noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

"Buses at the Macy Yards." (1950s?)


ebay

At extreme right there's a propped up wooden wall with a scalloped top, as well as a building next to it.
Also, the bridge in the distance has wooden supports underneath on either side of the span (makes it look more like a trestle).
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[Lorendoc]

Hats off to Ed Workman, Looking4OldLA, Killeye, and fhammon on the Lamar Street 950. I am convinced you all are right because of the Sanborn maps below. I've made notes on both the maps and photos. The buildings line up well.

South end of line (cafes):


Corresponding Sanborn map:

LAPL

This shows the original location of the San Antonio Winery at 737 Lamar (champagne of course!). On the east side of the street is a bungalow court (762, dark blue) and, circled in purple, a couple of old gasoline pumps (?). The front grill of the light-colored car in front of Thelma's looks like a prehistoric fish. Stuff of nightmares.

950 seen a block north of the above:


...and the Sanborn map:

LAPL

The Sanborn map does not show the track division (for passing?) but it does show the one floor porch (green) on the apartment at 649 (red).

The city directories do not reveal who cafe-mistresses Thelma or Amelia were. Amelia's was owned by Richard and Frances Lasky. Thelma's was run by Edward and Barbara Schneider.

The Santa Fe wines, prominently advertised on the south side of the Celaya Grocery, were products of the Santa Fe Vintage Company, according to a 1955 trade paper, "the largest and by far the most important winery in the Los Angeles district and located in downtown Los Angeles." - see http://www.oldandsold.com/articles02/losangeles2.shtml.

Something bothered me about the trolley pictures: The sign (maroon circle) present on one is absent on the other. The Lamar street track just ends without any turnaround. The trolley pole suggests the Thelma's picture was taken just as 950 started heading back north towards Main Street. The Celaya picture shows the car still headed south, so I guess it was taken first. Apparently someone had to get out at the end of the line and manually switch the head sign to the other end of the car?

Celaya is a city in Guanajuato, Mexico. The CDs indicate the grocery was run by Ezequiel Ramos and persisted at least until 1956:

LAPL

[MartinTurnbull]

Have we seen this on Noirish LA before?
Any ideas what? Where? WTF?

[Matthew]

Are those owls on the former Owl Drug Store?



I love historic buildings!

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

...and today.

GSV__

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull

Have we seen this on Noirish LA before?
Any ideas what? Where? WTF?

This is a disturbing image.

I think the signs say "Yost Sweet Shop" and they obviously were selling ice cream cones in addition to "Eastside Soda-Water."

A minor googling found: http://www.ca-yd.com/textfile/bottles/ACLWEB_E.HTM
which lists bottles of "Eastside Beverages" produced by the "Los Angeles Brewing Co. of San Bernardino [sic]. Fwiw, those mountains in the back of the shot could be the San Bernardinos...

[HossC]

Another streetcar picture from eBay. The seller has this one labeled as San Pedro, 8/1958.


eBay

The Tourist Hotel on the left didn't help to narrow down the location, but then I remembered the image below which I originally posted in post #18577. The building on the far left of the picture above is the San Pedro Pacific Electric Station on S Harbor Boulevard. It's now the site of Gibson Park, although the Downtown Station for the restored Red Cars is close by.


www.portoflosangeles.org - Lo-res.
www.portoflosangeles.org - Hi-res.

[Ed Workman]

