Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

Historical Notes

In June of 1893 the Los Angeles Post Office moved into this building from its location on Broadway near Sixth Street.*

Historical Notes

Santa Fe opened La Grande Station on July 29, 1893 and was unique for Southern California in its Moorish-style architecture. The station was located at 2nd Street and Santa Fe Ave, just south of the First Street viaduct built in 1929 and on the west bank of the LA River.^*

Historical Notes

The Moorish-inspired La Grande railroad station was used as a passenger terminal for Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (often abbreviated to "Santa Fe").^^

Historical Notes

Outside La Grande Station, a garden of exotic plants welcomed newcomers to the supposedly sub-tropical climate of Southern California.

Back of photo reads:  “La Grande Station, Los Angeles, taken just after its completion in 1894.  Taken by E. E. Risley, deceased, who for many years was division gardener.  Courtesy of his son, Leslie E. Risley, store department, Los Angeles."

Historical Notes

The La Grande depot was also notable for its red-brick construction, selected because it signaled the station's importance and because it followed a rash of fires that had destroyed wooden depots.^^

Historical Notes

The rusticated brick building is in the Moorish style and features a gazebo like covered entrance that leads under two towers with battlements and into a circular section with a large onion dome. The building has arched stained glass windows, square windows with keystones, dentils, and bands of coursing. There are two wings. One wing has a tower with battlements, a hipped roof with a dormer, topped with a structure with a gabled roof with a pediment, and a small cupola with a dome. The second wing has a hipped roof with a dormer, topped with a structure with a gabled roof with a pediment, and a curved section with arched windows and a high, sloped, curved roof. ###

Historical Notes

The Moorish-style depot cost $50,000 when built in 1893 and for 30 years boasted a first-class restaurant called "The Harvey House." ^^

Historical Notes

Many Hollywood movies were filmed at the stylish station. Laurel and Hardy's film Berth Marks (1929) was one of the first sound movies shot on location. Other movies that used Santa Fe's La Grande Station included Choo Choo 1931 (Our Gang - Little Rascals), Lady Killer, 1933 with James Cagney, Swing Time 1936 (Fred Astaire) and Something to Sing About 1937 (James Cagney).^*

Historical Notes

After the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, the station's dome was removed but the station continued to serve as the Santa Fe terminal until 1939 when Union Station opened.^*

Historical Notes

La Grande Station was the Santa Fe Railway's main passenger terminal in Los Angeles, until the Long Beach earthquake of 1933. After the earthquake, the station's dome was removed, but the station continued to serve as Santa Fe Railway's LA passenger terminal until the opening of the new LA Union Station on May 7, 1939. When Union Station opened in 1939, Santa Fe moved all of its passenger services there and closed the La Grande station.^^

Historical Notes

Major George H. Bonebrake was President of the Los Angeles National Bank and the State Loan and Trust Company.

Historical Notes

George Bonebrake was partners with John Bryson, Sr., the 19th mayor of Los Angeles.  Together, they built the Bryson-Bonebrake Block, one of the more important office buildings built during the 1880s Los Angeles building boom.  It was a 126-room bank and office building on the northwest corner of Spring and 2nd street. Its cost was projected to be $224,000, a staggering sum at the time. Bonebrake was one of the richest men in the city and could afford making such an investment. He located the main headquarters of his bank in the Bryson-Bonebrake Block.

Historical Notes

Today, the Auto Club building stands on this site.

Historical Notes

Designed by Joseph C. Newsom and built in 1891 for Rev. Edward T. Hildreth, a Congregational minister. Tthe defining features of the Victorian Shingle style home were an ornate chimney and wrought iron circular balcony on the tower.*

Historical Notes

Located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Hope and 4th streets, the exterior of the elevated house was finished off with a stone retaining wall and steps leading up the entrance.

By 1939, the eighteen rooms of the house had been converted into nine residences. Boarders paid between thirteen and thirty-five dollars a month in rent and had lived in the mansion anywhere from one to twelve years. With the exception of the eighty-seven year old resident who was killed in an auto accident in 1940, the boarders of the once stately home lived a quiet existence and dried laundry on the grand wrought iron balcony.*##^

Historical Notes

By 1954, the Hildreth Mansion was but a beautiful memory, destroyed by the CRA's visions of urban renewal.

