In this photo we’re looking at a stretch of old Victorian homes that lined Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles. They would still have been a fairly common sight at the time, but in the background, we can see the march of progress: Hall of Justice on the left, the Hall of Records on the right, and in the middle the tower of the old County Courthouse. Behind it, the new LA City Hall is taking shape with its pyramidal top in silhouette. It opened in April 1928, so I’d say this photo was taken in 1927.
*** UPDATE *** – Alex S says: “I would venture to guess the angle would be somewhere slightly north east on Hill St. I think it’s where the Los Angeles cathedral is located.”
Glenn F says: “Looks to me that you could shoot from the deck of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion looking southeast to capture a very similar angle.“
If those houses had been preserved, it could have been LA’s answer to The Painted Laidies in SF.
You’re right, Earl! They could have been!
Given the orientation of the City Hall construction and the Hall of Justice in this photo, the cameraman would be to the North and West, possibly on Hill Street north of Temple. That’s my guess. Love the blog!
Thanks Deepy!
The house on the left (the one where we can see the entire front) looks like it has a solar water heater on the roof just to the right of the chimney. Lots of houses in Los Angeles had metal tanks painted black on their roofs to heat their household water. They worked well during the daytime, but cooled at night. Solar heating goes back well over 100 years in Southern California.