Like most downtown areas of large cities, downtown LA is a jungle of high rises, offices, stores, and parking lots. It’s nice to be reminded every now and then of how it used to be, and this photo gives us a taste of that. We’re seeing a home built by successful brick maker, Reuben G. Simons, which stood at 2433 S. Flower St, a few blocks south of Washington Blvd. This photo is dated 1910, by which time he had sold the place to lawyer Wiltcie B. Ames, who appears to have been early adopter of the automobile. (The Automobile Club of Southern California was founded in 1900.) But look at the texture of this home: the arches, those small indented windows, the way the corner of the front room curves toward the ground. It’s really something, if you ask me.
This is how 2433 S. Flower looked in February 2023. It’s now the site of a railway station.
Martin, I do like what you do for us but do not like seeing the horrible modern photos you show when making comparisons. How could anyone in there right mind justify destroying a beautiful home to put up a damn high rise???? This really angers me and also make me very depressed about where this country is headed. That home was more than a structure it was a work of art built by many craftsmen!!!!!!
Yes, and likely built with materials you can’t even get anymore (such as, old growth wood). I was just watching a program last night that had a snippet on the Grand Central Station in NYC and how it was almost demolished for a featureless slab of a high-rise. Thank goodness, it was saved.
Paula, What the hell is going on in this frickin country anymore???? People do not seem to see the beauty in these great buildings and homes!!!!! Thank God a few of us still do.
I don’t think it’s “the people” necessarily. The money men have the power and most “people” don’t care. That’s why we need to get involved when we hear of buildings etc. that need saving. Even if it’s just to donate a little money (I’m old now and not too up for anything strenuous 😀) but every little bit helps.
John, do you ever go out and look at any of the beautiful homes that are being built “now”? Most people don’t even take notice of what’s around them in the present, it’s all just there and taken for granted, until it isn’t. To me, the fact that you keep lamenting buildings that are gone would be like people lamenting the clothes people are wearing are gone, or the car in the driveway above is gone. You also never seem to take into account that some buildings might have had weather damage or, like the one, I think it was a hotel, from a hundred or more years ago that you thought a shame wasn’t still there that I looked up and found out had burned down not long after it was built.
Clothes change, cars change, buildings change, people change… If any of the buildings in period photographs that are posted here do still stand, do you go out and look at them? Wondering.
Yes, it was a beautiful home and most likely expensive area at that time. But as more and more people came to Los Angeles area they had to build and build and build. Always a cry that there is not enough low -income housing. I think my grandpa and his mom and family got to enjoy the best time of Los Angeles city. Alot of folks would disagree. But like you said things change, that’s why I love looking at all the old La Pics