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Old Posted Nov 13, 2009, 10:09 AM
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sopas ej sopas ej is offline
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Location: South Pasadena, California
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Seeing those pics of the old LA High School being moved reminded me of a story I read some years ago about a moving company in LA that used to move houses, and in the 1920s, made headlines by moving a multistory building in downtown LA.

I didn't remember the name of the company or the building that was moved, but doing a search on the USC digital archive I came across two pics of the Alhambra Hotel being moved in 1924 by the Kress House Moving Company; this has to be what I read about a few years ago. The 1920s and 1930s was the golden age of house moving because back then it was actually cheaper to move a house than to build them, according to what I read. But moving the Alhambra Hotel was a big deal. I don't remember why it had to be moved.


USC archive


USC archive

OK, now I remember the story I read; it had to do with a building called the Commercial Exchange Building at 8th and Olive; this from the Larchmont Chronicle:

"In a 1925 newspaper story, Kress was said to have moved about 250 structures the previous year, earning his firm more than $1 million. The widening of Spring, Olive and Flower streets brought Kress plenty of work. He saved the 13-story Commercial Exchange Building at Eighth Street and Olive from demolition in 1935 by cutting a five-foot section from its middle and sliding the west half of the building toward the eastern half. The half he moved weighed 5,000 tons."

From the USC archive, the Commercial Exchange Building:
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Last edited by sopas ej; Nov 13, 2009 at 10:19 AM.
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