noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

Some FoMoCo plant info is here.

[Chuckaluck]

Thank you Gaylord Wilshire. I am embarrassed that I did not find your posts on the subject. Probably due to my choice of search terms.

Since Mr. Ford did not start producing his ModelT until 1908, one would assume the "early" 12th and Olive facility had a smaller footprint than the one you pictured on Santa Fe and 7th. Do you know the exact function of the Santa Fe facility? In other words, did it produce specific parts, or was it a warehouse, or was it used to assemble a final product? Thank you again, not just for answering my question, but for all of your other insightful posts!

http://media.photobucket.com/


Unknown location and date:
http://unitedcats.files.wordpress.co...embly_line.jpg

[so-cal-bear]

.

[KevinW]

Originally Posted by fhammon

Quoted for truth.




Great project! What's the time span going to be? How far back? What area? Downtown?
I have a personal obsession with L.A. from 1850 - 1890

I'm a big fan of the books by Harris Newmark and Horace Bell
I wish somebody would make a movie or TV series about Los Angeles in the mid to late 1800s.
It was a lot more interesting and often a lot more dangerous than Deadwood ever was.

I'm going back as far as Photography will take me. Once we built the Pico House, we could then extrapolate other buildings photographed with it and then once we built those, worked our way out. As of right now, I'm working on downtown, Pershing Square, bunker hill. The places that have really changed over the years.

If I can find the money, eventually, I'd like to do the entire city at least as far back as 1900. Just imagine LA Noir, but you have a time slider in your car (or on your watch) and as you drive around, you can see what is there now or what was earlier.

Eventually, I want to populate the different eras with period cars and fashions. Plus, I want to have a button that makes foliage disappear so we can actually see some of these places today.

Anyway, it's years and huge$$$ until I can get it done but it is my dream! And this thread feeds it every day.

[GaylordWilshire]

Chuckaluck: Don't be embarrassed--the search tool here is pretty clumsy. I only found that old post of mine by searching my own name.

As far as I understand it, the first downtown plants assembled parts shipped from the east; so did the succeeding 7th & Santa Fe plant until it was expanded in the early '20s to also produce whole bodies for both L.A. & S.F. assemblies, which I think included stamping.

[Chuckaluck]

"Old" Ascot Park? "About 63rd Street, East side Los Angeles?" (May be marked early 1900's, but based on the cars and cameras, more likely late teens, if not later.)

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu

"Barney Oldfield races his front-drive Christie against a Curtis bi-plane at the old Ascot track (1913)"
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics28/00048898.jpg

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

When I started exploring this thread a photo of the Hotel Nadeau caught my eye. I can't find that page now (despite much searching!), but would like to reply to it and add some comments.

I like ghost towns and in reading about them the name Nadeau comes up again and again. Remi Nadeau was a French-Canadian entrepreneur who came to California in 1861. He built up a very successful freight operation that catered to the burgeoning silver and gold mines in eastern California. This was quite brilliant - the mines went boom and bust, but Nadeau's stage company always stayed busy. In most cases, gold. silver, lead, and other metals were brought from the mines to San Pedro by Nadeau's animal teams, and then went to San Francisco by ship. (Back then there was no efficient route over the Sierras.)

He also built a large hotel in L.A., which had the city's first elevator. It was at 1st and Spring, where the L.A. Times building is now.

The great grandson of Mr. Nadeau is an accomplished historian who has published many excellent books about the early days of L.A., California, and the mining camps.

. . . . .
. . . . .

Pardon me if this is a replication, but IMHO it is worthy of multiple viewings!



http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingA.../I0006073A.jpg

[kznyc2k]

Originally Posted by so-cal-bear

Wow! I am not a video game fan, but Damn! those screenshots look so sweet! Amazing work the game developers did with the scenery of old Los Angeles. I honestly love the black and white screenshots the best. It looks like I'll be going to Fry's this month to get the game.

Glad you like them, and I agree that the black and whites best hit the noirish sweet spot......it's been a blast driving around looking for pics. Anway here's another batch, this time in the pouring rain:













After all that sleuthing, it was time to get a bite:



And some end-of-day entertainment:

[Chuckaluck]

Some of these images fit right in with the Hotel Nadeau. Source indicates Los Angeles (S. W. corner of 1st and Los Angeles Sts.), but the Ghirardelli's sign gives me pause. "L.M. Railsback Co." graphics seem very progressive but so does a Kerosene Tractor.

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingA.../I0027650A.jpg

Wash produce carefully. Grocery near Clara Street? (Near Union Station?) (http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8...ed=0CB8Q8gEwAA)
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/...and=calisphere



Bacon, Lard and . . . Bubonic Plague, what a combo!

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingA.../I0027122A.jpg

136 San Pedro Street? Never know what was allegedly found there!

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingA.../I0027111A.jpg

"Rear S. W. corner of 1st and Los Angeles Sts."

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingA.../I0027651A.jpg

Is this really LA's first street car, with "Monrovia" markings?

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingA.../I0006063A.jpg

Spring and 1st, 1886?

