Romanesque Revival Downtown Preview

1

Angels Flight

Welcome to the starting point of your tour. Please familarize yourself with its operation.Here is an image of Third and Hill from the late 1950s. Note the Ferguson, Hulburt, and Elks Lodge buildings ascending the hill up to Olive. The arch of Angels Flight, 1910, was built by the California Ornamental Brick Company and designed by local architects Robert Farquhar Train and Robert Edmund Williams.

2

Bradbury Building

The Bradbury opens in 1893. Its architect is Sumner Hunt.

3

Newmark Block & Boston Dry Goods

Harris Newmark Block, AKA Music Art Studio, 231-35 S Bway, Abram Edelman, 1899. The building had a large hall (Blanchard Music Hall) with a seating capacity of 800. It was used for chamber music concerts and other programs. There was another smaller hall seating 150 and a banquet hall for 300. There was also an "Assembly Hall" of unknown capacity. There was also space in the Music and Art Building for studios for 150 musicians and artists as well as a fourth floor art gallery.Boston Dry Goods, 237-41 S Bway, Eisen & Hunt, 1895. Boston Dry Goods, born of J W Robinson, went on to become Robinson's.

4

City Hall

City Hall226-28 S BroadwayCaukin & Haas, 1888Demolished for parking lot, 1928Note the Hosfield Bldg, AKA Victor Clothing; it was built as an annex for the City Hall in 1914 (Train & William, archs).

5

Potomac Block & Bicknell Block

Curlett, Eisen & Cuthbertson, 1888, 213-23 S Bway, demolished for parking lot, 1953.Bicknell Block, Mogan & Walls, 1892, 225-29 S Bway, demolished for parking lot, 1958.

6

YMCA

209 S BroadwayEnrest A Coxhead, noted church archtiect, 1888Replaced in 1905 — They apparently decided a great Romanesque pile was too outmoded, because they hired Dennis & Farwell to replace it and who produced one amazing Sullivanesque structure; it is at least evident D&F were aware of the Wainwright and/or Guaranty.

7

California Bank Building

Newsom Brothers, 1887Replaced — That's a Paul C. Pape (best known for his luxury apartment hotels) from 1911 built for C. Wesley Roberts. It's later known as the Civic Center Building.Gets a remodel in 1965.

8

2nd & 3rd Los Angeles Times Building

The Times originally had a modest building at Temple & New High Street.First and Broadway, the Times Building of 1887, Caukin & Haas, with an addition in 1903 by John Krempel. Dynamited by Unionists, 1910. Redesigned by Walter Erkes, the battlement clock tower featured a 10-foot clock by Nels Johnson. This third Times lasts until the Kaufman/Crawford Art Moderne structure of 1934; it is demolished from September 1937-March 1938.

9

LA Police Central

318 West First. 1896-1955. Charles L. Strange, arch.

10

The Sandstone Courthouse

Curlett, Eisen & Cuthbertson. The cornerstone was dedicated in April 1888, and it opened in the spring of 1891. Damaged after the 1933 quake, it was demolished in 1935.

11

WCTU Temple

WCTU301 N BroadwayCaukin & Haas, 1889The Los Angeles HQ for the WCTU .The top two floors are removed soon after the March 1933 quake. It is demolished in 1955 to make way for the Central Steam & Refrigeration Plant, designed by Edward C. N. Brett, Chief Architect for the County of Los Angeles.

12

City Jail

Built in 1902 and designed by Frank Hudson. It is a casualty of the Spring St realingment.

13

Lanfranco Block

218 North Main, Curlett, Eisen & Cuthbertson, 1888

14

Harper & Reynolds Block

Carroll H Brown, 152-54 North Main, 1892

15

McDonald Block

124-132 North Main, 1892. Demolished, 1950.

16

Bryson-Bonebrake Block

Designed by Joseph Cather Newsom in 1888, located on the northwest corner on 2nd and Spring in Los Angles. From a 1981 reprint of J.C. Newsom's Artistic Buildings and Homes of Los Angeles: 'Bryson-Bonebrake Block, commissioned by John Bryson, Sr., Los Angeles Mayor, and Major George H. Bonebrake, banker, this huge office building was Newsom's most ambitious and commercial structure. The Los Angeles Times, September 17, 1888 reports: "At the corner of Second and Springs streets, is one of the largest and most substantial in Southern California, and is most ornamental in appearance. It is six stories and a basement in height, and will contain four stories, one bank, 126 rooms, and a lodgeroom on the sixth floor. It has 120 feet frontage on Spring street and 103 feet frontage on Second steet. The rooms are all large and well ventilated, and the halls are wide and lighted by light wells. The principal features of the building are the massive and elegantly carved stone entrance, with its beautifully grained Colton marble shafts, carved stone caps and base of Moorish design, and the court in the center of the building throwing light into the corridors and inner rooms. The steps of the entrance are of the best granite, and the entrance is tiled and has marble wainscoting. On one side is a large bulletin-board, and on the other a richly-carved staircase with marble steps... The interior of the building is finished in cedar, and the plumbing is of the best... All the offices are heated and lighted with gas, and there are electric bells from each room to the bulletin board on the first floor. The elevator runs from the basement to the sixth floor. There is a fine [sic] hose reel on each floor for use in case of fire. Its cost will be $224,000.'"

18

The Stowell Block

226 South Spring, Solomon Irmscher Haas, 1889.It is demolished in 1941 for a parking lot.

19

Los Angeles Theater

AKA the Orpheum after 1903, and the Lyceum after 1911, 227 South Spring is built by William Hayes Perry in 1888 (and is thus also referred to as the Perry Building). Its architects are F. J. Capitain and J. Lee Burton.It is demolished for a parking lot in 1941.

20

The Stimson Block

Stimson Block (Carroll H. Brown, 1893), NE corner of Spring and Third.The Stimson Block was the first six-story building in Los Angeles, the first steel frame building in Los Angeles, and the last major example of commercial Richardsonian Romanesque in Los Angeles when it was unceremoniously demolished for a parking lot in July of 1963. (We do have a good extant Victorian Richardsonian house…and it’s also Stimson’s.)

21

Third and Spring

Third & Spring is particularly interesting because on each corner it featured important buildings of differing styles. The Ramona Hotel/Callaghan Block, BJ Reeve, 1886; a classic bay-windowed style. It is replaced in 1912 by the Washington Building, Parkinson & Bergstrom, which remains to this day.The Stimson Block, Carroll H Brown, 1892The Douglas Block, James and Merritt Reid, 1898. The Lankershim Block, Robert Brown Young, 1897, converted from five to seven stories in 1902.

22

Willard Block

328 South Spring, Carroll H BrownWillard Stimson was the son of TD Stimson, he of the glorious Romanesque Stimson Block and still-extant Stimson House

23

Turnverein Hall

Opened: 1894 as as Turn Halle, a German social Hall. By World War I it was changed to the less Germanic sounding Turner Hall.Architect: John Paul Kremple. See "A History of California..." by James Miller Guinn on Google Books for more information on Kremple.Active Dates: The auditorium in the building by 1906 was known as the New Star Vaudeville Theatre. On April 22, 1906 it reopened as the Hecla Theatre under the management of J.J. Cluxton, who had earlier been with the Unique. The bit in the Herald that day mentioned that the Star had been of "unlamented reputation."In 1908 it was the Bijou. In the 1908 city directory it's the Theatre Royal and from 1909 was the Regal. In the 1909 directory we get a listing for Bockoven & Dean.It ceased being a theatrical venue around 1919 and was turned into a men's club (L.A. Men's Club) and gym. It's still listed in the 1918 city directory as the Regal.Status: Demolished. The building had a fire in 1951 that led to its demise. The site is now part of the Reagan State of California Building and garage.More Information: Lots of research by Jeff Bridges and others appears on the Cinema Treasures page devoted to the Regal. See the updated 1906 Sanborn insurance map in Jeff Bridges' Flickr album that shows the New Star, Belasco and Hotchkiss/Empress Theatres.Note that this was the third Turnverein building. The first Turnverein Hall was a wood frame building at 1345 S. Figueroa St. The second Turnverein building at 229 S. Spring was later known as Lyceum Hall. It was just south of the Los Angeles Theatre (later Lyceum Theatre) at 227.

24

Al Levy's Café

Al Levy's CaféAbram Edelman, arch, 1905, 263-73 S Main.The main dining room had a large art glass dome, an overhanging gallery for musicians, a grand staircase to the mezzanine. The second floor had sixty-five private dining rooms, also an English room, a French room and a Dutch room. There were also banquet rooms, handsomely furnished parlors for women, a smoking room for men, etc. The top floors were removed in 1960.

25

Garnier Block

Garnier Building (1890 – Abraham Edelman) – Named for Frenchman Phillippe Garnier, who, with his brothers, owned Rancho Los Encinos. This building was constructed for Chinese commercial tenants, housing important Chinese organizations, including the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, and Chinese churches and schools. The southern third of the building was wiped away to make way for the Hollywood/Santa Anna Freeway in the mid-1950s. Now home to the Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles.