Hollywood YMCA building, 1553 Schrader Blvd, Los Angeles, circa late 1920s

Hollywood YMCA building, 1553 Schrader Blvd, Los Angeles circa late 1920sIt’s not often that I get to post a photo from the 1920s of a building that still looks practically the same today. The Hollywood YMCA building on the southwest corner of Selma Ave and Schrader Blvd was completed in 1928, so I’m guessing this photo was taken not long after that. From what I can see, very little has changed to the exterior. The biggest difference I can see is the removal of the bike rack on the sidewalk in front of the Selma Ave entrance. I guess it really does help to be on the National Register of Historic Places.

The same view in February 2021:

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8 responses to “Hollywood YMCA building, 1553 Schrader Blvd, Los Angeles, circa late 1920s”

  1. Earl Gandel says:

    Learned to swim there in 1944.

  2. Jim Lewis says:

    Actually, the four-story structure was designed by Hunt & Burns in 1921 and Paul Williams contributed the addition to the west that contains, if I remember correctly, a swimming pool, gymnasium, etc.
    I, too, learned to swim there!

  3. Matt says:

    Terrific reading posters personal recollections. Sure same ownership over 93 years greatly contributed to building remaining the same. Interesting oddity; trees in front of the building are the same height, in both pictures, but in different locations!

  4. Al Donnelly says:

    Interesting how the undersurface of the streets were becoming exposed to light again even that early. I saw the old bricks outside the Brew 102 plant before they started some radical changes around there.

  5. Murray Meeker says:

    Yes, I both learned and helped to teach swimming at the Hollywood YMCA. Seeing it now, May 2022, all boarded up is very depressing, even more so than seeing Selma Avenue Elementary School across the street that Carol Burnett and I graduated from and that is now surrounded by very high uninviting fences.

    • Earl Gandel says:

      I, too, went to Selma and Bancroft JHS, then Hollywood HS, following Carol Burnett’s footsteps a year behind her. On announcing Selma’s impending closing, they had a one day “farewell” event for former students: I went with a friend (Grant Loucks) who had finished there the same year, 1946. We were by far the oldest attendees.

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