HISTORIC
LOS ANGELES
(ca.
1890) - The Los Angeles Plaza, around 1890. The one story building on the left
is the former residence of Don Augustin Olvera. The large two story on the
right is the former residence of Don Vicente Lugo. The LA City Water Company
building is at the northwest corner of Marchessault
and North Alameda (at the center of the photo). (ca. 1892) - Aerial view of the
Los Angeles Plaza, circa 1892. The adobe to the left is the former residence
and occasional courtroom of Judge Augustin Olvera.
The large two-story building
on the right is the former residence of Don Vicente Lugo and the first home of
St. Vincent's College. The Los Angeles City Water Company has a painted sign,
and is visible on the northwest corner of Marchessault
and North Alameda Street. El Pueblo: The 1781 birthplace of the City, El
Pueblo de Los Angeles is today a 44-acre historic park. Originally a small
community near the Los Angeles River centered around a central plaza – La Plaza
de Los Angeles – El Pueblo is home to La Placita
Catholic Church, Olvera Street, the Chinese American Museum, and other
landmarks. The State began buying property at El Pueblo in 1953, but abandoned
the project in 1990. The 1982 General Plan for El Pueblo has yet to be carried
out.
http://www.cityprojectca.org/ourwork/heritageparkscape.html
* Special thanks to "Google Images", "Water and Power Associates", "USC Degital Archives", "New York Times Photo Archive", "The Los Angeles Times",
and "KCET.org" among others!
BLOG POST
by Felicity Blaze Noodleman
Los Angeles, CA
7.25.14
The inspiration for this weeks article literally came from Los Angeles rich history itself. Now how can that be you may ask yourself? All of today's photographs were made years ago; in some cases, well over 100 years ago! Most of the scenery has long since disappeared with only a hint here and there of what the area must have looked like before today. You see, while much of the country was only emerging to become the America of the Twentieth Century, Los Angeles was already there and setting the example for what a modern metropolis should be.
The gilded age was in full swing and would be soon become the art deco styling of the Twentieth Century. We are captivated by the transformation taking place. The photographs left behind tell the story of what was here before. What life must have been like for those Angeleno's who lived here. These are only a few of at least hundreds, maybe thousands to survive as memento's for posterity.
Opened: July
30, 1914. The L.A. Times reported that over $10,000 had been spent preparing Quinn's
Superba. Seating: 700
is one figure. Moving Picture World before the opening in 1914 gave capacity as
900.
Quinn’s
Superba
Theatre was located on the site where the Roxie Theatre is today on S. Broadway
in downtown Los Angeles.
Quinn’s
Superba
Theatre was next to the Cameo Theatre (formerly Clune’s Broadway Theatre) and the Pantages
Theatre (later Arcade Theatre).
Date 1920 SourceThe New York Times
photo archive, via their online store, hereAuthorUnderwood
& UnderwoodPermission
(Reusing this file)Public Domain
(Reusing this file)Public Domain
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Los_Angeles,_1920.JPG#file
(ca. 1915) - Exterior view of the front
of Quinn's Superba
Theatre, with a view down the street where signs can be seen for the Pantages
Vaudeville.
Historical
Notes
Quinn’s
Superba
Theatre was located on the site where the Roxie Theatre is today on Broadway in
Downtown Los Angeles. It was next to the Cameo and the Pantages.
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_LA_Buildings%20(1900%20-%201925)_Page_2.html
Looking
west on First Street from Main to its corners with Spring, Broadway, and Hill.
http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal2.html
Gone
are the days when derricks might have populated your front yard. First Street,
Los Angeles City oil field circa 1900, courtesy of the Seaver
Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles Museum of Natural History.
http://la.streetsblog.org/2014/01/14/west-adams-neighbors-come-together-to-oppose-the-drillers-next-door/
We
look back at the east face of the south 100s block of Spring. All those wires!
The corner of the Bryson Block looms darkly at extreme left.
http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal3.html
This
bucolic scene was Los Angeles in the 1890s, Third Street looking west, past
Hill Street. A church on the northeast corner is within walking distance of the
residences. That’s the Crocker Mansion at the top of Bunker Hill, a landform
that effectively cut off this part of the city from growth to the west.
