noirish Los Angeles

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm

With regard to the station photo, the photo above definitely isn't the old Palms Station, which was always distinct from Culver/Ivy, and located the better part of a mile to the west.

The following map with my annotation shows the location of several past, present, and future rail stations.


(Bing Maps snip, annotations are mine.)



Regarding Ivy Substation which seems to have been next door to Ivy/Culver City, at this location IRL I've always felt like the Air Line ROW is many yards away, much than you'd expect them to be from the station building. Is it possible that Doug's picture was taking with a telephoto lens, which might make the two buildings seem much closer than they are?

ETA: The Porter Sanitarium doesn't go back nearly as far as I'm sure we all would like. IIRC it was founded around 1924, and if they met anyone at Palms Station they didn't do it for long; PE had already drastically cut service west of Culver Junction by the time the sanitarium was opened. As for what took place in the facility, it wasn't terribly noirish. It seems there was a sort of vogue for places like this, where you'd go to stay for a few weeks, eating simple healthful meals and getting plenty of outdoor exercise between meals.

The sign on top of the building says CULVER CITY PALMS. I assumed that meant this was the Culver City Palms station.

Maybe the sign was put there by mistake?


Pacific Electric

[HossC]

LAPL date this photo as circa 1940. The description says: "Looking across the street towards the Culver City-Palms station, located at 9013 Venice Boulevard, serving both the Pacific Electric Railway Company and the Southern Pacific Railroad. The tracks near Venice Boulevard serve the Venice Short Line and those seen behind the station serve the Redondo via Playa del Rey Line."


lapl.org

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Here is the Palms ~ Culver City station.


Pacific Electric photo

When I worked in Culver City in the early 80's the building on the far left of this photo was still standing, but empty. They wanted to save it and I believe it was turned into an art gallery with surrounding park area or something of the type. If memory serves, this was a triangular strip of land with Washington Blvd. on one side and perhaps Culver Blvd. on the other. That would put it at a bit south of the #2 blue circle on the above map. I do not recall it being close to Venice Blvd. although, obviously, I could be mistaken. The early 80's were awhile ago.

E_R, you have mentioned you worked for Lorimar in the 80's. Do you remember that building?

I remember seeing a scene on "CHiP's" that was filmed there.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Here is the Palms ~ Culver City station. I guess the sanitarium might pick you up at the station. I hope they didn't include the popular Radium Water treatment. For me, I'll stick with the Milk Diet.


Pacific Electric photo

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

When I worked in Culver City in the early 80's the building on the far left of this photo was still standing, but empty. They wanted to save it and I believe it was turned into an art gallery with surrounding park area or something of the type. If memory serves, this was a triangular strip of land with Washington Blvd. on one side and perhaps Culver Blvd. on the other. That would put it at a bit south of the #2 blue circle on the above map. I do not recall it being close to Venice Blvd. although, obviously, I could be mistaken. The early 80's were awhile ago.

E_R, you have mentioned you worked for Lorimar in the 80's. Do you remember that building?

I remember seeing a scene on "CHiP's" that was filmed there.

Here's the building on the left of CityBoyDoug's photo.




GSV

The park area you describe is Media Park. It's at the center of the aerial below.


Google Maps

And here's how the intersection looked in 1948.


Historic Aerials

I know CHiPs did quite a bit of filming on Culver Boulevard and W Washington Boulevard - I'll keep an eye for this building next time I'm watching.

[OutlawImages]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

No mention of the Oliver house, but there's a good bit of detail in this article from the Times of Sept 26, 1954:
LAT

Disheartening to see people were aware of the importance of those landmarks and tried to save them back that long ago

Sad that they couldn't stop the destruction anymore than we can today it seems

I just hate to see history destroyed because of real estate greed

[GatoVerde]

Originally Posted by FredH

GatoVerde-The main office of Modernage Photo Service was located at the corner of E. Third Street and Crocker Street in Little Tokyo.
We also had a photo studio on E. 15th Street.



