I’ve posted a number of photos of this magnificent building before, but I don’t think any of them were as remarkably crisp as this one. It’s the Los Angeles County courthouse at the corner of Temple Street and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. It was taken circa 1899, and the only forms of transportation we can see here are horse-drawn carriages and that streetcar on the left that’s heading south down Broadway. (It’s so early, in fact, that it might even be a cable car.) And look at that pair of matching palm trees on the corner. I’m guessing they were only just planted. But most impressive (to me, at least) are the two water sprinklers on the Temple St lawn. I’d have thought they were a 20th century invention.
This is how that view looked in February 2022:
These days we take ice for granted. We just open our freezer and there it is. But way back when, ice was a precious resource that had to be renewed often. And so, since 1882, Angelinos had turned to the Union Ice Company to make and deliver their ice to them. Back in 1913, when this photo was taken, deliveries were made by horse-drawn wagons. Here we have ten wagons, each pulled by a pair of horses, parked outside the Union Ice depot on Santa Monica Blvd. I assume the building behind them is where the ice was manufactured because in the Southern Californian heat, it didn’t last long, and if you’re traveling by horsepower, you’re not going very fast.
This vibrant color photo gives us a glimpse of what it was like to cruise along Ocean Blvd in Long Beach sometime during the early 1960s. This was back when the Red Cars were still running, and they stopped in 1961. I don’t know what model that orange/red car and that blue convertible were, but they sure popped with color, didn’t they? Even that yellow fence on the shoulder does! (I couldn’t determine where on Ocean Blvd this photo was taken, so if anyone can figure it out, I’d love to hear from you.)
You’ve got to love a grocery store with a pun in its name. This place was called the Sunset Cashis King Market – Cash Is King, get it? This place opened in the summer of 1933 at 6000 Sunset Blvd on the southwest corner of Gordon St, which put it right next to Columbia studios. Back then, and for decades later, cash really was king (the first credit card, Diners Club, didn’t start until 1950.) And with those two large signs advertising free parking, Cashis King would have been an early adopter of appealing to what was referred to as “the carriage trade” – i.e. shoppers with their own cars.
With its yellow streetcar and blue sky, this (I assume) Kodachrome photo really pops, doesn’t it? We’re looking north up Broadway from the corner of 8th Street in downtown LA. Behind the streetcar, we can see on the marquee of the Newsreel Theater the name “Pantelleria” which is an Italian island east of Tunisia. During WWII, it was a stepping stone for the Allied invasion of neighboring Sicily en route to the Italian mainland. The invasion of Pantelleria took place on June 11, 1943, so I’m guessing the theater was running a newsreel about it, which I’d say places this photo not long afterwards.
If you’re going to call yourself the Topper Motel, of course you’re going to have a big top hat as your welcome sign. This place was at 11733 Ventura, Studio City in the San Fernando Valley. And if that sign at the bottom is anything to go by, 3 bucks gets you a room. Or at least did in 1950, when this photo was taken. But that other sign saying “STEAM HEAT” has me intrigued. Obviously it was important enough to advertise, but what is it for? Would it have been used to heat the room?
This image was taken on November 15, 1947. I don’t know why that helicopter was flying over the Foreman & Clark store on the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Ivar St, but from the looks of those dozen or so people standing on the store’s domed roof, I guessing they were expecting it. I can’t imagine it was common to see a helicopter hovering over Hollywood, so I’m whatever was going on, I’m assuming it was high drama.
** UPDATE** – This is a re-creation. We’re looking at a shot from the 2015 film “Life,”
When I came across the night photo of the Oriental Theatre on Sunset 