Google Street View from last August shows it fully occupied with 8 different businesses. Exterior signage and awnings are wonderfully consistent, too.

[MichaelRyerson]

Hollywood_1916

(1916) - Exterior view of the L.A.F.D. Engine 27, and the L.A. Police station, sharing the same building in Hollywood. LAPL

[Joe Gillis]

1625 North Cahuenga Blvd by the looks of it

http://lafire.com/stations/FS027/FS027_1913-1930.htm



http://lafire.com

Ironically destroyed by fire in 1978

Going forward in time, do those window at left match up??



https://maps.google.com/

Current building at right address is 1635 but looks like it could have been the replacement post '78

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by Joe Gillis

Going forward in time, do those window at left match up??

Yes, they very much do.
Though LA County GIS lists year of construction on that building as 1922, meaning either they are wrong or the 1916 date on Michael Ryerson's picture is wrong. It seems to be the latter - your lafire.com link has the same photo as Michael Ryerson's post, but with a date of 1925.


The assessor's parcel map dated 1960 does not list the owner of the FD parcel but it does say the Dept. of Water & Power owns the next parcel north (which is now a parking lot).
http://maps.assessor.lacounty.gov/ma...p?val=5546-007

[MichaelRyerson]

Cahuenga. I knew I'd seen it as a kid. Lost to a fire? They must have been out on a call. Yeah, that's it. Out on a call. Yes, the windows are, at a minimum, an echo of the original building. Could very well be the bones of the earlier station.

[fhammon]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Ben Blue's
LA Times, Sept, 1959

Larry Harnisch's blog The Daily Mirror
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...nice_division/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Blue

As a kid I must have seen him a hundred times on the TV but I never remembered his name.
Seems Ben Blue specialized in corny physical comedy.
There's a few videos of him on Youtube.
Here's a clever routine with Eve Arden.

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

[fhammon]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

I love this picture.

I love this photo too, taken during a very transitional period. It's packed full of history. You can even see the remnants of the Olvera adobe in the north east corner of the Plaza.
Also there's a great view of the remnants of Calle de Los Negros. I wonder if people still referred to it in the cruder vernacular then. I imagine some did.
Thanks for posting these Michael.

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Cahuenga. I knew I'd seen it as a kid. Lost to a fire? They must have been out on a call. Yeah, that's it. Out on a call. Yes, the windows are, at a minimum, an echo of the original building. Could very well be the bones of the earlier station.

In my post at least, I was talking about the windows next door to the left, not related to the station itself.

The timeline in Joe Gillis's lafire.com link indicates that the fire station moved to 1355 N. Cahuenga back in 1930, so assumably the old fire station was simply a normal commercial building at the time of the fire.

[ethereal_reality]

Just when I think we've pretty much covered the 'fringe' religions that dot the Los Angeles landscape another one comes to my attention.



below: I have been trying to locate the address of this branch of the 'I AM Activity' (notice the 'I AM' sign atop the belfry).
I thought perhaps one of you sleuths might recognize this building.


press photo 1940/ebay








below: Reverse side with info. -July 25, 1940-



__



below: Guy and Edna Ballard (also known as Godfre Ray King and Lotus)


http://www.wikipedia.org/

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[MichaelRyerson]

yes, perhaps but look at the size and location of the parking entrance relative to the equipment bay in the station pics and then look at the curb cut.

[MichaelRyerson]

Aerial view of Los Angeles near the Plaza, circa 1950

DWP/LAPL


dick whittington, undated

USCdigital image archive

Distasteful though it may be, this third image probably belongs here.


plaza aerial, 1978

(1978) - Aerial view of the Plaza area looking northeast from the top of City Hall. The Plaza may be seen in the lower left of this photo, showing the rear of Pico House and the Garnier Building. (To be completely accurate, you're not actually looking at the back of the Pico House, you're looking at the side of the Masonic Hall and the Merced Theater and just beyond that the Pico House roof and atrium visible still closer to the Plaza)
DWP/LA Public Library Image Archive

[fhammon]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

dick whittington, undated

USCdigital image archive

...but, oh, the carnage!
Those who could care less or are ignorant of L.A. history, now enjoy a little green park, a 101 freeway extension with convenient on-ramps and a little exclusive parking lot plus a clean and unobstructed view from Union Station to the Plaza. I get it. Time marches on. The present must be served.

