noirish Los Angeles

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by knites

I don't recall this particular view being posted - I could be wrong. Pretty iconic none the less - Union Station, Maier Brewery, Gasometers, Aliso Street, PE and noir rides… If it's appeared before, forgive me, my memory is not what it used to be.

Photo courtesy of: http://atomikaztex.wordpress.com/2011/08/

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8009

[Earl Boebert]

Larry Harnisch has posted the latest Black Dahlia idiocy, this time from LA Channel 7. All about the "marquis" of the Hotel Cecil. You can't make these things up.

http://ladailymirror.com/2014/01/29/...-story-ruined/

Cheers,

Earl

[unihikid]

Welcome back sopas!

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert

Larry Harnisch has posted the latest Black Dahlia idiocy, this time from LA Channel 7. All about the "marquis" of the Hotel Cecil. You can't make these things up.

http://ladailymirror.com/2014/01/29/...-story-ruined/

Cheers,

Earl

Daily Mirror

Clearly visible is the Dahlia—practically to the life.


"Koston Alderete, a Riverside boy with a love of scary films and ghost stories, took the picture, which shows a ghostly figure outside a fourth floor window. He says it looks a little too real." A boy, a ghost...well, who wouldn't take this seriously? No doubt we'll soon hear from his son that Dr. Hodel is right behind the ghost, getting ready to push it out of the window, or rather throw parts of it out.




I agree uni--appearances by sopas and Beaudry, within a few hours no less, are very welcome.

[ethereal_reality]

I never noticed this makeshift 'barrier/brace' along the Union Station wall before. Anyone know why it's there-

Originally Posted by knites

That's a classy car in the front with it's metal visor over the windshield. (an upgrade?)
-also, that's quite an elongated side mirror. Perhaps the owner pulls a camper.
__

Great to hear from sopas_ej and Beaudry.

[GaylordWilshire]

LAPL

Still at its new address, 407 Coronado Terrace:

GSV


Turns out we've seen the vintage picture on NLA before here. Another shot in that post caught my eye:

LAPL

The two small houses at right once had Wilshire Boulevard addresses:



Their story is here.

[ethereal_reality]

360 S. Westlake looks familiar but nothing turns up in the search function.

GSV


But even if we have seen it, I don't think we realized it used to be the Royal Palms Hotel.



ebay



Two spacious ballrooms and three cocktail lounges!! Where did they fit all these amenities? I had to have a closer look.

google_earth

above: Is the one story section the old hotel's parking garage or one of it's two ballrooms?

*If you return to the first photograph you can see what looks like the old garage entrance in front on the left.
(I could be wrong....it looks awfully small)
__


For some reason or other, the google-mobile driver decided to drive down the alley.

-the old hotel is in the distance, past the vacant lot.

GSV



-a closer look

GSV


Today it's the Royal Palms/Mary Lind Recovery Center. I tried to locate interior photos to no avail.
http://www.marylind.org/
__

[GaylordWilshire]

The building was built in 1927 as a new clubhouse for the Concordia Club--which might have have overspent, because it appears to have become the Royal Palms as early as 1930...



LAT, Apr 21, 1927/Aug 10, 1927/May 29, 1927


LAT July 1, 1930


All LA Times

[HossC]

Originally Posted by FredH

The L.A. Times ran this photo and story today:


L.A. Times

Conflicting traffic signals
Posted By: Scott Harrison
Posted On: 12:22 a.m. | January 29, 2014
April 5, 1948: The intersection of 5th and Grand has conflicting semaphore traffic signals. One says “stop” and the other says “go.”

Far be it from me to disagree with the L.A. Times, but I'm not so sure that the traffic signals are conflicting. The "GO" signal appears to be on the sloping road that comes down in front of the Engstrum and Edison Building from Bunker Hill Avenue. The "STOP" signal is on West Fifth Street, which runs by on the other side of the wall. I'm sure that some sort of filter would probably be needed to let cars out from in front of the Edison Building. The picture below is from a good bit earlier, but shows the same wall.


California State Library

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Four Los Angeles residences found on ebay.



-upper right is the castle-like Stimson House at 2421 S. Figueroa, built 1891 (still standing)

I could use some help on the other three. -where are you GaylordWilshire?

I've blown up the remaining mystery house, ER, to see if it would help anyone ID it. Now the house's left-side round feature can be seen. It seems familiar, but I'm not near my various nonelectronic West Adams resources to dig further... I'd venture to guess that it's in West Adams, perhaps on WA Blvd itself....

[ethereal_reality]

Excellent GW. ..and thanks for the information on the Royal Palms.
"The lower floor has a swimming pool, gymnasium and Turkish bath." -what didn't they have.



Unidentified woman (restaurant hostess?) in front of Los Angeles business.
ebay

[ethereal_reality]

Here's a noirish looking place.
ebay





today

GSV





-half block further east and it would be beneath the Harbor Freeway.

google_earh

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Excellent GW. ..and thanks for the information on the Royal Palms.
"The lower floor has a swimming pool, gymnasium and Turkish bath." -what didn't they have.



unidentified woman (restaurant hostess?) in front of Los Angeles business.
ebay

12 June 1946, plus or minus a day. The end of the House of Savoy.

Cheers,

Earl

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

I've blown up the remaining mystery house, ER, to see if it would help anyone ID it. Now the house's left-side round feature can be seen.

This house is very similar GW. If it's not the same house, I bet it's the same architect.