[Image
is from the University of Southern California archives.]
https://www.google.com/search?q=Los+Angeles+houses+-+1900&tbm=isch&ei=crfGU4SNFovioASIvILQAw#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=IewB2Mx_HJvx0M%253A%3BfSPA8F-Wnhx9WM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.ulwaf.com%252Fimages%252FAngelsFlt3rdSt%252FAngels1898.gif%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.ulwaf.com%252FLA-1900s%252FPicturePages%252FAngelsFlight3rdSt.html%3B550%3B266
Los Angeles-based blogger Alissa of Gelatobaby went on a tour of the city’s former subway terminal building and captured these intriguing and little-seen pictures of an abandoned segment of the subway network.
A secret underground world of dark tunnels and vintage signage, the dilapidated condition of the lost subway makes it look like a set out of a horror movie.
After being used as a fallout shelter, the subway tunnel was sealed up in the 1960s—see more rare and haunting beautiful pictures of this forgotten subterranean space below:
http://designtaxi.com/news/355017/Rare-Images-Of-Los-Angeles-Forgotten-Lost-Subway/?interstital_shown=1
Looking
South East down 3rd Street across Hill Street, 1876
http://www.retronaut.com/2012/04/los-angeles-1860-1886/
MacArthur
Park, then named Westlake Park, circa 1892. Courtesy of the Title Insurance and
Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, USC Libraries.
Park-poor
Los Angeles: perhaps it's no surprise that many of the city's earliest parks
were born of refuse lands. Flush with public land inherited from California's
land grant days, Los Angeles was practically giving away real estate in the
latter half of the nineteenth century, donating lots to private individuals or
auctioning off tracts to fill the city's coffers. But some lands eluded buyers.
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-as-subject/when-las-oldest-parks-were-young.html
(ca. 1895) - View of Spring Street
looking north from 2nd Street. The courthouse can be seen at upper-center and
the Nadeau Hotel in center of photo.
Historical
Notes
The
Nadeau Hotel stood on the southeast corner of 1st and Spring Streets until
1932, when it was demolished to make room for the current Los Angeles Times
building.
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_City_Views%20(1800s)_Page_4.html
(1924) - Hotel Rosslyn and Hart Brothers
Rosslyn Hotel Annex, Los Angeles
Historical
Notes
In
1923, as a result of the prosperity enjoyed by the Rosslyn and the surrounding
district, the Rosslyn Annex was built across 5th Street, and today is still
called the Rosslyn Hotel. The two buildings were connected by an underground
marble tunnel, portions of which survive to this day.
Both
buildings were designed by architect John Parkinson, who was one of the most
prolific architects in Downtown Los Angeles, responsible for much of the area's
finest architecture, including Union Station, Bullock's Wilshire, the Title
Guarantee Building, the Continental Building, the Alexandria Hotel, the Los
Angeles Athletic Club, Security Bank (now the Los Angeles Theatre Center), the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and Los Angeles City Hall.
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_LA_Buildings%20(1900%20-%201925)_Page_2.html
(1916) – View of the Merritt Building
located at 8th and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.
Historical
Notes
Hulett
C. Merritt, described by the Dec. 11, 1910 Los Angeles Herald as a
"millionaire and financier" in an article about the planned Merritt
Building in downtown Los Angeles. At the time, Merritt was pushing city
leaders to waive building height restrictions from 180 feet to 233 feet.
Merritt is reported as saying he would scrap plans for the Italian
Renaissance-style monument to his family unless he was allowed the height
variance, otherwise "its beauty will be marred and I want to build for the
artistic value more than for any profit I may get out of it."
Originally from Minnesota, Merritt had sold his interests in the Merritt -
Rockefeller syndicate in 1891 for more than $81 million.
When
the Merritt Building opened in 1915 it looked quite nice. Merritt’s request to
construct a 23-story edifice was turned down by the City Council. He scaled
back his plans and ended up with a ten-story design that set a rendition of
Minerva's Temple on top of a three-story base.*^#*
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_LA_Buildings%20(1900%20-%201925)_Page_2.html
"Engine Company 9
On A Run"
The era of the horses began
in 1877 with the purchase of two horses for the volunteer company Hose Company
1 and ended July 19, 1921, when Water Tower 1, (the Gorter
Water Tower), assigned to Engine Co. 24, was taken out of service and sent to
the shops to be motorized.
http://www.lafire.com/stations/fire_stations.htm
Source:
Los Angeles Fireman's Relief Association
Engine
Company No. 28
644 South Figueroa Street
Circa 1913
OpenedJuly
15, 1913Cost of Land $ 37,750.Cost of Building$ 65,110.ArchitectJ. P. Krempel
&
W.E. ErkesContractorKuhach
& Co.Sq.Ft.
