noirish Los Angeles

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Beaudry put up a nice post on construction here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=3592

P.S.

Another shot, this time with the elusive one on the right:

"The Turning Point" (1952) Paramount/netflix

I suppose if we were to get hyper-technical, the number of tanks was in flux. I see three big tanks, but there are others too. Note the silver-like orb shape in the photo ^^^. It is doubtful that the Mercury Astronauts would have paid any attention to it, but it looks large enough to have accommodated James Cagney's blazing cry for attention. (Not suggesting this location was used in White Heat, which was evidently a Shell Refinery at 198th Street and Figueroa in Torrance.)

http://americanfilmnoir.com/_wp_gene...f583_05_06.jpg

http://americanfilmnoir.com/_wp_gene...7692_05_06.jpg

http://ridgewine.files.wordpress.com.../whiteheat.jpg

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

"The Turning Point" (1952) Paramount/netflix

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Note the silver-like orb shape in the photo ^^^.

Pfft. I was hoping that was an orange juice stand.

[WS1911]

Angeleno Heights looking north from Temple Street and Edgeware Road in January, 1897. The Temple Street Cable Railway power house is to the left of center. The top row of houses in the center are on Carroll Avenue and almost all are still there. In the last 20 years or so, most of the Victorian and Craftsman buildings in the neighborhood have been restored.

I first became aware of Carroll Avenue in the mid 1960s and at that time it was considered just a neighborhood of old houses. It's one of my favorite neighborhoods.


private collection

Click here for larger image

[Lwize]

Originally Posted by WS1911

Robinson's ca. 1917, not long after opening


ebay images

After a quick check on Google Maps, it's nice to see both buildings pictured are still around (albeit with a Moderne makeover for Robinsons). The picture is slightly misleading, however, as the corner of Seventh and Hope are in the foreground, not Seventh and Grand.
Any history on the building on the left in the background (corner of Seventh and Grand)? It's pretty well-preserved on Google Maps. Is this destined to be another loft apartment building?
What about the building (church?) on the right side of the photo? It seems to be gone on Google Maps.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Lwize

Any history on the building on the left in the background (corner of Seventh and Grand)? It's pretty well-preserved on Google Maps. Is this destined to be another loft apartment building? What about the building (church?) on the right side of the photo?

Brooks Brothers used to occupy the ground floor of the Brockman Building. Beautiful store. I spent a ton of money there. Blair's restaurant, a favorite for decades, was just to the south.

Main building: Barnett, Haynes, and Barnett (1912)
Annex: Dodd & Richards (1917)

It's on the National Register.


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

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2012/0...g_april_28.php

http://www.simpsonpropertygroup.com/.../photo-gallery

http://lac.laconservancy.org/site/Pa...ockmaneasement



gsv


gsv

That was the Third Church of Christ Scientist on Hope. It's gone but the Reading Room is still there.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2883

[SoCal1954]

Is the Willow tree, planted in the CT Plaza in 1938, by the beautiful Anna May Wong, with the opening of the new Chinatown, still in existance? It has been three or four years since my last visit, and I just don't recall if it was still there. I have checked online, but can find no further reference to it, since its planting?

About every two weeks, my wife and I usually go to the de facto Chinatown, of Monterey Park/San Gabriel for dim sum, and our specialty item, grocery shopping. However, now armed with a deeper understanding of the history of old and new (1938) Chinatown in the downtown; I may wander around a little more, and take greater note of some previously overlooked aspects--including the sole surviving Garnier Bldg.


Jenny Cho--Chinatown in Los Angeles/UCLA


ebay

I have been reading/researching deeper about her life, since first seeing her mentioned, in a couple of the old/new Chinatown L.A. history websites.


UPDATED INFORMATION:

After some research and talking to some folks in old China Town, I have come up with the answer to my own question:

The tree is no longer in existence, and was cut down to make way for a building, built some years later, directly to the rear of the historic Wishing Well.

The photo of her planting the tree, shovel in hand, was a view from the rear of the wishing well, which at that time, was open ground. The tree stood just a couple of feet or so, within the interior of the north wall of the building.

It is too bad, that at the time it was cut down, most likely in the 1960's, its historical significance was not in mind or view, just the investment in one more building, a souvenir store, squeezed in on the property, for commercial use.

[SoCal1954]

Originally Posted by WS1911

Angeleno Heights looking north from Temple Street and Edgeware Road in January, 1897. The Temple Street Cable Railway power house is to the left of center. The top row of houses in the center are on Carroll Avenue and almost all are still there. In the last 20 years or so, most of the Victorian and Craftsman buildings in the neighborhood have been restored.

I first became aware of Carroll Avenue in the mid 1960s and at that time it was considered just a neighborhood of old houses. It's one of my favorite neighborhoods.


private collection

Click here for larger image

Gorgeous photo!!

