I usually post vintage photos of Los Angeles on my social media, so this one is a little different. Recently, I was invited to participate in a panel of indie-publishing authors at the LA Central Library in downtown Los Angeles. I hadn’t been there since long before the Covid lockdown which started in March 2020, so I took the opportunity to take a walk around streets I haven’t seen in nearly 4 years. Here is a sampling of photos I took as I walked around.
Clifton’s Cafeteria / Cabinet of Curiosities (currently empty) 648 S. Broadway:
Los Angeles Theater, 615 S. Broadway. (Opened 1931)
Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St. It looks more like a bank, which it probably was because Spring St was LA’s Wall St in the 1920s:
Once upon a time (1910s and ’20s) the Hotel Alexandria was the fanciest hotel in town. It’s now loft apartments at Spring and 5th Streets:
Eye-catching black-and-gold grill work on the corner of Broadway and 5th:
We don’t see many signs for Chop Suey and/or Chow Mein these days, but this sign is at the Grand Central Market:
Huge neon sign at Grand Central Market:
Hill St station of the Angels Flight funicular:
After living in LA for 27 years, I finally got around to riding the iconic Angels Flight funicular:
3D mural on an office building on Grand Ave near 5th St.
Biltmore Hotel opposite Pershing Square (opened October 1st, 1923)
Poster for the Biltmore Cocktail Shop, Biltmore Hotel:
This corridor in the Biltmore Hotel lead to the Biltmore Bowl, a cavernous ballroom that at the time was one of the biggest (or perhaps the biggest) ballrooms in the US:
This trio were guests at the Biltmore Hotel’s gala opening, which was one of the biggest social events of the year. The younger couple look pleased to have scored an invite, but Mrs. Frownypuss Mother-in-law seems thoroughly unimpressed:
I went to downtown LA to sit on a panel of indie-publishing historical fiction authors held at the LA Central Library:
Main entrance of the LA Central Library, facing Flower St:
Poster for the Inde-Pendent-Voices program dedicated to indie publishing, LA Central Library:
This is our panel in action. Check out my body language. Clearly I’ve gotten over any fear of speaking in public!
So there IS more to LA than crackheads, crackpots and feces-smeared streets! 🙂
Yes, MMM. A whole lot more. I was half-expecting a bit of a hellscape, but was pleasantly surprised to see very few homeless people. And also that the streets, curbs, and sidewalks were all very clean.
Ah! Good show, then. I think I’d still stay away from the LAX area. It was none too salubrious in the early 80s when I lived in Inglewood, and I can’t imagine it having improved greatly since…
Actually, downtown LA is *a lot* better than the 1980s, when it was at its nadir. Things started to turn around in the early 2000s when empty office buildings started to be converted to lofts. When they proved popular, stores like Ralphs, Trader Joe’s, and Target moved in. Bars, restaurants, clothing stores followed and downtown became a thriving area once more. Things dipped badly during the Covid lockdown, but based on what I saw this past weekend, it has bounced back again.
Martin, you took some excellent photographs! Is that an actual place in the Biltmore, the Biltmore Cocktail Shop? I need to visit the Biltmore Hotel again, I love it there. Plus, it’s 100 years old in 2023! I had a wonderful Christmas dinner there one year! Thanks for these!
Love neon and so love the Chop Suey/Chow Mein sign. The Bulleit neon sign is like a mural! Lisa Schulte, the woman who designed and made that neon sign did another one a year ago for the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Any time I go there now I have to go look at it.
Here’s a photo of it:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/6392/n3mmES.jpg
I’ve never seen that other neon mural, so thanks for that. When I was Biltmore Hotel walking tour docent for the LA Conservancy, I don’t recall any notes about the Biltmore Cocktail Shop, but I don’t doubt that it was real. Perhaps a little cocktail bar that opened up after Prohibition was fazed out?
Great LA pics. It is nice to see there are still some old buildings left. My mom’s old house in Hollywood 947 N Genesee was just tore down a few years ago along with the neighboring house and the houses behind them for the modern apt buildings. Maybe they will look good to me in 100 years? Also I thought Angeles Flight was long gone. My parents to us kids on it in the 60’s because they where I thought tearing it down along with the old houses on Bunker Hill?
They dismantled Angels Flight and moved it a block south of its original location. Then there was an accident, so it was closed for quite a while. But now it’s up and running. A dollar a ride or 50 cents if you have your TAP Metro card.
Excellent photographs, Martin. Great angles, and for the most part, you worked the lighting well. Hard to capture some of these scenes without people, and those that had people were a good accent to the photo. Thanks for sharing them.
Thanks Alan. It was fairly early on a Saturday morning, so there weren’t too many cars or people around, so that helped.
Nice pics of the old buildings. I’m glad to see there are a few of them left. My dad worked at the old May Company on Wilshire in the late 40’s for a bit. That building is still there. Also I thought Angeles Flight was long gone? My parents took us there in the 60’s to ride it when the city was tearing down the old homes in Bunker Hill.
Did not realize my first comment went through. Thanks for the info on Angele Flight.
Great stuff! Must have been a fun visit.
All that’s missing from that left hand is a cheroot.
Nice shots. Very evocative.
Great pics! And you do look very relaxed.
P.S. I’ve seen that tiled sign for the Library all my life and never noticed that it was curved at the bottom like an open book!
Me either!
Very nice photos! Thank you for sharing!
I would also like to thank you for posting your photos. Downtown actually looks inviting.
I was expecting it to still be a post-Covid horror show so I was pleasantly surprised to see how clean it looked.
I worked downtown from 1982 through 2014 and I can vouch for how much it changed – mostly for the better – over that time. For years, it didn’t feel safe walking south past about 4th Street. That’s no longer the case, happily.
I may be wrong, but I believe that Theater Center building used to be the Pacific Stock Exchange.
I thought it was the stock exchange building too but it turns out this was the one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Stock_Exchange_Building#/media/File:Los_Angeles_Stock_Exchange_Building.jpg