Got a neat birthday present to myself in the mail today: this old linen postcard of the Barker Hotel in Los Angeles which was the first place Mom and her sister lived on their own after they moved out from Utah. They shared a room there from 1936-1938.


( Read more... )

Seems I've uncovered a bit of a mystery. Here, previously, I've told the story of " General Longstreet's palms." In it, I related information I found on the USC Digital Library site which stated that the palm trees and the house pictured in these two photos were on property owned by Confederate General James Longstreet, most notably of the Battle of ( Read more... )

In this old post, I told the story of my mother having had her picture taken by a street photographer somewhere in downtown Los Angeles in 1936, when she was a 19-year-old secretarial student at Woodbury College. Some time later, I finally identified the location of the picture as having been the 900 block of South BroadwayThereafter, I decided ( Read more... )

Received yesterday another postcard view I've long been eager to acquire - this pleasant prospect of Los Angeles, as seen looking east from Bunker Hill, near Olive and First Streets, sometime around the turn of the last century.


( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Last month, I got this neat old postcard of Broadway near its intersection with Temple Street. The photo was taken from the top of the south entrance of the Broadway Tunnel. The design of the reverse side of this Rieder postcard indicates it was printed between 1907-'09. The photo, however, dates to approximately 1903. The Braly Building (1902-'03 ( Read more... )

I've gone nuts, I really have. I am truly lost in time ( Read more... )

While on the subject of street lighting, I'd like to share what is probably my favorite postcard of old Los Angeles: this view of Broadway from First Street. Note the caption. Broadway is said to be the "Best lighted Street in the World." Although the card was mailed in 1907, I believe the image itself is about a decade older, from around the turn ( Read more... )

One thing I would like to see before the end of my lifetime is a return to white-light-emitting street lighting ( Read more... )