The company was a full service commercial printer and photographer. Our clients were local manufacturers, mainly in furniture, lighting, bedding, fashion, and lingerie. We would photograph, design, layout, and print catalogs and sheets for our customers. In the mid-1990's we were up to 55 employees. The competition from China did in most of the local manufacturers and the transformation to the digital age finished us off. By 2003, we had sold off the building and moved to a photo studio at the corner of E. Sixth St. and Mateo (right by the Sixth Street bridge). After five more years, that was closed up too. I was there for 23 years.

FredH,
Thanks for sharing your story regarding your work at Modernage photography. I was able to remember some of the building and signage now from times past. I drive by there almost daily and the I think a homeless advocacy organization is located there now.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's the building on the left of CityBoyDoug's photo.


GSV

Thanks HossC! -- and Doug for first posting that photo! I didn't know The Actors' Gang was headquartered there!

From wikipedia:

The Actors' Gang is an experimental theatre and non-profit group based at the Ivy Substation in Culver City, California. It was founded in 1981 by a group of actors, including Tim Robbins, now a member of the board and Artistic Director of the troupe. The group states its mission is "to create bold, original works for the stage and daring reinterpretations of the classics". Website: www.theactorsgang.com

***

Two links I found and wanted to add concerning The P.E. Ivy Substation
first posted by tovangar2 and unihikid:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11043

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11296

[Those Who Squirm!]

I think the year accounts for the confusion. Passenger service along the outer half of the Air Line was drastically cut far earlier than most people realize today. Well before 1940, this station was for all practical purposes the western terminus of the line, so one would have alighted here for Palms as well.

Minimal passenger service did continue, on the Air Line, as far as Santa Monica until 1953, but as early as 1931 there was only one round trip per day.

Long story short, by this time it's arguably true that Culver/Venice was the nearest stopping point to Palms

Originally Posted by HossC

LAPL date this photo as circa 1940. The description says: "Looking across the street towards the Culver City-Palms station, located at 9013 Venice Boulevard, serving both the Pacific Electric Railway Company and the Southern Pacific Railroad. The tracks near Venice Boulevard serve the Venice Short Line and those seen behind the station serve the Redondo via Playa del Rey Line."


lapl.org

[Tetsu]

Originally Posted by AlvaroLegido

Tetsu : Wow, that's one of the best aerials I've seen in terms of really showing each block on Bunker Hill and its relation to the next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's better than that, Tetsu. I guess it's the best !
For the first time after 909 pages, I got the whole idea of Bunker Hill.
For examples, we had never seen on the thread :
. the whole little section of 3rd Street between Bunker Hill and Grand Avenues (the slope). Interesting to notice it was the steepest section in B.H. and stopped at B.H.A. ;

. The curbed little street, just north of 4th Street that drops on Olive (I asked for it - page 831 #16617 - without answer) ;

. a view (we have to look sharp) of the Angels Flight entrance with the whole 3rd street and Olive ;

. a very good view on Olive. It is the B. H. street that lacks the most of photos ;

. how much there was a half block between Hope and Bunker Hill Avenue and B.H.A. and Grand.

. I could go on.

I think you might be right - the best! Thanks FredH. Like I said, the only unfortunate thing is that so much of the hill had already been obliterated by the time the photo was taken. One thing my mind hadn't really processed was how much of the southern half of the hill remained, even as the northern half was already being redeveloped. It's one of those things I knew, but didn't really understand until seeing that pic.

Interesting to see which buildings held on the longest. Along BH Avenue you can see the backsides of The Castle & Salt Box (which we know held on to the end and made it off the hill), the house that stood in between (333 S. BH Avenue I think?), the Lady MacDonald House, and the Foss/Heindel House all in a row, plus the Brousseau house a little up the way at 238 S. Behind it you can see the house at 232 S. Grand that the CRA used as their "headquarters" while the redevelopment of Bunker Hill was taking place. Looks like the Elks Building next to the Angels Flight station is already gone.

FredH, do you know exactly what year the photo was taken? I was guessing 1966-ish.

As fascinating as the history of Bunker Hill is, it's always so bittersweet to continue learning about, as it seems like such an utter travesty that it was entirely lost.

[Tetsu]

Originally Posted by ProphetM

Nearly the same view but zoomed closer to look at some survivors:


also me

When my mom would take me to Little Tokyo in the 1980's, that church in the middle of your photo was abandoned, fenced off, and used to give me the willies just to walk by it. Cool that it looks to be back in use nowadays.

[Flyingwedge]

The Baldwin Hills Dam collapsed December 14, 1963. These houses are on Cloverdale Avenue, right under the dam:

LAPL -- http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics21/00060039.jpg

Previous posts on the dam by er:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5038

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5039

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5040

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5041

Aerial footage of disaster is still YouTube-able: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIeNM8cm6J8

More links: http://ktla.com/2013/12/12/from-the-...#axzz2nPOJiyi2

http://framework.latimes.com/2013/12...m-collapse/#/0

[GatoVerde]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

Bunker Hill as test track!

in 1924, L.T. Shettler, the Rickenbacker car dealer in Los Angeles, demonstrated the effectiveness of the 4 wheel disc brakes on a new 1924 Rickenbacker C6 Touring sedan by driving the car down the 2nd street steps leading from hope street to third street at the west portal of the third street tunnel


Source: Corbis Images

These steps look like the ones still remaining in between two skyscrapers across the Flower Street foot bridge (Eastward) that connects to the Bonaventure. I remember seeing a post about those steps but I don't know if any more was learned about those steps, the ones still remaining in between the skyscrapers East of the Bonaventure Hotel.

[FredH]

Originally Posted by Tetsu

When my mom would take me to Little Tokyo in the 1980's, that church in the middle of your photo was abandoned, fenced off, and used to give me the willies just to walk by it. Cool that it looks to be back in use nowadays.

Tetsu - It is interesting that you mentioned that church. The building is now the home of L.A. Artcore, run by the nicest of ladies named Lydia Takeshita:


ladowntownnews.com

Lydia promotes budding artists and does a great service in the area. If any of you visit Little Tokyo, try to stop in and say hi. She has some nice art for sale from artists who are trying to establish themselves.

She also has a tie in to Modernage Photo Service. Back in the 1980's Earl Witscher gave her office space in our building to help her get started. He also helped her print a quarterly magazine to advertise the new artists she was promoting. L.A. Artcore also has facilities in the Brewery complex.

As far as the aerial photos go, I think the mid-1960's is pretty accurate.

[Those Who Squirm!]

Originally Posted by 213

Thanks!

Given the sheer volume of archived photos at LAPL and USC, one could pretty much make a 20-page thread of it. If I had more time, better camera skills and maybe a federal grant...

I bet it could even go to fifty pages!

[FredH]

Originally Posted by gsjansen
Bunker Hill as test track!

in 1924, L.T. Shettler, the Rickenbacker car dealer in Los Angeles, demonstrated the effectiveness of the 4 wheel disc brakes on a new 1924 Rickenbacker C6 Touring sedan by driving the car down the 2nd street steps leading from hope street to third street at the west portal of the third street tunnel

Originally Posted by GatoVerde

These steps look like the ones still remaining in between two skyscrapers across the Flower Street foot bridge (Eastward) that connects to the Bonaventure. I remember seeing a post about those steps but I don't know if any more was learned about those steps, the ones still remaining in between the skyscrapers East of the Bonaventure Hotel.

Source: Corbis Images



Maybe they were the steps Ralph Meeker knocked some poor fool down in "Kiss Me Deadly"?


Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Parklane Pictures Inc.

[Those Who Squirm!]