Chronicling America
__

I was pretty sure this was the same house until I looked at the right hand side.
The Johnson House has a rounded bay (see below) while the mystery house has a dormer (not to mention that elaborate porch).

The Johnson House today with additions. It's now a fraternity.

google_earth


We have visited it before on NLA.

__

[BifRayRock]

Broadway, early '50s. A photo laden with grit and noir? (Sorry if it has been seen before.)

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics17/00008066.jpg

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by Fab Fifties Fan

While looking around Calisphere for a picture of the Richfield station, I stumbled across this photo of a Grayson's Better Dresses store that used to be at Crenshaw and 85th. I am absolutely fascinated by the buidling design!


Calisphere

It almost appears to be basically a giant shadow box in scheme. I am now determined to find a head-on shot!

~Jon Paul

Grayson's -


1966 - Blind Street Musician
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics25/00047428.jpg


'38 (?) 6417 Pacific Blvd., Huntington Pk.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00099/00099035.jpg

[Lwize]

(Gary Leonard - ladowntownnews.com)

Historic Core Radio Towers Get Makeover

Historic Core’s 82-Year-Old Rooftop Radio Beacons to Be Preserved

The Spring Arcade Building's radio towers, once slated for demolition, are getting a makeover.

Posted: Thursday, January 30, 2014 10:03 am | Updated: 10:18 am, Thu Jan 30, 2014.

Donna Evans

People don’t generally look up when walking in the Historic Core, but those who have done so recently in the environs of Fifth Street and Broadway might have noticed something unexpected: workers giving a pair of 220-foot high, defunct radio towers a makeover.

The KRKD radio towers, which for 82 years have sat atop the Spring Arcade Building, were set to be destroyed, and a permit for their demolition was secured, said Greg Martin, vice president of Downtown Management, a firm helmed by Spring Arcade Building owner Joseph Hellen. The razing of the towers was slated to coincide with a renovation of parts of the building— an outpost of Guisado’s tacos and gelato shop Gelateria Uli are among the businesses coming to the ground floor arcade portion of the complex.

The towers reflect a bygone era in Downtown Los Angeles. Radio station KMIC started in Inglewood in 1927. It moved to the Spring Arcade Building in 1932 and changed the call letters to KRKD. Los Angeles televangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, purchased the station in 1960, after which KRKD broadcast weekly sermons, according to the website socalradiohistory.com. Over the years, KRKD had AM and FM stations that played show tunes and popular music, the website states.

The structures have not been used to transmit radio waves in decades, and they did not comply with modern requirements mandated by the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration. Hence the decision to dismantle them.

Word of the impending destruction made its way to the Department of City Planning’s Office of Historic Resources and historic preservation architect Lambert Giessinger. Although not designated a historical monument, the towers’ importance, in part, stems from the fact that they are among the last remaining examples of a “hammock” style antenna in the 
country, he said. The term refers to the way a series of horizontal wires are suspended between two towers in a manner that resembles a hammock, explained Morgan Sykes Jaybush, an architect with the firm Omgivning.

The outcry over the towers and their historic significance garnered the attention of Hellen. Hellen, who spends much of the year attending to business matters in Melbourne, Australia, met with Giessinger last October during one of his visits to Los Angeles. He was persuaded to save the towers.

Bringing the towers up to modern standards required several steps, among them satisfying FCC and FAA regulations by painting them orange and white and adding illuminated beacons. The lighting circuits for the beacons have to run to the emergency generator in the building’s basement, because if the building loses power, the beacons still must work, Martin said. The full restoration price is estimated at $60,000 to $80,000, he said.

“It’s quite a process to get everything in line,” Martin said. “Personally, I’m happy the towers are staying. They’re not necessarily artwork, but we can see the significant historical contribution they make.”

Equally pleased is Adrian Scott Fine, the director of advocacy for the Los Angeles Conservancy. Fine believes the radio towers contribute to the historic fabric of Downtown and Broadway.

“Radio towers like the KRKD tower are significant because they were once common, but are becoming increasingly rare,” he said.

The work on the towers is expected to be complete by the end of February.

donna@downtownnews.com

(Google satellite - hosted by me)

[BifRayRock]

April 15, 1951 - Celebrating new St. John's Hospital wing. http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co.../11413/rec/639


Considering the size of the net cast for Black Dahlia suspects, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dahlia_suspects )someone in this crowd probably knew something or knew someone who did.

[ethereal_reality]

Excellent news about the 82 year old radio towers Lwize.
It makes me want to find a photograph when the 'hammock' wires were in place.

Mojeda101 posted a few photos on the Los Angeles thread.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2261

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This house is very similar GW. If it's not the same house, I bet it's the same architect.


Chronicling America
__

I was pretty sure this was the same house until I looked at the right hand side.
The Johnson House has a rounded bay (see below) while the mystery house has a dormer (not to mention that elaborate porch).

The Johnson House today with additions. It's now a fraternity.

google_earth

We have visited it before on NLA.

ER: You've got it. I knew this house was familiar--and I'd be very surprised if the mystery house and the Johnson weren't the same--I'm certain they must be. The article I posted last March here describes alterations made by the Johnson in 1917, which could account for the changes to the east side of the house. Your prior post is here.

Given that the four houses you posted just recently belonged to early L.A. BSDs--General Otis, Judge Sterry, F. O. Johnson, and Thomas Stimson--the still-standing 1005 West 28th Street seems all the more likely to be the fourth one in the picture.... I'd say that, for L.A., it's significant that two of the four houses still stand!