noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

Just for today I'm changing Noirish LA to Irish LA to wish everyone a Happy St Patrick's Day .

From 1956, this one was taken at St Patrick's Catholic Church at 6153 Cahuenga Boulevard in North Hollywood.


LAPL

And another from two years later at the same church.


LAPL

Since the 1950s, St Patrick's Catholic Church has moved around the corner to 6160 Cartwright Avenue.

[Martin Pal]

^^^



Faith & Begorrah!

[Ed Workman]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I hadn't noticed the blade sign hanging diagonally over 'Follies Village' until I enlarged it.


detail

And I thought it was the Morgan Hotel, but at this point in time (1950), but it appears to be the The Paul Hotel. (sign at far right---->
__

One more thing, the design over the P in PHOTOS looks like pool cues to me. I wonder if it was a billiard parlor before it became a photography studio.

Holmes Books?
There was a Holmes books in Hollywood in the 80s. I assume it may be there still as it specialized is rare books and books on special subjects, such as Baja California.
Hmm the street runs N-S [ well I have trouble with that] The name escapes

[MartinTurnbull]

I was kinda stunned to see BifRayRock's photo of the two Brown Derbys on Wilshire.

I was under the impression that the first one (1926) lasted until 1932 when it was torn down to make way for LA Olympics athletes housing, which then became the Chapman Park Hotel. Meanwhile Brown Derby moved to 3927 Wilshire in the Bilicke Building at Wilshire & Gramercy (which soon became the short-lived Hi-Hat and later Perino's) Then in 1937 the second Brown Derby on Wilshire was built.

But none of that can possibly be now that the ever-surprising BifRayRock has conjured this image.

Explanations? Theories? Ideas?


[QUOTE=BifRayRock;7731735][COLOR="Indigo"][SIZE="3"][FONT="Tahoma"]


More images of Wilshire from the unsorted LIFE magazine files and a surprise (or two).


In this remarkable image, there are two Brown Derbys. Assumed the bowler was was reassembled. But this picture disproves that notion and the hat was resized - for more headroom..



(You saw two Brown Derbys. Remember to tell your friends.)

[tovangar2]

Thx BRR.

Here's the second Brown Derby under construction. I bet the first one wasn't built of brick:

Originally Posted by tovangar2

pinterest

......................................................................................


And speaking of double domes, for some reason I decided to check on Elsie McDonald's address, 465 N. Western Ave.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

"Woman Drunk Driver" 6-17-60


ebay

The handsome Rosly, as it's called, is still there (built 1920, designed by LA Smith) on the left (but I bet Elsie isn't. She'd be 102 about now):

gsv

I noticed a little domed building across the street and along a bit:

gsv

Has this one come up before? What a gem (check out those curved custom tiles). It immediately reminded me of the Janss Dome in Westwood, only on a much smaller scale:

wiki



just above sunset

Turns out it was built as a Janss office (I didn't know they had business in this part of town, although various Jansses did build homes in nearby Windsor Square) in 1928, the year before the Westwood building. Percy Parke Lewis did the N Western Avenue office, and, although he did a ton of buildings and homes in Westwood (Fox Village Theater, Chateau Colline et al.), Allison and Allison is responsible for the larger Janss dome.

It's a Buddhist Temple now, but it formerly did duty as Czech-American social hall.



.............................................................................




No excuse not to celebrate if you're in LA today





.

[HossC]

Today's Julius Shulman post takes us to Long Beach. It's "Job 878: Kenneth Wing, Baptist Church (Long Beach, Calif.), 1950".



A close-up of the exterior.



The interior is laid out like a theater ...



... complete with an upper tier of seating.



I've left out several shots, most of which were near duplicates, but I liked this one.



All from Getty Research Institute

The trees have grown, but the building looks the same. The First Baptist Church can be found at 1000 Pine Avenue, Long Beach.


GSV

[ethereal_reality]

Squish!


ebay






Car crushed by meat truck at 5060 W. Jefferson. Mrs. Bernice Little 4-5-60
------


Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

[GaylordWilshire]

[QUOTE=MartinTurnbull;7743653]I was kinda stunned to see BifRayRock's photo of the two Brown Derbys on Wilshire.

