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Below, the 900 block of Yale Street via Google maps' street view feature. Do you think they know there were oil wells there 70 years ago? |
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Even allowing for artistic license, it's difficult to see how Charles Owens could have City Hall looming in the background from our blacksmith shop on Garey Street. Below, a view from 1st Street and Garey via Google maps' street view. Owens would have been several blocks farther away for this July 1, 1938, entry.
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Union Station under construction in 1938 and as it appears in Google maps' street view feature. We can only wonder what became of the palm trees planted by Don Mateo.
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An anti-gravity house? You may laugh, the author says, but remember "atomic control" seemed impossible a mere 20 years ago. And no more hassles with dusting!
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Below, here's the home at 6323 Arroyo Glen, via Google maps' street view feature. Florence Synder's beloved sycamore is gone, but her house remains.
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The home of the week, above, and below, via Google maps' street view.
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uestro Pueblo is a new discovery for me, and a very happy one. The Times began the feature by writer Joe Seewerker and artist Charles Owens in June 1938, publishing installments Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The series ended in October 1939 after Seewerker and his young son, Joe Jr., were badly injured in a car accident. The last installment bids farewell with a jaunty "hasta la vista." The series was published as a book with an introduction by The Times' Lee Shippey.
And never mind the fallout from the Harry Raymond bombing, here's really important news: The two leads of "Gone With the Wind" have finally been cast, The Times says. The movie will star Clark Gable as Rhett Butler and Norma Shearer as Scarlett O'Hara.
The Times says three supporting roles have been cast: Walter Connolly as Scarlett's father, Gerald; Maurice Murphy as Charles Hamilton, Scarlett's first husband; and Margaret Tallichet as Scarlett's sister Carreen.
Of course, we know GWTW didn't quite turn out this way.
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A detail of the arch, as shown on San Pedro High School's website. For the full image, go here. |
A cloverleaf interchange, as envisioned in 1938. Note the extensive landscaping on both sides of the freeway.
A map of proposed "elevated motorway" routes. One of many that have been prepared over the years. |
 his victory arch at San Pedro High School was salvaged from the Federal Building (1910-1937), which was at Main and Temple. I'm always thrilled to discover that any piece of old Los Angeles has survived, no matter how small. If you click on the photo below, it will appear full size and you can see similar entryways all along the right side of the building.
At left, the prosecution's closing arguments in the trial of Police Capt. Earle Kynette follows the trail of civic corruption to Joe Shaw, the mayor's brother. With Kynette convicted, attention will turn to the Shaws and the recall movement will gain momentum.
Part 4 of Ed Ainsworth's series on Los Angeles traffic lays out an elaborate proposal for 420 miles of "elevated motorways." As superficial as this story is, it contains key elements of what transformed Los Angeles transportation into what we contend with today:
"Street railways would gradually be eliminated and bus service substituted, both on surface streets and the elevated motorways."
"The elevated motorways would not run along above present streets. They would be cut through the middle of blocks. Preliminary surveys disclose that is is possible to run practically all of these through so-called blighted areas."
Would the motorways be an architectural eyesore?
"Definitely not. It is almost an axiom of modern civilization that man's highest achievements in industrial design are in themselves objects of symmetry and beauty."
Recall that there are some essential differences between what was proposed and what we have today: One of the original plans called for parking structures to be placed at intervals along the motorways. Also take a good look at the map of the network: It's massive.
So here we have a blueprint from 1938: Get rid of the streetcars, switch to buses that can use surface streets as well as elevated lanes and build a massive freeway system.
Most important, note the source of the proposal: The Auto Club of Southern California. Not a name one usually hears in discussions of what happened to the streetcars. But the Auto Club was a major player in the demise of the streetcar system.
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Wilshire and Westmoreland via Google street view |
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Lake and Hoover via Google street view |
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 ow if only research led in a straight line -- but thankfully, it doesn't. Research corkscrews and jets off at unexpected angles. Today's project was supposed to be about the home of the week -- in this case, the house built by Reuben Shettler at Wilshire and Westmoreland. At top, we have the home as it appeared in 1908 and the corner as it appears today via Google street view. (Bonus view: Hoover and Lake, the site of the other home of the week.)