Today, the 5th tallest building in Los Angeles, Bank of America Plaza (formerly Security Pacific Plaza), is located where the Hildreth Mansion once stood.^*

Historical Notes

The St. Angelo Hotel at 237 North Grand Avenue was built during the boom of the 1880s when it was advertised as a European family-and-tourist rooming house. During the next few decades, the hotel and its guests were mentioned in the society pages.*#*

Historical Notes

The hotel was a large Victorian structure with three stories, two balconies and a covered porch. A large cylindrical tower with a conical roof is at right, while a rectangular tower is at left. The balconies are held up by arch ways, and several rectangular windows are visible on the side of the building at left.^^*

Historical Notes

Despite the hotel's shabby condition, it stood proudly on the Hill until the board of health ordered it vacated in 1956. All traces of the once grand hotel were soon erased and replaced by the Music Center which was dedicated in 1964.*##^

Historical Notes

Photo Caption reads:  The old St. Angelo Hotel was recently ordered vacated by the Board of Health and soon will be torn down. And so another famous old landmark will live only in the photo files.

This would be the location of the Music Center, built in 1964.  Click HERE for contemporary view.

Historical Notes

Built in 1893, the Bradbury Building was commissioned by LA mining millionaire Lewis L. Bradbury and designed by local draftsman George Wyman. The building features an Italian Renaissance Revival -style exterior facade of brown brick, sandstone and panels of terra cotta details, in the "commercial Romanesque Revival" that was the current idiom in East Coast American cities.^*

Historical Notes

The beautiful Bradbury Building is one of the oldest buildings in downtown. At the time the building was completed, it featured the largest plate-glass windows in Los Angeles. But the magnificence of the building is the interior: reached through the entrance, with its low ceiling and minimal light, it opens into a bright naturally lit great center court.^*

Historical Notes

The five-story central court features glazed brick, ornamental cast iron, tiling, rich marble, and polished wood, capped by a skylight that allows the court to be flooded with natural rather than artificial light, creating ever-changing shadows and accents during the day.

Geometric patterned staircases and wrought-iron railings were used abundantly throughout. The wrought-iron was created in France and displayed at the Chicago World's Fair before being installed in the building. Freestanding mail-chutes also feature ironwork. The walls are made of pale glazed brick. The marble used in the staircase was imported from Belgium, and the floors are Mexican tiles.  Cage elevators surrounded by wrought-iron grillwork go up to the fifth floor.^*

Historical Notes

The Bradbury Building has operated as an office building for most of its history. It was purchased by Ira Yellin in the early 1980s, and remodeled in the 1990s.

Historical Notes

In 1962, the Bradbury Building was designated LA Historic-Cultural Monument No. 6 (Click HERE to see the complete listing). In 1977, the building was designated a National Historic Landmark. It also is listed in the U.S. National Register of HIstoric Places.^*

Historical Notes

The building underwent complete restoration in the early 1990s as part of the Yellin Company’s Grand Central Square project.

Historical Notes

Today the Bradbury Building serves as headquarters for the Los Angeles Police Department's Internal Affairs division and other government agencies. Several of the offices are rented out to private concerns, including Red Line Tours.^*

Historical Notes

The building is featured prominently as the setting in films, television, and literature (Click HERE to see detailed listing) particularly in the science fiction genre. Most notably, the building is the setting for both the climactic rooftop scene of Blade Runner (1982), as well as the set of the character J. F. Sebastian's apartment in which much of the film's story unfolds.^*

Historical Notes

Still standing today, the Irvine-Byrne building is the second oldest building in downtown Los Angeles, right behind the Bradbury Building (1893) which sits across the street. The five-story Beaux Arts style building was designed by Los Angeles architect Sumner Hunt and built in 1895 for Margaret Irvine of Irvine Ranch fame.  Originally called the Irvine Block it was built as an office building and, when it was built, was only the second office building in the area.^*

Historical Notes

In 1905, James W. Byrne bought the building and the name changed to the Irvine-Byrne Building. In 1911, Byrne hired San Francisco architect Willis Polk to repair the building. At some point in the next thirty years it changed hands and by World War Two, it was the home of the Mexican consulate.^*

Historical Notes

In the 1980's, the ground floor was taken over by a Giant Penny discount store. This store remained on the premises until Urban Pacific Builders bought the building in 2004.^*

In 1991 the Irvine-Byrne Building was dedicated LA Historic-Cultural Monument No. 554.

Historical Notes

In 2004 the new owners, Urban Pacific, hired Donald Barany Architects to convert the building to condominiums, which they completed before the end of the year. After the $20 million renovation, the Irvine-Byrne Building is now home to the Pan American Lofts.^*

Historical Notes

The Douglas Building is the only structure in the original view that has survived into the 21st century. The Hotel Ramona was torn down in 1912 to make way for the 13-story Washington Building which still stands today. The Stimson Building, considered by some to be the city’s first skyscraper, was damaged by fire in 1962 and demolished the following year, replaced by a parking lot. The Lankershim Building, later renamed the Title Insurance Building, seems to have been demolished around the same time. Its former footprint is now part of the Ronald Reagan State Office Building complex. #^*#

Hisorical Notes

The above building was the office of governor Pio Pico and last California capital of Mexico.