Streetcar Dash Signs and #950

PR and LARy Dash signs were set on two hooks and placed on the car just before departure from the carhouse, or other terminal points. The sign was on the front, so prospective passengers could identify the route to be taken- note on the maps that several routes used the same streets as they got closer to downtown. I can't read the dash sign on 950, but as I cautioned previously, the sign may or may not be correct- fantrips were a chance to make a photograph of a car with any sign of choice, for various reasons- unless it sez 'Railraod Boosters" beware.
Loops were seldom used until the streamlined PCC cars were assigned to a route. The loop at LAUPT and possibly Pico/Rimpau being exceptions, Older cars were 'reversed' by setting switches on the controllers- one each end, raising and lowering poles to correspond to the new direction , and changing the dash sign In some cases the sign might read for the OTHER end of the line. Oh here was one set of control handles- the motoman kept them in his possesion and out of the hands of potential miscreants at the back platform
After the fender ordinance was passed, changing ends could have required hauling the heavy fender - the basket like thingy- from back to front. When the PSS arrived in the late 30s , the external fender was allowed to be replaced by the "Lifeguard" under the platforms. However, it took some effort apparently to convince the City that lifeguards were ok- LARY prepared a drawing that depicted how to mount the b folding basket Eclipse fender on the new cars- Rather like a large mustache on a pretty lady. INstead of catching the wayward pedestrian in front of the car, a vertical lattice just under the front tripped another lattice farther back but ahead of the wheels. The front of that lattice fell to the ground to scoop up the unfortunates

[Ed Workman]

mystery' location. (recently found on ebay)
by Ethereal Reality PE blimp on the ramp

The car will turn to the left [its right] and be on San Pedro Street,headed south on the tracks of the Los Angeles Municipal Railway. Although the stub terminal tracks at 6th and main had been extended over Los Angeles St., all movements off Main into the terminal had to reverse and re-enter Main. Main had dual gage tracks to serve LARy and PE, so the crush of cars overwhelmed Main St. Bion Arnold, a consultant from CHicago proposed that PE lines extend to new tracks on San Pedro so that cars could loop thru the terminal one-way, eventually that was accomplished. The City of LA built the line from Aliso to 9th and PE leased it- dunno what financial arrangements LARy made. AT about the same time, LA was concerned about RR access to San Pedro Harbor at the end of the 'Shoestring" annexation, and proposed a municipal line for freight, so there can be confusion . Those plans died when LA et. al. came to terms with SP in a solution local to the harbor. PE owned land across San Pedro, behind the photographer, for extension of the elevated to and across the LA River, but politics and economics prevented that from happening. Had it been realized, perhaps the PE to Pasadena might have survived another decade- as the state highway department would not have needed to evict PE from Aliso St in favor of the 101

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

-thanks Pdxrailtransit. I'll check it out on Google Earth.



Streetcars at 7th and Alvarado streets. (no date)


http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-LAB...item54187f6b46


...and today.

GSV




This is a very nice looking building. Does anyone know it's history? (maybe we've discussed it before...I don't remember )


GSV

-note the Westlake Theater roof-top sign in the distance. (up Alvarado)
__

According to the County Assessor's office the building at 694 S. Alvarado was built in 1928. A report from 1983, prepared when they were building the subway through the area lists it as being a historic building. It is called the Bilak Building in some new listings, but this appears to be a modern name as there is a Dorian Bilak who is listed as current owner. He is indicated to be a third generation real estate developer/ investor, so it is possible that his family built the building.

The building did house an "Owl Drugstore" as is evidenced by the script on the sign beyond the second streetcar.

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for the info. oldstuff. -much appreciated.

Originally Posted by HossC

www.portoflosangeles.org - Hi-res.

Coincidentally, I found this photograph on ebay last night.


ebay

-note the Gay bar at extreme left.
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[ethereal_reality]

Street-car painted for War Bonds.


ebay

I'm not sure where this extreme curve was located.
__

[ethereal_reality]

I noticed that this postcard (1960s?) shows one of the two parcels of land that was cleared for the Renaissance Apartment complex.



ebay

I didn't realize there had been that many individual buildings at that location. (or across Temple street for that matter, but they've been gone longer)




Here's an aerial of that parcel of land. (I've turned it upside down to approximate the vintage postcard)


google_earth
_______________________





The other cleared parcel was the site of the massive Renaissance Apartment fire several months ago.


ktla


ktla

below: site of the fire.


google_earth

We've covered the fire here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=24962

and here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=24963

....and numerous other posts.
_

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I noticed that this postcard (1960s?) shows one of the two parcels of land that was cleared for the Renaissance Apartment complex.



and here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=24963

....and numerous other posts.



_

LA Fire Dept said the fire cost about $900 million in damage....and was arson.