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingA.../I0006071A.jpg

First Electric Car on Pico Sreet 1887 C.C. Pierce? Could this be the reason Honda had a Pico Blvd Office, thinking ahead for a Hybrid?
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingA.../I0006079A.jpg

Love this tractor/locomotive. Express train (of its day) from San Fernando Valley? The size of the tractor suggests it was not particularly fast and capable of pulling long distances - except for downhill - but it sure looks "special." "Los Angeles Special from San Fernando Valley ca 1886"

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingA.../I0006080A.jpg

[so-cal-bear]

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[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by kznyc2k

Glad you like them, and I agree that the black and whites best hit the noirish sweet spot......it's been a blast driving around looking for pics. Anway here's another batch, this time in the pouring rain:

Truth versus fiction? '41 one off design by Peter Stengel

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00093/00093497.jpg

[BifRayRock]

Wise Tires in Inglewood, ca. 20's. Prices look reasonable, no waiting.

http://content.cdlib.org

June 22, 1920 Earthquake aftermath, Inglewood Theater.

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt2r29q8jm/

http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com

[BifRayRock]

Beautiful day to get in the "T" and go!


Idyllic picture of Culver City, ca. '20
http://content.cdlib.org/

Mulholland Drive and Franklin Canyon, ca. '30
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/...yout=printable

Elysian park Dr. veggie gardens, '30
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/

Griffith Park Bathing '27
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt100031nb/

Boulevard through Elysian Park '31
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt5b69r6nz/

Lake Hollywood, '41
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt9k4036p4

[jg6544]

Looks like the Griffith Park pool is still there, just off of the northbound onramp from Los Feliz Blvd. to the 5.

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

Looking North towards Universal City. In the lower center, the Highland exit ramp peels away the the left. The wide island shaped area between the 101 and Cahuenga West, now a highway maintenance yard, may in fact be the former site of Monkey Island. (More on that soon.)




Looking East, the Hollywood Reservoir dam is on the right. (The one that gave way in Earthquake.) Years ago while jogging by the lake I saw an enormous turtle swimming across the surface near the corner of the reservoir, in the right foreground. There's a small caretaker's cottage in the lower right, hidden by trees.


The camera faces South here, towards Hollywood. That's the Pilgrimage Bridge across the 101, with the Ford Theater (hidden) on the left. Big townhouse development in the foreground (not too bad looking compared to so many of the hideous new projects in these hills), but I know nothing about it. The Southern part of Whitley Heights is behind the freeway, on the left.

When did this stretch of concrete and asphalt cease to be called the Cahuenga Freeway?
Postcard appears to be from late '40s early '50s
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt3k4031c6/?order=1

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Gaylord_Wilshire, There are some old bones still rattling in the building on the northwest corner of Wilshire and LaBrea.



below: I believe this the same building that appears in your 'google' photo (above) on the the northwest corner of Wilshire & LaBrea.
What first caught my eye was the graceful curvature of the building.


unknown

......and then I found this postcard view with the street location.


found on ebay

____________________________

Turn the clock back 60 years and look west and you might have seen this scene. Wilshire and Detroit, ca '47 (Was looking for an overhead shot of Bob's Air mail on Cochran) Note that the A&P is now a Market with four leaf clover. If someone can figure how to enlarge, it seems like it has plenty of detail.

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt9d5nc791/

A couple more?

The "Flying Saucer" is definitely visible in this '47 shot, but it does require some zooming. (Burnside and Wilshire) "Jekyll's?"http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt0p3015jj/ http://www.google.com http://www.google.com

GW ought to know this shot well. A little further East on Wilshire ca. '47. Little Tampico, Mexican Food? Again, the shot is available in a larger version but doesn't translate well here.

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt2z09p9t3/

[3940dxer]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

____________________________

Turn the clock back 60 years and look west and you might have seen this scene. Wilshire and Detroit, ca '47 (Was looking for an overhead shot of Bob's Air mail on Cochran) Note that the A&P is now a Market with four leaf clover. If someone can figure how to enlarge, it seems like it has plenty of detail...

[Johnny Socko]

I can't tell you all how pleased I am that the thread is still alive & kicking. I was an avid follower in 2009 & 2010, and even submitted a few posts. Then I had to start working in the office, so there went my fun!

Now I'm back home temporarily, so historic L.A., here I come!

BTW, love the photo above of Wilshire & Detroit. I used to live at Wilshire & Cochran (2 blocks west), in a 2-story Moderne building that is still there. I'm proud to say that my unit was the only one remaining with its original Murphy bed.

[ethereal_reality]

Chuckaluck: I don't want you to think we're ignoring the photos you posted.
You see, I posted the bubonic plague photographs back in June 2010.

That said, I think it's great that you're posting them...the subject matter is still fascinating and many 'newcomers'
here are unaware of posts that are nearly two years old! I have to admit I enjoyed seeing the photos again.
___


below: The following 'bubonic plague' photographs are before/afters.
The first shows a lunch room at 450 Gladis Ave. 'before' the clean-up, and the second is 'after' the clean up.
The entire building is gone! This happened all across the poorer areas of L.A.

It's interesting to compare the two.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here is a before and after photo from the plague study group.
You can see the Shell logo in both pics, as well as the R.A. Rowan sign.






Berkeley/Bancroft



Below: The buildings are completely gone.


Berkeley/Bancroft

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by Johnny Socko

BTW, love the photo above of Wilshire & Detroit. I used to live at Wilshire & Cochran (2 blocks west), in a 2-story Moderne building that is still there. I'm proud to say that my unit was the only one remaining with its original Murphy bed.

Sounds uncomfortable.

http://you-are-here.com/modern/cochran.html