A peaceful Sunday, at noon, in old Los Angeles.

[belmont bob]

Originally Posted by JScott

Yeah, you're right, it makes more sense that it would have been in the direction of 7th. Maybe in this case I just have a reverse-image memory, and the coin shop was on the west side of Olive between 6th and 7th. I'll probably never know...

I got a lot of my coins at Robinson's, too! It was mostly at the one in Pasadena, though. The last coin my mom bought me was a MS-64 1876 20-cent piece at the Downtown Robinson's. It's worth more than a pretty penny now.


coinauctionshelp.com

That’s a real beauty. I have a twenty cent as well, but I don’t recall the year or the condition. It’s one of those coins along with the half-cent, two-cent, and two types of three-cent coins, which most people never knew we even had. Add in half-dimes and of course gold coins and the history if our change is quite interesting. And some are true works of art, but all were developed with enormous skill by the designers and engravers.

[MichaelRyerson]

Cast and crew of 'Daughter of Shanghai', 1937

Philip Ahn (top row, left, center), Anna May Wong (top, center) with other cast and crew from "Daughter of Shanghai."

LAPL

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by Lwize

What about the building (church?) on the right side of the photo? It seems to be gone on Google Maps.

Google Street View of the property near Robinson's

The 1921 Baist map shows a large Christian Science building that is probably the source of that tower. The two small buildings in the postcard between the Robinson's building and the tower are now taken up by an expansion of the Robinson's building.

Today, there is still a small Christian Science Church there. However - though old, it may be a later building, once attached to the one with the tower. In trying to compare the Baist map, slightly misaligned in overlay mode at historicaerials.com, it looks like the current small church building sits on what was empty church land in 1921, and the bigger building with the tower is now the site of the parking lot next door to the current church.

EDIT: Aha! I was right. I just found a pic from 1974 at LAPL:


LAPL
Several cars are parked outside of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, located at 734 S. Hope Street. The large church sanctuary, to the left of the Christian Science Reading Room, is shown being dismantled in preparation for its demolition. The receiving entrance of the Robinson's Department Store is visible on the left and a parking garage is present in the background.

This large brick church was constructed in the late 1880s. After serving as Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church and Simpson Auditorium for years, it became the Third Church of Christ, Scientist in the early 1910s. The Christian Science Reading Room remains on the site, but the large church sanctuary was demolished after it suffered severe damage as a result of the 1971 San Fernando earthquake.


The sign in front of the reading room is still there as well. In the photo it says "Christian Science Reading Room"; today it says "Christian Science Church".

[JScott]

Originally Posted by WS1911

Angeleno Heights looking north from Temple Street and Edgeware Road in January, 1897. The Temple Street Cable Railway power house is to the left of center. The top row of houses in the center are on Carroll Avenue and almost all are still there. In the last 20 years or so, most of the Victorian and Craftsman buildings in the neighborhood have been restored.

I first became aware of Carroll Avenue in the mid 1960s and at that time it was considered just a neighborhood of old houses. It's one of my favorite neighborhoods.

What an absolutely superb photo. I hope you have many more like this to share!

[ProphetM]

More pics of the Church of Christ Scientist, 734 S. Hope Street.

Circa 1905, when it was still Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church. Note that on the tower, one corner has a taller finial (also seen in the Robinson's postcard), and the back corner has none at all:


LAPL


LAPL


Circa 1911 - a sign now says "The Church of Christ Scientist". The windows under the big arches in the tower no longer have a star in them, and the double window above the front entrance has been altered to a single window that matches those in the tower. Most noticeably, the front entrance has been expanded:


LAPL


Circa 1920s - aside from the plant growth not a lot is different, but the finials on the tower have all been lowered, and the facades between them have been cut down as well:


LAPL


Fast-forward to 1965 - nearly half the tower has been removed, as has the vegetation, and the reading room building has been added:


LAPL


A couple interior views of the church, from 1970-71:


LAPL


LAPL

Beautiful place, such a shame that only the reading room remains.

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

As Harris Newmark wrote in his Sixty Years in Southern California (1913), "Among the meat-handlers, there were several Sentous brothers, but those with whom I was more intimately acquainted were Jean [1837-1903] and Louis [1839-1911], father of Louis Sentous [Jr] the present French Consul, both of whom, if I mistake not, came about the middle of the fifties. They engaged in the sheep business; and later Louis had a packing-house of considerable importance located between Los Angeles and Santa Monica, where he also owned over a thousand acres of valuable land which he sold some time before his death. They were very successful; and Sentous Street bears their name. Jean died in 1903, and Louis a few years later."
http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-en...of-h-hci.shtml