Of course, it would be nice if I had a little information on Reuben Shettler, so I dug up the personal note about him and his wife entertaining Ransom E. Olds, maker of the Reo automobile, at 3100 Wilshire Blvd. It turns out that Shettler's son Leon was an early Los Angeles car dealer.
But in tracking down that information, I stumbled across new details on the Chinese massacre of 1871 -- on the society page, of all places. The woman being interviewed, Mrs. William LeMoyne Wills, says her father sheltered Chinese to protect them from the violence of the mob. This is the first I've ever heard of anyone offering sanctuary to the Chinese during this tragic incident.
Then, in researching the Chinese massacre, I came across a photo of our old friend the dragon in Chinatown that was once part of The Times' flagpole.
I really need to go looking for this thing to see if it's still there.
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ook, if you dare, into the mysterious disappearance of a fisherman on Santa Catalina Island named Tony the Greek, obscured not only by the details, but further muddied by the convoluted account in The Times. Toss in a private detective (Paul Blair of the Blair Detective Agency) who's approaching the disappearance as a case out of Sherlock Holmes and it's a good day's work merely to untangle the facts.
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Also: Plans for an incline railway up Mt. Washington, starting at Avenue 43 and Marmion Way (above). As the story notes, the railway was designed as a funicular, like Angels Flight, with two cars counterbalanced so that one descends when the other ascends.
On the jump, a race war between whites and Japanese in the Imperial Valley over picking cantaloupes.
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Visions of the future from 1958: People will live in geodesic domes (note that the floor plan on the dome displayed at the home show has no bathroom).
At left, predictions for 2000: Cars will be banned from the urban cores of America's large cities, everyone will use solar power transmitted without wires and freeways will be double-decked. Downtown workers will leave their autos at huge parking structures on the fringes of the city and take mass transit to their jobs.
"Each structure, from the largest to the smallest, will have blast-resistant cores which will protect inhabitants against storms, man-made blasts and other disasters."
--J.J. Svec, Building Construction Illustrated
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Arye Michael Bender writes:
I was a film major at Southern Illinois University, when Buckminster Fuller, designer of geodesics, was in residence. He was a funny, fast talking little man, with a very unique vision. His favorite phrase at the time was, 'Anticipatory and comprehensive'.
Some years later, I actually knew someone who lived in a geodesic dome. His name is Donald Walters, but he's better known as Swami Kriananda. The dome did have a bathroom, but leaked in the rain.
Although his specific designs for homes and cars did not find their way into the mainstream, we all in some degree, live in Bucky Fuller's world today. His influence is everywhere from Disney World, to the very fabric of carbon composite designs, to the global village of the Internet. His works were both comprehensive and anticipatory.
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New Chinatown opens, 1938.
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Above and at right, a special feature of New Chinatown is a dragon salvaged from the old Times Building, presumably the one built at 1st Street and Broadway after the 1910 bombing. The metal dragon was part of the flagpole, according to Times columnist Ed Ainsworth.
Stay tuned as I go looking for the Harry Carr Gate on Main Street and let's see if the old dragon from The Times is still around.
And in case you don't know, New Chinatown was built to replace the original, which was demolished to make way for Union Station. This is why you can find Chinese artifacts whenever you stick a shovel in the ground in that neighborhood.
Planners and civic improvement groups had been trying to consolidate the city's various railroad depots for more than 30 years when Union Station was built. When it comes to transportation, nothing ever happens quickly in Los Angeles.
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Howard Decker writes:
Interesting stuff about Chinatown. There was a third Chinatown in El Lay. A Chinese friend of mine took me
there in 1979, and a very few Chinese shops were still there, including a restaurant. As I recall it is was in the vicinity of Pico and Broadway. I seem to recall it came into use after the Chinese got kicked out of the Union Station area.