Originally Posted by llamaorama

Haha, that heliport is sweet. Why couldn't stuff like that have happened? kind of a bummer how positively boring the actual future(now) turned out to be.

There was an L.A. Helicopter Airlines, though. I think it operated in the 1950s and 60s but had petered out by the late 1970s. I used to travel through Burbank Airport quite a bit at this time, when one could still see the L.A.H. ticket counters that were no longer being used.

There used to be this fathers-and-sons club called the Indian Guides, where each unit was neighborhood-based. You'd have a meeting every week with some sort of activity, some stories, and recounting what we did the past week. Everybody nearly always knew everyone else, already, just from the neighborhood. (Sounds kind of lame, now, but I always enjoyed it.)

The reason I bring this up now is that you also went on outings a couple of times a month. You'd go to a museum, to the local Y for swimming, stuff like that. The first outing after I joined, at the ripe age of six, was the whole gang of us kids and dads going on a helicopter flight all around L.A! We took off from LAX and made several hops to various local airports. I hadn't a clue at the time but I'm sure it must have been places like Burbank and possibly general aviation airports like Santa Monica and Compton. Then back to LAX and back home. The whole thing was cool beyond belief. How we ever got the airline to fly six or eight small boys and their dads all over the county I'll never know; perhaps one of the fathers was able to call in a favor. After that, the outings weren't nearly so good, though I always had a good time.

Sometimes it does seem that we had this rosy view of the future, but all we got was more roads and cars (mostly).

[GaylordWilshire]

:GRUMBLE:

Has anyone noticed that in its "if it ain't broke, fix it" redesign, Google Street View has become as clunky to use as Bing? Is it just me?

[Moxie]

Street View hasn't been working for me at all lately. I figured that I was behind on updating my plug-ins or something. I guess I'm glad to know it's not just me that's having problems with it.

[Chuckaluck]

Originally Posted by Albany NY

Chuckaluck, I went looking for the Gardner Building that you posted a pic of....


and was pleased to find it still standing in fine (if not original) form.
Google.com/maps

You also posted the Wood & Jones Building and Saxon Dealer....

The Wood & Jones Building is still there, at 139 West Colorado, just a couple of doors up from the Gardner Dealership. It looks as though they expanded the building at some point.
Google.com/maps

The former Saxon Dealership building is still there, too, at 127 West Colorado. Notice the uneven banks of windows on each half of the Saxon building, which exactly matches the old photo.
Google.com/maps

The former Ford Dealership is long gone, but it looks like much of the rest of the block is still holding the fort![/QUOTE]

1981 - 135-145 W Colorado Blvd.

http://cdm15123.contentdm.oclc.org/c.../id/481/rec/51

[HossC]

Remember the Cushman photo that GW posted a while back?:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

The Cushman photographs you may be thinking of are of houses in the 1000 block of Wilshire (pic above); while I do have some notes on these houses, which I'll look for, and I might at some point get around to the stretch of Wilshire running east from MacArthur Park, my concentration is on the west side of the park beginning with Gaylord Wilshire's original subdivision between Park View and Lafayette Park Place and on out to Highland. Wilshire east of MacArthur wasn't originally part of the boulevard; it was Orange Street until 1924, 10 years before the causeway through the park was opened.

Both houses appear on the USC Cityscape photo. The image is a little blurry, so I've arrowed them.


Detail of photo in USC Digital Library

The Cityscape dates from before the widening of Wilshire, so the front lawns are still intact. The angle of the photograph makes it difficult to see them, but I assume they looked similar to the ones on nearby Maryland Street. Again, the image is blurry due to the zoom level.


Detail of photo in USC Digital Library

Near the center of the Cityscape, and not far from the houses on Wilshire, is St Paul Avenue. I used the 1929 CD to find the addresses of three of the St Paul Avenue buildings.


Detail of photo in USC Digital Library/rescarta.lapl.org