Pío de Jesús Pico was the last Governor of Alta California (now the State of California) under Mexican rule. Pico spent most of his adult life in Los Angeles where he helped to transform a remote pueblo into a major world metropolis. After a brief stint as governor in 1831, he became administrator of Mission San Luis Rey. In 1834 he married María Ignacia Alvarado, a member of a respected Los Angeles family. In 1845, he led a popular coup against Governor Micheltorena, resulting in his rise to the governorship, a post that lasted until the arrival of invading United States forces in 1846.+#

Historical Notes

In 1821 Pico set up a tanning hut and dram shop in Los Angeles, selling drinks for two Spanish bits (US 25 cents). His businesses soon became a significant source of his income.

John Bidwell, an early California settler, mentioned him among the people he knew: "Los Angeles I first saw in March, 1845. It then had probably two hundred and fifty people, of whom I recall Don Abel Stearns, John Temple, Captain Alexander Bell, William Wolfskill, Lemuel Carpenter, David W. Alexander; also of Mexicans, Pio Pico (governor), Don Juan Bandini, and others".

By the 1850s Pico was one of the richest men in Alta California. In 1850 he purchased the 8,894-acre Rancho Paso de Bartolo, which included half of present day Whittier. Two years later, he built a home on the ranch and lived there until 1892. It is preserved today as Pio Pico State Historic Park. Pico also owned the former Mission San Fernando Rey de España, Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores (now part of Camp Pendleton), and several other ranchos for a total of over one half-million acres, or 800 mi².  Also, in 1868, he constructed the three story, 33-room hotel, Pico House (Casa de Pico) on the old plaza of Los Angeles, opposite today's Olvera Street. ^*

Historical Notes

The Hellman/Quon building is named for its two long-time owners, a white European builder and a Chinese businessman. When Hellman, the original owner, died in 1920, the building was sold to Quon How Shing, who helped fellow Chinese learn English and taught them how to adapt to American society. The building had a hidden bell to alert occupants to the presence of unwelcome visitors who might take issue with the gambling and opium smoking within. It is now the offices of Las Angelitas del Pueblo, the volunteer organization that offers free tours of El Pueblo de Los Angeles, and El Pueblo Education Center.++

Historical Notes

The construction of the #101 Freeway took away the Jennette Block and left the Garnier Building. The Jennette Block was built circa 1888 and the Garnier Building in 1890.*

Historical Notes

In 1894 LA Chamber of Commerce moved into its new quarters at the southeast corner of Broadway and 4th, in a building designed especially for its use, the then-new three-story Mason Building - which would serve as its home for twelve years. In 1906, it moved into the Southwest Building, located at 130 S. Broadway, and stayed there until January 31, 1925. In 1925 it moved to its brand new building at 1151 S. Broadway and 12th Street. It now makes its home at 350 S. Bixel and 6th streets.

Historical Notes

The Van Nuys Hotel was designed in 1895 by Octavius Morgan and J. A. Walls in a Beaux-Arts style for Isaac Newton Van Nuys. The view above shows the hotel’s large rooftop sign, which lured customers from railroad stations to the east.

Historical Notes

The hotel was a commercial investment by Isaac Newton Van Nuys, one of Los Angeles’ wealthiest businessmen and landowners.*

Historical Notes

When it opened in 1897, the Van Nuys was one of the finest hotels in Los Angeles. It was the first hotel to provide telephone and electric service to every room. There were thirty-two rooms on each floor with sixty private baths and ten public baths. It is the oldest hotel in continuous operation in Los Angeles.*

Historical Notes

Designed by the firm of Morgan and Walls, the six-story Beaux Arts-style building with Romanesque features has a ground floor with large picture windows and art-glass transoms above the lobby windows on 4th Street. The second floor exterior is of terra cotta scored to mimic blocks of stone, while the upper stories are sheathed in cream-colored pressed brick. Pilasters with Corinthian capitals rise from the second to the sixth floor, separating banks of paired windows. The building is capped by a modest cornice, under which is a plain band ornamented only with rondelles above each pier, and the building’s name, “The Van Nuys” in the center on the 4th Street and Main Street elevations.*

Historical Notes

Consolidated Hotels, Inc., leased the hotel in 1929, renamed it to Barclay, and renovated it to include a high-speed elevator and a remodeled lobby.