Spent some mighty good times in "the new" Chinatown. There was a restaurant/bar owner there back in the 1950s who loved newspaper people and would pour monster drinks and half of the time would forget to charge ya. Also, when I was with the East West Players we used to go there. Some folks in the know would lead us down dark alleyways and take us to great noodle
places, dirt cheap, full of Chinese folks. That's always a good sign. And one actress had been married to Gen. Lee's son and they were friendly and would serve up a vast dinner for peanuts at his restaurant.
As a cub reporter on the midnight to 8 am shift we'd go a lot of the time to Chung Mee's, near Chinatown, which was one of the few places you could get a decent meal at 4 a.m. in them days. Their lobster in black bean sauce was $3.50 -- a little pricey, but worth it.
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June 7, 1908
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Above, the home of J. de Barth Shorb (1842-1896) in San Marino, which Henry Huntington has torn down to make way for his cozy little cottage. True confession: I have been a member of the Huntington for years and spent many hours on the grounds, but I never really thought about what used to be there, rather foolishly assuming that it had all been vacant. In a word, no.
"Mr. Huntington was asked how much the building will cost and he remarked that it looked to him as though it will cost $75,000 ($1,649,028.64 USD 2007) at least, perhaps it will cost more. He said he will find out about that later on."
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Above and at left, the "white and many-pillared mansion of commerce" opens at Broadway and 8th in Los Angeles.
According to The Times, Hamburger's Department Store was the largest building on the West Coast and had California's first escalator.
In 1923, Hamburger's was sold to the May Co., which renovated the building in 1924.
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690 S. Burlington, Los Angeles, Calif.
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Above, still standing after more than a century, a few blocks east of MacArthur Park. This home in Pico Heights once belonged to H.R. Lacy, The Times says.
According to Property Shark, the neighborhood is 70% Hispanic and Latino, 34% white, 20% Asian, 3% black or African American and 37% "others." (Yes, this adds up to more than 100%. Welcome to L.A.)
45% of the people in this neighborhood are citizens and 4% speak English, Property Shark says.
And there are 73 registered sex offenders living in this ZIP Code (90057), according to the Department of Justice.
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Hollywood gets a new church, above. (At left, Hollywood Presbyterian today.)
The northwest corner of 8th Street and Broadway (at right) sells for $234,000 ($5,144, 969.35 USD 2007) ...
Below left, sake is banned because it's impure ... The auction of a young Chinese bride (note the use of the term "Celestial") ... A teamster is thrown into a gutter on Main Street when the team pulling his wagon becomes frightened and runs away ... A mother-daughter suicide pact ... And a car runs down a newsboy on a bicycle at 1st and Broadway and doesn't even stop.
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Above, a plan for the Santa Anita Motor Inn at 101 W. Huntington. Apparently, the final design of the tower was a little more Art Deco (see the postcard here).
At left, a miner leads detectives to the body of Leona Schmidt, 59, which was buried in the desert between Gorman and Lancaster. Schmidt's son-in-law Valean Neil Ross is being held on charges of killing her March 9 in an argument over whether an operation -- which Schmidt refused to pay for -- would have saved the life of his wife.
And France says that it will go to war if Germany invades Czechoslovakia.
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Above, the home at Presidio Drive and Lorado Way in 1938 and in Google's Street View, below. According to Property Shark, this neighborhood in View Park is 72.3% African American, 22.6% Hispanic, 14.1% Asian and 8.4% white (note that the figures add up to more than 100% because some people indicate more than one ethnicity. Welcome to L.A.). Zillow estimates the value of the home at $481,635 to $650,510, which is quite a range.
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May 10, 1908
A century later, the church is still standing, as shown in Google's street view feature. The building was designed by Franklin P. Burnham. The article notes that a speaker can be easily heard anywhere in the auditorium (recall that this was before microphones) because of the carefully designed acoustics.