Site 50x156 7,800Sq.Ft. Main Bld.20,831.
(1913 to 1969)
http://www.lafire.com/stations/FS028/FS028_1913-1969.htm
Several
airports around the LA area serviced air transportation – Glendale and Burbank
along with Los
Angeles Municipal Airport (Mines Field) located southwest of downtown L.A. (ca.
1928)* - Administration building in foreground and hangars in background at
Mines Field (later to become the L.A. International Airport)
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Aviation_in_Early_LA_(Page_3).html
SUBTERRANEAN LOS ANGELES
Ryan manager of the King Eddy
examines of the murals from the basement speakeasy days of the King Eddy. The
Eddy was moved beneath the ground floor to the basement. The former saloon was
leased out to a piano store. Patrons would knock on the back door of the store,
give a password and then enter the 2,000 square foot basement to enjoy a drink
in Los Angeles. The King Eddy basement had a 130 foot long tunnel that
connected to a network of service and utility shafts across downtown Los
Angeles – perfect for deliveries of bootleg liquor. The eleven miles of tunnels
were built in 1910 for the hotels in the area to avoid street congestion in
downtown's growing business district.
While the rest of the country was forced
to go dry, underneath Downtown Los Angeles the party never stopped. Despite prohibition laws, 11 miles of
service tunnels became passageways to basement speakeasies with innocuous
fronts above ground. Patrons were able to move about under the city, boozing it
up without a care in the world, while the Mayor's office ran the supply of hootch.
King Eddy Saloon, an establishment that
has been alive and kicking on 5th and Main since the 1900s, hid in plain sight
fronting as a piano store. Luckily, local officials took no issue with King
Eddy's sudden interest in music, and the business not only survived, but
prospered. Now an official saloon once more, its basement still remains part of
the tunnel system, littered with crumbling brick lines and graffiti murals.
Aside from the service tunnels, there are
also abandoned subway and equestrian tunnels from the days before personal
vehicles began clogging up LA's city streets. There are stories of these
tunnels being used by police to transport prisoners, bank security to move
large sums of cash safely, and both coroners and mobsters to store bodies. Now
they are mostly closed off, but some are still accessible and are used as film
locations, easy shortcuts by city employees between buildings, and a place for
runners to train on the rare occasion of bad weather.
http://edespeedsmedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-king-eddy-saloon-is-located-in-once.html
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/underground-tunnels-los-angeles
Nov.
30, 1925: An old horse-drawn car makes a trip during grand opening ceremonies
for the higher-tech Pacific Electric subway, the city's first subway, which
stretched a mile between 1st Street and Glendale Boulevard and Hill Street
between 4th and 5th streets. This photo was published in the Dec. 1, 1925, Los
Angeles Times.
http://framework.latimes.com/2012/07/05/pacific-electric-subway-opens/#/0
Angelenos practice an air raid drill in the former
Pacific Electric subway in 1958.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/underground-tunnels-los-angeles
Rare
Images Of Los Angeles’ Forgotten Lost Subway By Dorothy
Tan, 03
Jan 2013
Los Angeles-based blogger Alissa of Gelatobaby went on a tour of the city’s former subway terminal building and captured these intriguing and little-seen pictures of an abandoned segment of the subway network.
A secret underground world of dark tunnels and vintage signage, the dilapidated condition of the lost subway makes it look like a set out of a horror movie.
After being used as a fallout shelter, the subway tunnel was sealed up in the 1960s—see more rare and haunting beautiful pictures of this forgotten subterranean space below:
http://designtaxi.com/news/355017/Rare-Images-Of-Los-Angeles-Forgotten-Lost-Subway/?interstital_shown=1
Tell your friends and associates about us!
It's easy! Just copy and paste me into your email!
No comments:
Post a Comment