BTW What's shown in this photo as Aliso St. at the southern foot of Union Station's rail yard, is now called "El Monte Busway". There's a little strip of frontage road on the opposite, southern side of the 101 that got named "Aliso St" but it's inaccurate and out of geographical place. It's only a "nod" to the real historical street that's now a bus-way. They could have done better.
I guess at least functionally, the 101 is Aliso St.

[dom_web]

Originally Posted by Beaudry

Funny you should mention the Hotel Elmar...check out what I wrote about it here ...plus whatever you do, don't miss the ultra-cool 1947 noir footage of the Elmar here.

This my first reply, so be indulgent.
I was not aware of all these tunnels, that's great for my knowledges.
Cool again to provide these all pixs

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by fhammon

...but, oh, the carnage!
Those who could care less or are ignorant of L.A. history, now enjoy a little green park, a 101 freeway extension with convenient on-ramps and a little exclusive parking lot plus a clean and unobstructed view from Union Station to the Plaza. I get it. Time marches on. The present must be served.

BTW What's shown in this photo as Aliso St. at the southern foot of Union Station's rail yard, is now called "El Monte Busway". There's a little strip of frontage road on the opposite, southern side of the 101 that got named "Aliso St" but it's inaccurate and out of geographical place. It's only a "nod" to the real historical street that's now a bus-way. They could have done better.
I guess at least functionally, the 101 is Aliso St.

Yeah, carnage. This photo should have yellow-police-tape around it. The first thing that occurred to me when I saw it was, 'Where the heck is the Garnier Building?' I actually thought for an instant that they had somehow moved it temporarily, then I saw the pitiful remains. Some 'official' sites say that the southern 'half' was lost to the construction of the 101 but you can clearly see in this picture that the southern half that was lost more closely amounts to 75-80% of the original building. Sad, sad picture. (Danger Will Robinson! Misstatement of facts/misinterpretation of image. See below)

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Yeah, carnage. This photo should have yellow-police-tape around it. The first thing that occurred to me when I saw it was, 'Where the heck is the Garnier Building?' I actually thought for an instant that they had somehow moved it temporarily, then I saw the pitiful remains. Some 'official' sites say that the southern 'half' was lost to the construction of the 101 but you can clearly see in this picture that the southern half that was lost more closely amounts to 75-80% of the original building. Sad, sad picture.

There was another building next to the Garnier on the freeway side that was completely wiped out, so the end that you're seeing in the earliest picture is that building. The Garnier is the building next to it with the roof in 3 segments.

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Aerial view of Los Angeles near the Plaza, circa 1950

DWP/LAPL

In the pic below you can see the other building to the left of the Garnier. The Garnier itself was nicely symmetrical at the front - a central portion with 7 windows and a higher roofline, plus equal segments on either side with nine windows each, further divided into thirds.


Chinese American Museum

In the second aerial pic you can see that the roof is reduced to the north segment and half of the middle segment.

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

dick whittington, undated

USCdigital image archive

They tore down everything to the south of the central front door, so there was just over exactly half of the building frontage left. When they did the restoration, they re-added a portion to the left of that door (including the fancy open arched portion at the southwest corner), restoring the full center segment.

In the pic below, you can tell what portion was added back. This was once the central portion of the building, corresponding to the middle segment of the 3-segment roof. Look at the stone over the second floor windows. The stone to the left of the central window is new; the older stone from there rightward is worn down so it no longer has a nice face on it.


Photo by me