I was under the impression that the first one (1926) lasted until 1932 when it was torn down to make way for LA Olympics athletes housing, which then became the Chapman Park Hotel. Meanwhile Brown Derby moved to 3927 Wilshire in the Bilicke Building at Wilshire & Gramercy (which soon became the short-lived Hi-Hat and later Perino's) Then in 1937 the second Brown Derby on Wilshire was built.

But none of that can possibly be now that the ever-surprising BifRayRock has conjured this image.

Explanations? Theories? Ideas?

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

[COLOR="Indigo"][SIZE="3"][FONT="Tahoma"]


More images of Wilshire from the unsorted LIFE magazine files and a surprise (or two).


In this remarkable image, there are two Brown Derbys. Assumed the bowler was was reassembled. But this picture disproves that notion and the hat was resized - for more headroom..



(You saw two Brown Derbys. Remember to tell your friends.)

There are prior posts on this--

Basically, the BD #1 opened in 1926 at 3427 Wilshire; a BD branch opened at 3927 Wilshire, in the Bilicke Building, in 1931, replacing an earlier effort of Herbert Somborn called the Hi-Hat; this became Perino's in 1934. The 3427 hat ran until the new hat was built 1/2 block east at 3377 Wilshire--at the nec of Wilshire and Alexandria--in 1936.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

ebay

Car crushed by meat truck at 5060 W. Jefferson. Mrs. Bernice Little 4-5-60

It looks like all the buildings are still standing.


GSV

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

...............................................


And speaking of double domes, for some reason I decided to check on Elsie McDonald's address, 465 N. Western Ave.


Has this one come up before? What a gem (check out those curved custom tiles). It immediately reminded me of the Janss Dome in Westwood, only on a much smaller scale:

wiki



just above sunset

Turns out it was built as a Janss office in 1928, the year before the Westwood building. Percy Parke Lewis did the N Western Avenue office, and, although he did a ton of buildings and homes in Westwood (Fox Village Theater, Chateau Colline et al.), Allison and Allison is responsible for the larger Janss dome.

It's a Buddhist Temple now, but it formerly did duty as Czech-American social hall.



I hope LA Conservancy, or someone, is keeping an eye on it.

We've actually visited this structure before, but the negatives seem to have gone missing. http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=17843


Also known as Sokol Hall. Maplewood and Western Ave.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics19/00019059.jpg

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Also known as Sokol Hall.

Thank you Tourmaline. The building was known as Sokol Hall back in its Czech-American days, as a center to promote the Tyrš philosophy.

It's AKA Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #588.

Chuckaluck's question is now answered ;-)

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by HossC

It looks like all the buildings are still standing.


GSV

Ye gods, or faith and begorrah, on the other side of the tipped-over meat truck, is that the pretty sad-looking top of some poor tree?, evidently a dead one if the incident happened in April. The "now" pic has a hopeful very young Ginkgo.

[BifRayRock]

Maplewood Ave has a familiar ring.

Wonder how much thought architects and builders put in to anticipating future car designs.

Twenty-two years from now, in the year 1950 - if we last that long - all cars will be tall and narrow, just like D Whittington's T.

1928
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...oll170/id/6869








GoogleSVU

Room to spare!

'50 Buick Roadmaster
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...714b176f5c.jpg

[ethereal_reality]

Has anyone heard of 'Robinson Hall' in Pasadena?


ebay

What caught my eye was the 'bridge' on the right hand side of the postcard.



reverse / postmarked 1956

ebay






Much to my surprise, it's still there!


google_earth

If you look closely you can make out the 'bridge'.







It's rather difficult to get a good view of it from the google-mobile.


gsv

There's a glimpse of the bridge.........................................................

Does anyone know the history of this place?

__

[ethereal_reality]

Policeman with a mini-me.


ebay

"1930 Ford truck in front of a Packard Dealership in Los Angeles."

What's going on with the top globe of the street light... -usually it's a plain white orb, right?

__

[ethereal_reality]

Pretty lady stuck in high water, Los Angeles 1952.


ebay

(hmmm.....the water doesn't look too terribly deep. )
__

[Wig-Wag]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Pretty lady stuck in high water, Los Angeles 1952.


ebay

(hmmm.....the water doesn't look too terribly deep. )
__

Yes, but its raining, the car is British and is equipped Lucas electrics. Lucas - "The Prince of Darkness".


