I love this circa 1914 photo looking west along 7th St from Spring St in downtown Los Angeles because it shows four forms of transport happening on the same block: streetcar, horse-drawn carriage, automobile, and pedestrian. I doubt the horses would be seen on LA’s street much longer, so this image shows the city’s transition from an old form to a new one. Little did these Angelenos suspect how deep the roots of car culture would dig down in the City of Angels.
The vintage photo identified the intersection as 7th and Spring, however in this December 2020 the buildings don’t match, so I’m not 100% sure the location of the vintage photo was correct.
Love these Before/After images – particularly showing the transportation transition periods.
I think you have the correct locale – the building on the left looks like a perfect match – the one on the right may have been retrofitted.
Ah I see what you mean about the building on the left. I didn’t see the columns in the “now” photo.
Overhanging roof of Bullock’s 1907 original downtown store at 7th & Broadway appears to be intact up on the far right.
Ha! I suspect many Angelenos would not have suspected how much the pedestrian would disappear in the future. ?
City of Angels.
I have two questions about the older photo. First, at the base of the tall building on the right, it looks like there’s some sort of enclosed structure resting on two poles on the sidewalk. Unless my eye is being fooled and that’s a large bay window in the building, I can’t imagine what would be the purpose of that cage-like structure. Second, I’d love to know what the full sign on the side of the hotel says. I can see “El Temp,” but that’s all.
I don’t know what the “El Temp” refers to, but that box-on-a pole is a traffic cop booth. There were quite a few of them during this era. I think they also were involved with controlling streetcars, too.
El Tempo Cigars maybe?
That sounds like a good guess to me!