FWIW, this March 21, 1906 news article about the new Sentous Co. meat packing plant (the company had been sold by the family the year before) refers to Louis already being deceased:
http://physics.usc.edu/Undergraduate...Sentous%29.pdf

The confusion might be explained by this article, which says that Louis Sentous Jr. was the son of Jean Sentous, not Louis Sentous Sr:
http://books.google.com/books?id=YMU...entous&f=false

Anyway, I believe this is a postcard of the meat packing plant "between Los Angeles and Santa Monica" that Mr. Newmark wrote about:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ADVERTISIN...p2047675.l2557

The reverse side:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ADVERTISIN...p2047675.l2557

This 1903 map shows where the Sentous meat packing plant was apparently located:

Historic Mapworks - http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/...03/California/
You see the Sentous properties in the middle of the map ("Louis Sentous" and "[V] and E Sentous") . . . the "Y" intersection in the lower right of the Sentous rectangle is Washington and Adams. The squiggly line below that is Ballona Creek, and the railroad line running through the Sentous properties (upper right to lower left across the map) is the Los Angeles-Pacific RR referred to in the 1906 news article above and which would become the future path of Venice Blvd:

GoogleMaps

Originally Posted by tovangar2

This: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cien..._Metro_station) refers to the present La Cienega/Jefferson Expo line stop as being the former Sentous station on what was originally the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad.

And here's Sentous on the map, just east of Culver City:

http://thesource.metro.net/2012/04/2...rough-history/

There definitely was, at least from 1912 on, a Sentous Station on the old Los Angeles and Independence/Santa Monica Air Line/eastern half of Expo
Line, just east of La Cienega on the south side of Jefferson Blvd. It's on plenty of maps, including the one Tovangar2 posted above, and it's on this
c. 1920 Pacific Electric map (note, per caption above, that the line east of Sentous was not electrified until 1911):

Calisphere - http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb638nb72q/

However, in my previous post I was attempting to pinpoint the location of the Sentous meat packing plant. As you can see from the postcard in
my earlier post, the Sentous meat packing plant was a stop on the Balloon Route excursion. Here are a couple more views of the same postcard,
with date and location notes:

Penny Postcards from California - http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/losan...la/sentous.jpg


Auctiva.com/Ebay - http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages/...ats=0&format=0

So if the Sentous Packing Company was on the Balloon Route, where was the Balloon Route?

This c. 1910 Balloon Route brochure shows Sentous Station on the Venice Short (Venice Blvd.) Line between the Hammond and Hauser stops, not on
the Los Angeles and Independence RR/Santa Monica Air Line/eastern half of Expo Line:

PacificElectric.org - http://www.pacificelectric.org/pacif...brochure-1910/

This Balloon Route ad from the March 17, 1907, LA Herald shows Sentous Station with more detail regarding neighboring stations. It's four stops east
of Ivy Park (today's Culver Blvd./Venice Blvd. intersection) and just west of the Whitworth and Hauser stops (remember, the single-track Santa Monica
Air Line was not yet electrified east of Sentous, so it could not have been used on the Balloon Route):

Library of Congress - http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...d-1/seq-96.pdf

Let's take another look at that 1903 map, with some landmarks highlighted:

Historic Mapworks - http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/...03/California/
Blue X = Venice/National (National is about 4/10 of a mile east of Culver/Venice, and today's Ivy Street -- possibly the same as
Ivy Road on the 1907 ad -- is about 1/10 of a mile east of National)
Red X = Washington/Adams
Green X = La Cienega/Jefferson
Magenta underline = Whitworth property; likely site of Whitworth stop on Venice line
Yellow underline = Hauser properties; future site of Hauser Blvd. and Hauser stop on Venice line
(BTW, Hauser Blvd. was apparently named after another meatpacker, Julius Hauser: http://books.google.com/books?id=0hc...ngeles&f=false)

I'm not sure about the spacing between the street car stops, but the Sentous station probably would have been in or near the northern part
of the Louis Sentous property that adjoins the "V and E Sentous" property (Vincent or Vincente and Exupere, Louis' brothers and meatpacking partners),
maybe about where the S in Bueyes is.

There's also a reference to a late-19th-century abattoir in the area ("Arnaz also raised cattle, pasturing them in the area bounded by Pico,
Washington, Robertson and La Cienega boulevards. Three times a year he sent steers to the slaughterhouse at the intersection of Washington
and Adams Boulevards") in this 1939 article about Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes: http://www.expogreenway.org/History_...a%20Rancho.htm

So, I think the evidence clearly points to the existence of two Sentous Stations -- perhaps concurrently, perhaps not -- one of which was near
the site of the Sentous Packing Company plant on the Venice Short Line/Balloon Route, north of the Washington/Adams intersection,
on land owned by the Sentous family.

It's the other Sentous Station that I can't figure out. The Sentous family sold their packing company in 1905; in July 1906 a name change was
proposed from Sentous Packing to Southwestern Packing:
http://books.google.com/books?id=DvY...entous&f=false

And this 1908 article refers to an accident at the "Southwestern plant, Sentous Station":
http://books.google.com/books?id=U8k...entous&f=false

There is one reference to Southwestern Packing Company in the 1909 LA City Directory, but not in the 1915 directory or any after that.

If the Sentous Packing Company and Sentous Station were on the Venice Short Line, why would there be a Sentous Station on the Santa Monica
Air Line as well? Wouldn't that invite confusion? (with a Sentous packing house on each line that would make sense, but that seems unlikely)
If the Sentous Station on the Santa Monica Line opened after the one on the Venice Line closed or was renamed, why transfer the name if there
was no Sentous Packing plant there? I found no map earlier than 1912 showing Sentous Station on the Santa Monica Air Line.

Anyone with questions/doubts about Sentous Station is welcome to dig further.

P.S. Upon further review, since the Santa Monica Air Line predates the Venice Short Line (c. 1875 vs. 1902), perhaps the Jefferson/La Cienega Sentous Station was built first and got that name because at that time it was the nearest stop to the Sentous Packing Company a short distance away at roughly Washington and Adams, even if the Sentous family didn't own the land where that RR stop was. Since the stop on the Venice line was apparently on Sentous property and even closer to the Sentous plant, it would make sense for that stop to be named Sentous as well.

[SoCal1954]

RE: Update Post #13868

I looked on Google, but could find no recent, or any other post-planting photos, of the Willow tree planted by Anna May Wong, in the L.A. China Town Plaza.

I did go to Google Maps/Sat-View, and clearly visiible, there is one large/mature tree in the image, just inside the East gate at approx. 921 N. Broadway. I am hopeful, this is that same 75 year old Willow.

Also, I did locate one additional photo of Ms. Wong, at that 1938 planting ceremony.

It is sad, that this gifted woman, was not allowed to realize/achieve her full potential in her craft; due to the culture of Hollywood at that time, as well as the culture and laws of our society, during that era.


It is hard to believe, that these children at the ceremony, would each be at least age 80 now; similarly, Ms. Wong would be 108, this year.

ebay


tumblr.com


ebay

[ethereal_reality]

ProphetM, I'm glad you posted the photographs of the Methodist Episcopal Church/Church of Christ Scientist.
I hadn't noticed the missing stars in the windows. Every time I come across a photograph of this church my jaw drops open.
It's beyond description.



below:Here was my comment back in 2010.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

lapl

I find this unusual church VERY intriguing.
I stared at it for quite some time trying to figure out the architectural style.

Is it Richardsonian with Persian touches?
Is it High Victorian with Moorish influences?
Is it Eclecticism with Attention Deficit Disorder?

It has me stumped.

And you what, it still has me stumped.

__

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Cast and crew of 'Daughter of Shanghai', 1937

Philip Ahn (top row, left, center), Anna May Wong (top, center) with other cast and crew from "Daughter of Shanghai."

LAPL

This is one of the best photographs of Anna May Wong that I've ever seen.
Her face isn't covered in all that heavy theatrical makeup. She looks healthy and vibrant. What a joy to see.
__

p.s. I hope the willow tree is still there SoCal1954.

[ethereal_reality]

I wish I knew more about this contraption.

Los Angeles

Loomis Dean
__

[ethereal_reality]

Los Angeles, Vermont Avenue

then and now


ebay/gsv

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I wish I knew more about this contraption.

Los Angeles

Loomis Dean
__

It's called a monowheel and that's Loomis Dean shooting for LIFE Magazine, in 1952, unidentified driver/rider looking to merge with traffic.

Here he is filling up...



HotRod-LoomisDean-1952-20

and having filled up and it being 1952, he lights one up before he goes back out on the road...



HotRod-LoomisDean-1952-6



wanted to get at least one where he's got both feet off the ground...



HotRod-LoomisDean-1952-17


as you can see it's got a steering wheel...



HotRod-LoomisDean-1952-5


'am I going to miss the photographer?'...



HotRod-LoomisDean-1952-15


and this last one poses a couple of unanticipated questions...



HotRod-LoomisDean-1952-18

justacarguy

[rbpjr]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

The LA City Directories at LAPL are some help. Starting with 1932, they list 440 S. Bonnie Brae as the Vista Grande:
http://rescarta.lapl.org/ResCarta-We...oc=bonnie+brae

The LA County Assessor says it was built in 1923. I hope that's more than you knew before!

Thanks, FlyingWedge, for the info regarding 440 S. Bonnie Brae...can you imagine some of the beautiful homes that were still around in 1923 on that street?...don't know the reason for the address change from 440 S. to 400 S. and then back to 440 South...