Historical Notes

The 4th Street lobby still retains many original elements, including Sullivanesque plasterwork, ceiling decorations, columns, and arched doorways. The stained glass windows in the lobby feature old-fashioned scenes of banqueting, fine ladies, and music. One panel has a crest with the initials “V. N.” held up by sea horses.*

Historical Notes

A city landmark, the Barclay houses low-income tenants as the neighborhood gentrifies around it.

The Barclay was granted Historic-Cultural Monument status by the city in 1985, but it continues its life of quiet oblivion. It is still a low-income residence and seems to be stubbornly resisting the gentrification that is going on all around.

Historical Notes

In 2017, LA’s landmark Barclay Hotel was sold to Golden Hills Properties, a company owned by Michael Delijani.  Delijani is the son of Downtown real estate investor Ezat Delijani, who bought four of Broadway’s historic theaters—the Los Angeles, the Palace, the State, and the Tower—to prevent their further ruin and, in some cases, threatened demolition.^^

Historical Notes

Hotel Baltimore was owned by mining magnate John Brockman. The hotel was purchased by the Los Angeles Athletic Club for $450,000 in 1907 and was demolished for the construction of the club’s new headquarters. The new Baltimore Hotel was built in 1910 on the southwest corner of Fifth and Los Angeles streets.*#*

Historical Notes

The First Congregational Church was dedicated on June 26, 1868 by the Rev. Alexander Parker and was used until 1883.

Historical Notes

In 1883, after outgrowing the small New HIgh Street church, a new building was constructed at 3rd & Hill streets.*

Historical Notes

The 2nd First Congregation Church was dedicated on May 15, 1883, cost $15,000 to build and furnish. The structure includes numerous gables in which there are Sunday school rooms, a pastor's study, and a library. The auditorium, with 25 stained glass windows, seats 425.*

Historical Notes

The building served as the First Congregational Church until 1888, when it was sold for $30,000 to Central Baptist Church and was later sold to the Church of the Unity in 1892.

Historical Notes

In 1888, the First Congregational Church building was sold to the Central Baptist Church and was later sold to the Church of the Unity in 1892. The First Ccongregational Church congregation moved to a new location (it's 3rd) on the corner of Hill and 6th streets.

Historical Notes

In 1902 the First Congregational Church would move to its 4th location, 841 S. Hope Street.

Historical Notes

Built in 1902, this Gothic Revival building was designed by Howard, Train & Williams, and cost approximately $50,000 to build.

Historical Notes

This building served as the First Congregational Church until the early 1932 when the fifth church building was constructed on Commenwealth Ave.*

Historical Notes

Los Angeles architect James H. Bradbeer drew up plans for the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in 1890. The church was listed in the 1892 Los Angeles City Directory with Reverend W.J. Chichester as its pastor. His residence was on the west side of Burlington Avenue near Orange Street.

In 1897, Hugh Kelso Walker took over as the first Pastor of the first Immanuel Presbyterian Church. His first sermon was delivered in early 12/1897.^

Historical Notes

In 1932, the entire length of the 10th Street, from East L.A. to Santa Monica, was renamed Olympic Boulevard for the 10th Summer Olympics being held in Los Angeles that year.

Historical Notes

Immanuel Presbyterian Church relocated to a Gothic Revival style church on Wilshire Boulevard and Berendo Street in 1928. Click HERE to see more on the new church.

Historical Notes

According to a December 30, 1895, Los Angeles Times article that described the opening of the new Boyle Heights Presbyterian Church the previous day, "The new church is built onto the old one (built in 1885), which is separated from it by sliding oaken panels, and used for a Sunday-school and class- rooms." ^*#

Historical Notes

The church's cornerstone was laid on September 2, 1895, by Mrs. Elizabeth Hollenbeck, who apparently put up a lot of the money for the church.^*#

Historical Notes

St. Mary’s parish dates back to 1896, when it was established in Boyle Heights.  The original church building was replaced by a newer sanctuary in 1926, located on 4th Street - one block east of Hollenbeck Park.*^*^

Historical Notes

T. D. (Thomas Dillingham) Mott arrived in Los Angeles in 1852, was a stable-keeper by 1860, married Maria Ascencion Sepulveda in 1861, was County Clerk from 1863-1869, became political boss of the Democratic Party in L.A. County, and became a State Assemblyman in 1871.

