In this photo, we’re looking north up Main St from Fourth St in downtown Los Angeles, circa 1924. It’s one of the less crowded photos I’ve seen of downtown LA from the 1920s. Usually the streets and sidewalks are packed with activity. Note how the cars are all practically identical! But I especially love the streetlamps. With four smaller globes surround a larger one on top, they must have made a pretty sight at night. And that temple-like building on the left caught my eye, too. Turns out it’s the Farmers and Merchant’s National Bank. So it is a temple – to commerce.
This is roughly the same view in June 2022. The Van Nuys Hotel on the left is now the Hotel Barclay, and—surprisingly—the bank temple building is still there.
Dual gauge rail territory carrying both city cars and interurbans headed for the Northern District zone across the river, all in competition with the new era of autos. This is the old city (Huntington’s new city in 1905) dying off as things are shifting westward. Still looks healthy, but it’s definitely aging. Time won’t be kind and that’s how you sometimes end up with survivors trapped in a future world.