Los Angeles Photo Archive
California Federal Plaza Building, Miracle Mile, 1964
Taking center stage is the highrise California Federal Plaza Building, which opened in February 1965.
Talks began in 1959 with renowned architect Charles Luckman who was hired to oversee the $17M, 28-story skyscraper (billed as the tallest in Southern California). Ground was broken in the Spring of 1962.
The diamond-shaped plaza proudly boasted its walls of marble, rare art objects, a sparkling fountain of magic beauty, and sky-high panoramic views. The impressive new masterpiece provided "Pretty Golden Girl Guides" to escort free tours throughout the building.
The sparking fountain, known as "Falkenstein Falls", was created by Malibu resident Claire Falkenstein (who passed away in 1997). Her work was featured across the street at the County Museum of Art. The fountain was removed years ago.
While California Federal occupied about a third of the space, Crcocker-Citizens National Bank took the ground floor (currently Union Bank).
The building was renovated in 1990 after California Federal packed its bags. By 1991, E! Entertainment Television moved in but later departed to Universal City.
Motion Picture Museum, 1961
The full history of Sol Lesser and the Hollywood Motion Picture and Television Museum project deserved its own page, and it can be found here — Hollywood Museum.
Pigeon Hole garage, downtown Los Angeles, 1956
Directly ahead is the Pigeon Hole garage, with a capacity for 128 vehicles; perfect for dropping off your Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible.
Operated by Standard Stations, the multi-level structure opened in 1953 and was located at Flower and Wilshire. The vehicle was picked up by a lift and hauled to the elevator and gently lifted or placed into a parking spot.
The structure was eventually razed and became the 770 Wilshire Building in 1972 , designed by Charles Luckman.
On the right was one of the oldest custom tailors in the city; Chas Levy & Son. In business since 1900, they began with a location on South Spring Street (currently home to the Spring Street Park).
The Wilshire location seen here seems to have vanished by around 1963 (most likely the firm going out of business).
Rapid Transit System
“Rapid Transit Stations for Southern California for Rapid Transit District’s recommended, first-phase Rapid Transit system will be the most modern in the world.
Plans provide for stations to be individually designed to accommodate specific community needs in coordination with District’s requirements for Rapid Transit operating in the subway, skyway or at surface.
Parking will be provided at suburban stations and terminals with provisions also being made for kiss ‘n ride commuters whose wives drive them to the stations and call for them again in the evening, and for those who drive and park ‘n ride.
Shown is a proposed surface station for the median strip of the San Bernadino Freeway in the San Gabriel Valley Corridor.”
Rocket Messenger Service, 1962
Located in Hollywood, the company bragged it delivers “everything except babies.” The firm was founded by Nelson Thurston (1915-1973) in 1947 and soon expanded and began operating in San Francisco.
The messenger service moved to downtown Los Angeles in the 1980s.
Sardi’s Cafe, Hollywood, 1934
Pictured here is the filming of Paramount’s "Hollywood Boulevard”, which opened in September 1936.
Located near Hollywood and Vine in a small retail complex, Sardi’s (“a distinctive and popular-priced restaurant“) opened in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression. With room for 200 diners, the interior and exterior design was handled by Rudolph Schindler. The site was formerly the Chinese Garden Cafe.
Sardi’s was operated by Eddie (Adolph) Brandstatter. Born in France, the noted restaurateur had been involved with multiple eateries since the halcyon days of the silents, including; the Victor Hugo Cafe, the Sunset Inn (with Mike Lyman), Marcell Cafe, the Embassy Club, and Cafe Montmartre.
Brandstatter told the Los Angeles Times Sardis “will be open twenty-four hours every day with service available at all times”. Much of the property was destroyed by a fire in 1936, though Brandstatter rebuilt an expanded restaurant a year later.
Brandstatter sold the restaurant to his partner Dave Covey in 1938. His next venture was the Bohemia cafe on Ventura Blvd, though it was never completed.
Sadly, the “Host of Hollywood” took his own life in 1940 in the garage of his Sherman Oaks home. His wife Helen (née Stumar) told police she believed financial difficulties were to blame.
The popular spot for hobnobbing became Chi-Chi Restaurant until 1948 and was reborn as a Dixieland joint known as “Eddie’s”. A decade later and still unable to shed its origins, the Hollywood and Vine spot became Zardi's Jazzland.
Changing gears in the late 1960s, the site was the Haunted House cocktail lounge.
St. John’s Church, downtown Los Angeles, 1926
A moment in time, as well-appointed wedding guests gather outside St. John’s Episcopal Church in downtown Los Angeles. Today, of course, the view is a little different; across the street is a Popeyes chicken restaurant.
Located on the corner of West Adams and Figueroa, the church was built for a reported $600,000 by brothers Walter S. and F. Pierpont Davis and completed in 1924 (the cornerstone had been laid two years earlier).
St. John’s Episcopal Church was described as being “designed in the manner of an 11-th century Florentine church. Above the entrance, in the light-gray Tufa stone façade, is a large rose window set in a carre of bas reliefs by S. Cartaino Scarpitta. The ceiling on the main auditorium is a copy of that in the Church of Sin Minato in Florence. The corpus on the rood beam and the Christus above the altar were carved from oak by a protégé of Anton Lang of Oberammergau”.
Taking a stand against the war, the church closed in May 1970 until US military forces withdrew from Southeast Asia. The Reverend E. Lawrence Carter lamented the doors would remain closed, “as a reminder that the spiritual leaders and concerned citizens of our nation were derelict in permitting our government to follow this course of action in Vietnam.”
Referred to at the time as “one of the most beautiful and costly edifices in the country…”, St. John’s Church remained a landmark in the West Adams area for decades and became
St. John’s Cathedral in 2007.
Original architect Francis Pierpoint Davis also designed the Villa D’este in West Hollywood in 1928