The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1888, is Southern California's largest not-for-profit business federation, representing over 1,600 businesses. The Chamber's early focus promoted the region's abundance of opportunities in agriculture and international trade. In 1967, the Chamber changed its name to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. The L.A. Chamber of Commerce takes up key issues that affect the business community in Los Angeles.*

Historical Notes

In 1893 the Southern California Fruit Exchange was founded in the building. An earlier record reads: "Sunkist Adventure, Part I, History, photo h. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce building, birthplace of the Sunkist cooperative marketing concept. Growers meeting here in the summer of 1893 founded Southern California Fruit Exchange".^

Historical Notes

Aaron M. Ozmun was president of the Columbia Savings Bank on South Broadway at the time of this photo.

Historical Notes

When built in 1875, the First German Methodist Episcopal Church was originally a one-story structure located on 4th Street near Hill. In 1897, the building was lifted and an additional story was placed underneath, as shown here. Four years later, the building was moved to 449 S. Olive Street. In 1910 the structure captured here was replaced by another. That church building served the German Methodist community until 1997, when the congregation relocated to 556 West Glenoaks Blvd. in Glendale. To this day, German continues to be the primary language for the church service.^

Historical Notes

In 1896, the B'nai B'rith congregation moved into its new larger brick Victorian synagogue at 9th and Hope. It was designed by A.M. Edelman (also designed 1st temple), and had tall flanking towers capped with large onion domes.*^

The cornerstone of B'nai B'rith Synagogue was laid on March 15, 1896 and it was dedicated on September 5th of the same year. The synagogue, which had seating for 600 people, was built of red brick with twin towers and pomegranate domes, its floors were carpeted in deep red with plush-cushioned pews and had a chandelier containing 60 bulbs, which made it the largest in the city. H.W. Hellman, Harris Newmark, Kaspare Cohn, and Mrs. J.P. Newmark presented the beautiful stained glass windows.

Before moving into this building, Congregation B’nai B’rith occupied its first building at Temple and Broadway in Downtown L.A. from 1862 until 1895.*

Click HERE to see first location of B'nai B'rith Temple.

Historical Notes

Sigmund Hecht became rabbi in 1899, and in 1903 the congregation joined the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the national organization of the Reform movement. Edgar Magnin was hired as an assistant rabbi in 1915, and took over as senior rabbi upon Hecht's retirement in 1919. Both Hecht and Magnin implemented the Reform practice of the time, including heavier use of the English language and organ and choir music.*^

Historical Notes

The tall pole seen on the corner of 9th and Hope was one of Los Angeles' earliest streetlights. The circular object located on the pole at the top of the photo is NOT the light itself, but a platform used for maintenance. At 150 ft. tall, the streetlight was twice the height that is seen in this view. It was one of Los Angeles' first electric streetlights.

Click HERE to see more in Early Los Angeles Street Lights.

Historical Notes

This grand edifice was replaced in 1929 when Wilshire Boulevard Temple opened.*

Click HERE to see the 3rd location of B'nai B'rith (Wilshire Boulevard Temple).

Historical Notes

In 1898, the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard of California celebrated the opening of its first dedicated armory, at the northwest corner of Eighth and Spring Streets. Designed by architect T. J. McCarthy, the three-story structure was built in a bristly Romanesque Revival style, then enjoying the height of its popularity in the design of local civic buildings. At the time of its completion, it was also one of the largest buildings in the southern part of the city.*

Historical Notes

For many years, the armory building had a mix of military and civilian uses that would seem unthinkable today. The lot was privately owned and developed by John S. Copeland, and the National Guard shared the building with three storefronts along Spring Street. Nonetheless, the armory was one of the most well-appointed military buildings in California, equipped with a drill hall, saddle room, officers’ quarters, reception rooms, and a gymnasium. It was also one of the few Romanesque Revival buildings whose turret was built with a functional purpose: the easy mounting of a Gatling gun (that convenience never became a necessity, thankfully). *

Historical Notes

The armory building also served briefly as the headquarters of the perennially mobile Post Office. In 1901, the Post Office moved out of its cramped offices near Fourth and Main Streets, installing its main office in the armory’s ground floor. The move proved to be extremely unpopular among the city’s business leaders, who found Eighth Street to be far too distant from the city center. In a biting editorial, the Los Angeles Times ridiculed the new location as being “somewhere out in the wilderness” and “handy for the farmers.” The criticisms however, failed to elicit any change. In 1904, the main Post Office moved to its next location at Seventh Street and Grand Avenue, hardly any closer to the center of business. *

Historical Notes

The National Guard vacated its old quarters in 1914 after the completion of a new armory in Exposition Park (now the Wallis Annenberg Building). The former armory spent the remainder of its life as a rather standard small commercial building, with its upper stories converted for use as a dance hall. Somehow, it stayed untouched by its neighborhood’s rapid redevelopment during the 1920s. Like all too many of Los Angeles’ forgotten landmarks however, it was ultimately torn down by its owner in 1938 to be replaced by a parking lot. *

Historical Notes

At one time, the name Larronde was a fairly well known one in the City of Angels. Pierre Larronde was a native Frenchman who landed in San Francisco in 1847 and made a killing in the gold mines. When he relocated to Los Angeles in 1851, he amassed a further fortune by successfully raising sheep on one of the Ranchos. Always the astute businessman, Larronde cashed out his sheep empire in the late 1880s and focused his energies on real estate. His holdings included prime land at the corner of First and Spring, and a parcel on North Hope Street near Temple where he built the family home.^

Historical Notes

Elevated booths were used by the Los Angeles Railway and the Yellow Cars as a switchman’s tower to control the flow and path of streetcars through the intersection. 

Historical Notes

The Los Angeles Theatre opened in 1888. It was built by William Hayes Perry and the building containing it was known as the Perry Building. 

Historical Notes

In 1903 this interesting Richardsonian Romanesque building became the Orpheum - the second home of Orpheum Circuit vaudeville in Los Angeles. Previously they'd been at the Grand Opera House.

There were four Orpheum theatres in downtown Los Angeles:

◆ 110 S. Main St. -- Grand Opera House was the home of Orpheum vaudeville from 1894 to 1903.

◆ 227 S. Spring St. -- The Los Angeles Theatre, later called The Lyceum, was known as the Orpheum from 1903 to 1911.

◆ 630 S. Broadway -- Now the Palace Theatre -- this was the Orpheum between 1911 and 1926.

◆ 842 S. Broadway -- Orpheum Theatre from 1926 to Today

(1914)**^ - A view of the Lyceum all in lights from the 1914 Moving Picture World article about J.A. Quinn.

Historical Notes

The Orpheum moved on in June, 1911 to their new home at 630 S. Broadway (now the Palace Theatre). The existing building became the Lyceum Theatre in 1912. **^

Historical Notes

By the 1930s the Lyceum Theatre was exclusively a movie theatre.

Historical Notes

Opened in 1888 as the Los Angeles Theater; became the 2nd Los Angeles Orpheum; closed in 1941 as the Lyceum Theatre.

Historical Notes

Herald Examiner photo caption reads:  "Street view of the Lyceum Theatre, located at 227 South Spring Street, is the second oldest show house built in the city. Originally known as the Los Angeles Theater, where stars of yesteryear appeared, the theater will be razed to become a parking lot. Beneath it is one of the original springs from which Spring Street derived its name. Photo dated: January 15, 1941."

The site is now the L.A. Times parking garage.

Historical Notes

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in the late 1870's and it didn't take long for Los Angeles to adopt the new technology. In 1879, the Los Angeles Telephone Company was formed and it began offering telephone service in the area of what is now Downtown Los Angeles. This was just one year after the very first North America telephone exchange was installed in New Haven, Connecticut (January, 1878). The Los Angeles Telephone Company originally started with only seven subscribers.

In 1883, The Los Angeles Telephone Company merged with another local telephone company based in Northern California, Sunset Telephone Company. In 1906, the Sunset Telephone Company was acquired by Pacific Telephone and Telegraph, later known as Pacific Bell.^^^#

Historical Notes

Horace David Sackett and Ellen Sackett  built the hotel in 1888 at Prospect (Hollywood Boulevard) and Cahuenga, an intersection that became an early Hollywood commercial center.  Their dauther, Mary Sackett, served as the first postmistress of the Hollywood post office located at the hotel.*

Click HERE to see more in Early Views of Hollywood (1850 - 1920).

Historical Notes

Businessman Zachariah Weller’s house was just six years old in 1900 when he sent his family off for a short vacation on Catalina Island, split the house in two, and moved it about 3,000 feet north (as the crow flies), deep into Angeleno Heights. When the Weller clan’s Avalon holiday was up, they returned to a home not only no longer encroached upon by filthy oil wells, but one which was newly wired for electricity, the first home in the Heights to be powered as such.^

Oil was discovered by Edward L. Doheny in 1892, near the present location of Dodger Stadium. The Los Angeles City Oil Field was the first of many fields in the basin to be exploited, and in 1900 and 1902, respectively, the Beverly Hills Oil Field and Salt Lake Oil Field were discovered just a few miles west of the original find. Los Angeles became a center of oil production in the early 20th century, and by 1923 the region was producing one-quarter of the world's total supply; it is still a significant producer, with the Wilmington Oil Field having the fourth-largest reserves of any field in California.^*

Historical Notes

In 1979 the Weller home was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 223 (Click HERE to see complete listing).  Its current location is 822-826 E. Kensington Road. Click HERE for contemporary view.

Historical Notes

John A. Forthmann, who founded the Los Angeles Soap Company with J.J. Bergin, built the house in the 1880s at 629 West 18th St. It was moved to 2801 S. Hoover in 1989 and is now the USC Community House. According to the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, it is the sixth oldest house in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Soap Co. was most famous for its White King brand (‘It takes so little’).  At one point its plant covered about sixteen acres of downtown L.A.

In 1972, the Forthmann House was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 103 (Click HERE to see complete listing).

In 1989, about a year after the Los Angeles Soap Co. finally closed its doors, the house was picked up and relocated to its current location on Hoover. Today the home – one of the oldest in the city – is the headquarters for USC’s Real Estate Development Corp.*^^^

Historical Notes

When he first had it built in the Second Empire style in 1887, Rufus Van Dorn named his house The Rochester for his New York hometown. A decade later, it was bought by the Van Nuys family who converted the structure into an apartment building at the end of World War I. Like a lot of Bunker Hill properties, it fell into disrepair following WWII.^

Historical Notes

The wood frame building was one of the very few extant examples of Mansard or Second Empire (Napoleon III) style structures found in Los Angeles.^

Historical Notes

On January 4, 1963 the West Temple Apartments (The Rochester) was declared LA Historic Cultural Monument No. 11.

In August 1967, the El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historical Monument Commission voted to move the Rochester from its West Temple home to Main and Republic Streets as part of the park being developed around the city’s Old Plaza (this Board – different than the Cultural Heritage Commission – had been overseeing the park project since 1965). The Commission also set up a solicitation fund for its relocation and restoration. Over the next few years, money was raised and a HUD grant of up to $100,000 was applied for and contracted.^

Historical Notes

In August of 1969, the Commission did an about face and decided the Rochester wasn’t allowed in the park after all. Why? Well, the idea was always a matter of disagreement within the Board. Some of the Commission maintained the non-Spanish architecture of the Rochester would look out of place in Old Plaza. Also, they felt other things – like parking space – were more necessary.

In protest, a group made up of private contributors as well as three Board members (John Anson Ford, Dorothy A. Burnaby, and David A. Workman) sued the Commission, claiming the board had voted to move the Apartments, had raised public and private money, and had no right to renege. The plaintiffs won, and the Commission appealed the ruling. Jump to early fall, 1970, when, with verdict pending, the Rochester was moved temporarily to “railroad property just north of Union Station” (i.e. Alameda and Bruno Streets). In early 1971, California’s Court of Appeals upheld the original decision. Later that spring, following the State Supreme Court’s refusal to hear another appeal, the Commission unanimously consented to relocate and restore the Rochester.^

Historical Notes

The Rochester House was featured in Walt Disney's "Return to Witch Mountain” filmed in 1977 starring Bette Davis. It is used as the childrens hangout - haunted mansion.

This house has also been in the original Little Shop of Horrors as Seymore's Mom's apartment house, it is also the cover art for the children's mystery book "Go to the Room of the Eyes" by Betty K. Erwin, and it is in a great Victorian house book called "The Gingerbread Age" by John Mass.

Historical Notes

The temporary move of the Rochester House turned out to be permanent. For whatever reason, the Rochester was allowed to languish further at the Alameda/Bruno site until it was ultimately demolished in 1979.

Historical Notes

Rancho Nuestra Señora de Refugio de Los Feliz as it was called, was better known as Rancho Los Feliz. This 6,647-acre rancho was granted to Corporal José Vicente Feliz as early as 1795, one of the first land grants in California; it remained in Corporal Feliz' possession as late as 1816. When Corporal Feliz died his children inherited the rancho, and they built an old adobe house on the property sometime in the 1830s.

Rancho Los Feliz had a succession of owners: Doña María Ygnacia Feliz (daughter-in-law of Corporal Feliz) inherited the rancho in 1843 when her husband died. In 1853, Doña Maria divided the rancho among her own daughters; they inherited it in 1861, after their mother's death. Sadly, the daughters failed to improve the land and sold their portions for a mere $1.00 per acre. In 1860, Antonio Feliz, brother-in-law of Doña Maria acquired the property which included the adobe near the river, and which he kept until his death in 1863. Later that same year, Don Antonio Franco Coronel came into the ownership of Rancho Los Feliz. At some point, Don Antonio deeded the rancho to James Lick, a wealthy businessman from San Francisco.

