This late 1950s photo is a little bit sad for me. We’re looking north up Highland Ave to Hollywood Blvd. The white building is the Hollywood First National Bank building on the northeast corner, which is still there. The church in the background is the Hollywood United Methodist Church, also still there. But the ugly gray-brown scaffolding on the left will soon become the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Hollywood building, which opened in 1959, having replaced the Hollywood Hotel, which had stood on that corner since 1903. Yes, it was run down. And yes, it didn’t over private bathrooms which modern travelers required. But nevertheless it’s a shame we had to lose it. And for a boring, drab skyscraper whose only redeeming feature is that it’s no longer around.

Dennis J. says: “That church wouldn’t have been a “united” Methodist Church in 1950. That denomination wasn’t formed until the late 60s when the Methodist Episcopal church merged with another denomination. It may have been a Methodist Episcopal church before that.”

And this is roughly the same view in May 2022: