The Spring Street diagonal
Ever since I started collecting postcards of old Los Angeles, this 90-year-old view of the north end of Spring Street has been one of my "holy grails." One reason for its desirability is that it features the old Post Office that first got me interested in pre-WWII Los Angeles. Mostly, though, this card fascinates me because this particular stretch
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Here's a postcard of Spring Street looking north from First Street, from around 1915. You can see that Spring continues straight through past the intersection for about 30 or 40 feet, then it turns slightly to the right. That's the diagonal section I wrote about.
Now, if you were to go up on the roof of the building at the NW corner of Spring and First and look up the street, this is what you'd see.
There, near the end, is that International Savings and Exchange Bank from the postcard at the top of my post, and the old Post Office just beyond that.
The Times Building at this time was still at the NE corner of Broadway and First. The building at the SW corner of Spring and First in the upper postcard was, in 1915, the Hotel Nadeau. I know it was still there in 1931, but it was probably torn down relatively soon thereafter, as the present Times Building was built on that site in 1933-1934.
There were lots of post office annexes in the old days, so I can't be sure which of these you might be referring to, but there did have to be a temporary main Post Office between the time the one at Temple Square was torn down (1937) and the Terminal Annex one was built (in 1940, I think). I have sort of assumed that this was the interim main Post Office, but this building was at Temple and Spring, and it's definitely not there today.
Anyway, I hope this answers your queries! Thanks again!
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