In 1882, Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith acquired 4,071 acres of the rancho, and on December 16, 1896 Griffith donated 3,015 acres to the city of Los Angeles to be used as a park; other sections of the rancho were developed and became the communities of Los Feliz and Silver Lake. The old adobe, which still exists today, stands within the park boundaries at 4730 Crystal Springs Drive in Griffith Park.*

Historical Notes

Now located in Griffith Park, the Feliz Adobe was remodeled in 1925 and 1936 it was occupied by William H. Johnson, superintendent of the golf courses at Griffith Park.*

In 1988, the Feliz Adobe was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 401 (Click HERE to see the complete listing).

Historical Notes

The Bullard Block was once the site of the old Clocktower County Courthouse. Today, City Hall stands at this location.

Historical Notes

This early charity devoted to housing destitute elderly Los Angelenos opened on 09/06/1896 and was supported by the German-born philanthropist Elizabeth Hollenbeck (1827-1918). Elizabeth and her husband John,(1829-1885), migrated to Southern CA from Nicaragua, where they operated successful shipping lines and a hotel in the city of Greytown, now known as San Juan de Nicaragua. The couple arrived in Los Angeles in the spring of 1876 and John began actively buying real estate in town. He also became associated with bankers in town, becoming an official with the Commercial Bank of Los Angeles. He opened a hotel in Los Angeles, the Hollenbeck Hotel, in 1882, which became one of the most respected establishments of the period in the city. He passed away of a stroke in 1885, but Elizabeth lived on for another 33 years, emerging as a significant donor to various charities. She became active in a local Presbyterian congregation, later the Hollenbeck Presbyterian Church, and through these connections got the idea of opening a home for the elderly who lacked money to care for themselves.*##*

Historical Notes

According to Sam Watters, writing in the Los Angeles Times, the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged housed at its opening "...34 women and 12 men representing eight nationalities and eight faiths.... They were, as one recalled, the 'fortunate unfortunates.' They were older than 60, residents of California and without sufficient financial support. At the home they were secure, their expenses paid for life." *##*

Historical Notes

Originally built in 1896 and designed by architect Edelman, the Mission-Revival building had two addions, 1908 and 1923, the latter work designed by Morgan, Walls, and Clements.*##*

Historical Notes

Due to its masonry construction, the Hollenbeck House could not withstand seismic tremors and was not up to modern building codes. The Hollenbeck Trust razed the building in 1985 and replaced it with a more modern elder-care facility.*##*

Historical Notes

The first owner to try to develop Avalon into a resort destination was George Shatto, a real estate speculator from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Shatto purchased the island for $200,000 from the Lick estate at the height of the real estate boom in Southern California in 1887. Shatto created the settlement that would become Avalon, and can be credited with building the town's first hotel, the original Hotel Metropole, and pier. His sister-in-law Etta Whitney came up with the name Avalon, which was taken from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "Idylls of the King," about the legend of King Arthur.^*

Historical Notes

The Hotel Metropole was completed in 1888 and became Catalina's grande dame. It was a large 3-story wooden structure with views of the bay that boasted of numerous windows, several dormers, half a dozen chimneys, and two covered patios.

Historical Notes

The Hotel Metropole was such a success that additions to it were made in 1893 and 1897. The 1897 addition gave the hotel 58 more rooms as well as a large reception area and a ballroom.*

Historical Notes

After the Banning brothers bought Catalina in 1891, they had better luck in developing the island to accomodate tourism.  They developed Avalon into a proper resort community, made roads into the island’s interior for stagecoach tours and access to hunting lodges. The new roads also enabled tourists to get to Descanso Beach, Lover’s Cove, and other locations, from the town of Avalon.*#*^

Historical Notes

The Metropole continued to thrive during the early years of the 20th century, right up until the disastrous early morning hours of Nov. 29, 1915.  Between 3:30 and 4:00 a.m., a fire started mysteriously near the rear of the hotel. Avalon’s small fire department quickly was overwhelmed by the blaze, which spread until it had destroyed fully half of the town’s hotels and buildings. Many residents were left homeless.^##*

A few years later, the hotel was rebuilt on the same site but was significantly downsized, this time consisting of only 48 rooms and a luxurious 2-bedroom Beach house.*

A 52-room Hotel Metropole now stands on the site of the original structure in Avalon at the center of the Metropole Market Place development.*

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