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Above, an update in the Brownsville incident ... Below, arson destroys a "spite house" next to 1712 W. Adams ... Ministers of the First Christian Church help raise money toward a legal test case on the Bible in public schools ... Population of the city of Los Angeles, as determined in a school census, is 305,000, The Times says. There are 65,000 children in the city younger than 17.
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May 3, 1908
Look what I found! Another 100-year-old home, as shown on Google maps street view:
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According to The Times, the Los Angeles Investment Co. developed a portion of what was known as the College Tract. The development consisted of 80 acres divided into 450 lots. The Times gave the boundaries as Gramercy, 48th Street, Wilton Place and Arlington Avenue, which don't form a rectangle, unfortunately. Houses ranged from modest bungalows to large, two-story homes. Home buyers were given two years' use of adjoining lots, which the company left vacant, The Times said. The builders also created small, landscaped parks throughout the development.
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Note: If you cannot see the Google image, you may need to install Adobe Flash Player as a browser plug-in. You may also need to switch to Firefox.
May 1, 1938
Above, here we are in 1938 in Leimert Park. Below, a current street view, courtesy of Google.
Why am I showing a home from Leimert Park? Because this neighborhood is in what is all too often described as "gang-infested South L.A." I was unfamiliar with the area until I began looking into the Black Dahlia murder (the body of Elizabeth Short was found several blocks from this duplex).
The homes in Leimert Park have a great deal of charm and wonderful architectural details like stained-glass windows and tile roofs. This neighborhood is, according to propertyshark.com, 78.5% African American, 14.3% Hispanic, 8% Asian American, 6.1% white, 0.5% Native American or Alaskan and 0.1% Native Islander (the figures add up to more than 100% because some people choose more than one ethnic category--welcome to L.A.). The duplex sold in 2004 for $600,000, according to propertyshark.
Note: If you can't see the current map, you are probably using some version of Internet Explorer and need to install Adobe Flash Player. You can either do that or switch to Firefox, which works fine.
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Miracle of miracles, this house at 1233 S. Bonnie Brae is still standing.
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Here's an image from Google's street view. Someone in the last century has tinkered with the porch and we have a non-period satellite dish, but by golly it's still there and that makes me a happy man. The Times doesn't say too much about Adrian Loeb except to note his name in half a dozen society columns. He was apparently a produce executive in early Los Angeles. I have the notion that I visited this neighborhood for an Architectural Rambling when I was working on the 1947project, but I can't find the post. The architect, who used the names Cooper Corbett, B. Cooper Corbett and Benjamin Cooper Corbett, flourished in Los Angeles from about 1900 to 1915 and designed many homes in the West Adams district.
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April 20, 1958
Here's an interesting sales pitch: Move to Anaheim for the kids. Only 26.5 miles to downtown L.A. Note that the map says "Houston Freeway," which took its name from Houston Avenue and was renamed the Riverside Freeway.
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April 19, 1908
Above, new apartments on Olympic near Albany within walking distance of the "business district." Surprisingly enough, this building is still standing. The structure lost the details of its roof line, presumably in one of the earthquakes over the last century, in a process I call "seismic Darwinism." The distance to
The Times is 2.1 miles, according to Google Maps, which may (or may not) be your definition of "walking distance." Here's the street view:
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April 17, 1938
Here's a model home at 2270 Brentford Road in San Marino. Zillow says the house is still there and is valued at $975,000. I'll try to swing by there today and get a picture of it.
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Blogs
Larry Harnisch. The leading Black Dahlia expert and a collaborator in the 1947project, Harnisch has been a copy editor at The Times since 1988. He has appeared on many TV shows discussing the Dahlia case, notably "James Ellroy's Feast of Death."
Join him for a spin through old Los Angeles in the Mirror's radio car. Keep your eyes open for Mickey Cohen and Tempest Storm. It's quite a ride.
The reporter's badge belonged to Sid Hughes (1908-1958), legendary reporter who worked at nearly every newspaper in Los Angeles.