This is the version of Los Angeles I wish I lived in. This was a branch office of the Department of Water and Power—not a commercial business, but a government utility!—and this is how they decorated it: with beautiful Art Deco flourishes. Imagine walking down a street and this is the sort of thing you pass every day. The caption for this photo said it was on Brooklyn Ave which took me a while to figure out is now part of Cesar Chavez Ave. However, I don’t know the cross street so I don’t know if this building has survived intact.
Suz M says: “The So CA Edison also sold gas ranges. They often had test kitchens in the building as well where you went fir cooking demos and classes. All were geared to promote Gass cooking, heating etc A long time gal pal of mine from college, graduated in Home Economics and first went to work fir tge Gas Co as a food stylist and cooking instructor that was late 40s. I can remember their having demo kitchens into the 60s at least.”
** UPDATE ** – This building sat at 2536 East Cesar Chavez Ave. Below is how that site looked in January 2022.
Van de Kamp’s Dutch bakeries were a ubiquitous sight on the streets of Los Angeles for most of the first half of the 20th century. They were bright blue and—as we can see in this 1935 photo—featured a windmill on top of their store, so they were hard to miss. And also hard to walk by when you could smell what they had on offer inside. This particular one was on the northwest corner Beverly Blvd and Westmoreland St at the southwestern edge of Silver Lake.
This photograph of the entrance to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre was taken during the November 1934 run of “The White Parade” starring Loretta Young and John Boles. Back then, the theater had an red awning that stretched from the curb to the front doors across the forecourt with the hand and footprints. Of course, back then, there wouldn’t have been nearly so many prints as there are now. We can also see that during this time the box office was located under the shade of the awning, which must have been nice for the ticket seller trapped in that box during the long LA summer.
These days, the campus of Fairfax High School on the south side of Melrose Ave at Fairfax looks nothing like this wide-open expanse of greenery. In fact, that building doesn’t look like that anymore; these days just the middle section with the tower remains. But it’s nice to know that once upon a time—in the case of this photo, 1931—the high school students had lots of elbow room. And although I’m sure they thought nothing of it, they also had a lovely dual-lamp streetlight out front.
A couple of days ago, I posted a 
During late February and early March of 1938, a double-whammy of two storms swept in from the Pacific and pounded Los Angeles. Together they generated almost a whole year’s worth of precipitation in just a few days, and killed over a hundred people. The main consequence of the storms was that it was decided that the Los Angeles River ought to be concreted over to more effectively channel excessive flood water. Before I found this photo, I never really gave much thought to how the Army Corps of Engineers carried out the massive job. In this photo show us: With massive walls of prefab concrete.
Until 1942, LA’s famous MacArthur Park to the west of downtown Los Angeles was known as Westlake Park. In this circa 1934 photo we see a practically empty Wilshire Blvd as it winds its way through the middle of the park. (1934 was the year the park was extended to the south side of Wilshire.) Interestingly, the caption calls it “West Lake” Park (two words) which I don’t recall seeing before. I do love seeing those streetlights (known as a Wilshire Special because they were only on Wilshire Blvd) line both sides of the street. And I can’t help but wonder where that lone motorist was going that day.
I love a night shot that glows with neon light. And the people at the then-newly opened Hamilton Diamond Company at 860 Broadway on the northeast corner of 9th St in downtown LA knew what they were doing. After all, nobody’s going to buy those jewels if they can’t see them. This photo was taken in 1930, when the Depression was really starting to hit, so selling diamonds that year would have been a hard slog. I also like the 5-lamp electrolier streetlight next to the semaphore traffic signal, neither of which we see in LA anymore.
When you’re the real estate developer who’s known as the “Father of Hollywood,” I guess you get to live in a gorgeously ornate house. HJ Whitley was the guy who, in the 1890s, took Harvey Wilcox’s subdivision and transformed it into a desirable place for wealthy people to live. He was the one who brought telephone, electric, and gas lines into the new suburb, and also built the Hollywood Hotel on the corner of Hollywood and Highland. In 1911 he convinced Nestor Studios to lease Blondeau Tavern (for $30 a month) and build Hollywood’s first film stage on the northwest corner of Sunset and Gower. Oh, and he also developed Whitley Heights on the south side of the Hollywood Hills looking out across Hollywood. Oddly, though, he didn’t live in the area. The house in this photo was on Flower St in downtown Los Angeles and was taken around 1894.