Cheers,
Jack

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by HossC

I thought I'd take a quick look at the locations of the recently mentioned parking garages on 4th and 5th Streets before the garages were built. These two photos are from the same set, which USC date as circa 1910. In the first, the Grand Haven furnished rooms stands at 535 W 5th Street - the future site of the Grand Central Garage. The Grand Haven name is in the CDs from 1908 to 1920. There's a demo permit for a "hotel" at 535 W 5th Street dated 03/22/1920.

It took me a while to realize that the large white building behind the Grand Haven was the Engstrum. Although we have seen the side before, it's normally hidden by the Edison. In the background is the Huntley. The State Normal School on the left, and the Sherwood Apartments on the right, can both be seen more complete on the original image.


Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

The Grand Haven was built by a member of LA's Sentous family, as this building permit notice attests:



November 1, 1895, Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL


Previously, the NE corner of 5th and Grand had been the site of a small duplex. It's on the 1888 and 1894 Sanborn Maps, and
it can be seen in the next to last image in this post, at the left edge.


1896 LA City Directory:



ProQuest via LAPL


This c. 1900 photo looks south down Grand Avenue at 5th Street, with the Sentous/Grand Haven at left. At right is a bit of the
c. 1887 retaining wall from the unbuilt M. L. Wicks home. Above the trees past the end of the wall is the prominent tower of the
Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church on Hope Street, between 7th and 8th:



CA State Library ("Los Angeles streets, ca. 1900")


Eventually, the Sentous Hotel was known simply as The Sentous, before becoming the Grand Haven:



1906 LA City Directory @ ProQuest via LAPL


This looks NW from 6th and Hill at the Grand Haven in 1913; you can see "1896 J Sentous" near the top of the building:



CHS-5822 at USCDL

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Mr. Keaton playing ball on the lawn.

acertaincinema

This wonderful house has survived. The address is 1608 Pamela Drive, Beverly Hills.

google_earth

-although, the vast expanse of lawn, which I found so inviting, is gone now.

__

There seems to be good news re restoration of the 1925 Buster Keaton estate. Last September the people who own it bought back a huge chunk of what was sold off. The story is here. The pool area is now reattached to the estate, but I can't quite figure out the lawn.

Big bunch of interior images of Buster's place here


Gene Verge was the architect:

"Gene Verge Sr. was an important Los Angeles architect whose designs made significant contributions to the architectural heritage of Pasadena and southern California.

Gene Verge, Sr. (1893-1953) was born in 1893 in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada, and immigrated to southern California with his family in 1895. He was a member of the St. Vincent College (now Loyola University) Class of 1911 and studied at the Beaux Arts School of Architecture in Paris. He worked with many leading architecture firms before establishing his own firm, Gene Verge & Associates, in 1928. In addition to St. Luke Hospital, Verge is also known for his designs of: the Dominguez Memorial Seminary, Compton (1924); additions to St. Joseph Hospital, Orange; St. Finbar Church, Burbank (1946); St. Mary’s Cathedral, Colon, Panama; Church of the Incarnation, Glendale (1951); the J. V. Barrow Residence, Windsor Square; the P. N. Snyder Residence, San Marino; the Buster Keaton Residence, Beverly Hills (1925); and the W. G. Hunt Residence, Berkeley Square. [In Pasadena], Gene Verge, Sr. designed residences at 1441 San Pasqual Street (1931) and 1105 Linda Vista Avenue (1925)."
- California Historical Resources

Verge did St Luke's Medical Center in Pasadena in 1933. It's been sold & saved to be repurposed (probably condos):


I got interested in Verge b/c of this plain, 1922 house and its interesting (to me anyway) history. It was built just three years before Keaton's Italian-style palace:

MLS/trulia

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Policeman with a mini-me.

ebay

"1930 Ford truck in front of a Packard Dealership in Los Angeles."

What's going on with the top globe of the street light... -usually it's a plain white orb, right?
__

I don't know about the top glob-- assume it's just a half-dome of a bulb cover rather than spherical.... but rather than being in L.A., the Packard dealer was in Pasadena at the nec of Colorado and Catalina... D. E. McDanald Packard...gone now.