When a building like the Los Angeles City Hall becomes an iconic part of a city’s skyline, it can be easy to forget what came before it. This building, which stood on the southwest corner of Main and Temple Streets in downtown Los Angeles, was demolished in the mid 1920s to make way for the gleaming white skyscraper we all know. I love how the biggest sign on the building says “Painless Dentistry.” This photo was taken in 1920, so I’m not sure how painless it really was—unless he knocked you out first with a baseball bat.

Roughly the same angle looking up at LA City Hall, February 2020