[Killeye]

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

Hats off to Ed Workman, Looking4OldLA, Killeye, and fhammon on the Lamar Street 950. I am convinced you all are right because of the Sanborn maps below. I've made notes on both the maps and photos. The buildings line up well.


This shows the original location of the San Antonio Winery at 737 Lamar (champagne of course!). On the east side of the street is a bungalow court (762, dark blue) and, circled in purple, a couple of old gasoline pumps (?). The front grill of the light-colored car in front of Thelma's looks like a prehistoric fish. Stuff of nightmares.

The Sanborn map does not show the track division (for passing?) but it does show the one floor porch (green) on the apartment at 649 (red).

The city directories do not reveal who cafe-mistresses Thelma or Amelia were. Amelia's was owned by Richard and Frances Lasky. Thelma's was run by Edward and Barbara Schneider.

The Santa Fe wines, prominently advertised on the south side of the Celaya Grocery, were products of the Santa Fe Vintage Company, according to a 1955 trade paper, "the largest and by far the most important winery in the Los Angeles district and located in downtown Los Angeles." - see http://www.oldandsold.com/articles02/losangeles2.shtml.

Something bothered me about the trolley pictures: The sign (maroon circle) present on one is absent on the other. The Lamar street track just ends without any turnaround. The trolley pole suggests the Thelma's picture was taken just as 950 started heading back north towards Main Street. The Celaya picture shows the car still headed south, so I guess it was taken first. Apparently someone had to get out at the end of the line and manually switch the head sign to the other end of the car?

Celaya is a city in Guanajuato, Mexico. The CDs indicate the grocery was run by Ezequiel Ramos and persisted at least until 1956:

Thank you also for your great work. It's wonderful. With your map, can you help me to identify the building on North Main Street in the background please ?

Do you remember ? A murder was committed in 1952 in front of 663 Lamar Street (Post 9274) - More pics here : http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...oll44/id/41940

There's a museum at San Antonio Winery. If anyone is interested...

[ethereal_reality]

I agree, Lorendoc's in-depth post was a joy to behold. -and thanks to everyone else who identified Lamar Street.

It isn't exactly a major thoroughfare.


www.bigmapblog.com
__

...and I had forgotten about the 1952 murder at 663 Lamar Street Killeye.

MichaelRyerson didn't include this particular photograph in his earlier post, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it here.


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...oll44/id/41940

It's a bit strange that a couple of the people are smiling for the photograph.
___





www.spanishdict.com

[ethereal_reality]

"Santa Fe R.R. Roundhouse, Los Angeles Oct. 1949."


ebay

It appears to be a very gritty place, even back in 1949.
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[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

No more Thelma's or Amelia's cafes today and all the neighborhood life that surrounded them. The street became merely industrial.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The other cleared parcel was the site of the massive Renaissance Apartment fire several months ago.


ktla
_

I had occasion to ride by there recently, and even though in the photos it looks close to the freeway, it is quite unbelievably close. I sincerely wondered who in their right mind would want to live practically right on the freeway.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Street-car painted for War Bonds.


ebay

I'm not sure where this extreme curve was located.
__

I love this evocative photo, E_R!

According to this wikipedia page [P (Los Angeles Railway)] -- HERE -- this location was most likely
the Pico & Rimpau Loop, the Western Terminus of the "P" Line from Rowan & Brooklyn (as seen on the car in the photo).

Here's an aerial photo of the location.

USGS/Harry Marnell

HossC has an excellent post about this area from last April, Post #21088, with several photographs including this one from USC dated April 12, 1937:

[Martin Pal]

I may be wrong that E_R's War Bond car photo was taken at the Rimpau Loop.

I discovered this photo:

Ralph Cantos Collection

...which has this information:

Los Angeles Railway PCC no. 3016 models the first of the World War II patriotic-themed paint jobs. In this October 1942 view, the 3016 awaits its departure time at the very busy Dozier & Rowan loop at the east end of the P line. The colors of the car were red-white-and blue. The 3016 was officially dubbed "The Victory Special."

So, the photo may be (?) at the other end of the line at the Dozier & Rowan loop, and the building behind the car in the photo does look like the building in E_R's post, though I cannot find any photos of this particular "loop" as yet.