viewfromaloft

Parking on Bunker Hill

 

This 1950's era stock footage, thankfully without the watermark, has a POV of a driver in a convertible.  After a cruise on Downtown's freeways, the driver pulls into a parking lot on a razed Bunker Hill freshly covered with asphalt  . . . waiting for redevelopment. Look for a few stubborn Victorian homes left on the hill.

Let me take you to Funicular Town

 

Angels Flight, 3rd and Hill Street circa 1910. Note the "vegetarian cafeteria" on the right. 

 
Angels Flight, 3rd and Hill Streets circa late 60s.

 

Angels Flight car Olivet being placed back on the tracks, November, 2008.

Angels Flight reopens Monday, March 15, reports blogdowntown. As the press release says "Bring quarters." Meanwhile, CurbedLA notes that a soft opening on Saturday, continued today, Sunday.

After nine years, Downtown has changed. Maybe the changes around Bunker Hill are not as dramatic as previous opening and reopening days, but it is a different urban core. Now the question is, how can Angels Flight it be part of Art Walk?

[KPCC]

Photos from Metro Library and Archives flickr set [Angels Flight]

Broadway in the 80s

Thanks to YouTube, scores of amateur videos of Downtown Los Angeles are being posted (mostly taken from a moving car.) Here is one from 1988 by "Meadowlawn" who video taped the street while being driven north on Broadway.

Some of the Historic theaters were still operating as movie houses and you can spot businesses now gone, including a FatBurger.

The shaky tape has a good choice of background music and offers an interesting peek of a Downtown LA from 20 years ago.  Click on  Downtown Los Angeles at Night.

 

 

Exploring the Archives

From the UCLA Special Collections Archive is the "cityscape seen from top of city hall tower looking south in Los Angeles, CA", circa 1950. Below is a photo of Downtown Los Angeles from the same angle in March 2007, from the viewfromaloft archives.

Changing Landscape

On the way back to the loft, I was trying to picture the trees that once lined First Street at Vignes, just at the foot of the First Street Bridge. After hunting down this photo I took in May of 2005, I was surprised how they were larger than I remembered.  Of course, with the ongoing construction for the Metro Gold Line extension along that side of the street, these tree are all gone.
Above: First at Vignes. 2/2007
Below: First at Vignes. 5/2005

View From a Grove

From the 360.yahoo version of View From a Loft, we blogged from a different time. 1912. Part 1 of 2 (with one addition)

Welcome back to our blotter,View From a Grove. In our part of this growing city just east of Los Angeles near the river, dwellings, hotels and factories have taken residence displacing the fields and groves.  This blotter may have to consider changing it’s moniker. CONTACTS: Our friends at the La Grande Station at Santa Fe Avenue and Second Street continues to note the many visitors arriving. The Parmelee Dohrmann Warehouse across from the famed Santa Fe Station brings news from the hotels as they deliver their fine china.  The Anhueser-Bush Brewery Association at Vignes and Second Street are our eyes and ears in the restaurants and pubs. In full view and disclosure we name them, for they bring View From a Grove important tempered news about the changes in this city. We leave the tabloid style to the former staff at The Herald, where ever they may end up. As we enter 1913, here‘s some news from the past year when you turn the page.

Atomic Fish

From ongoing series in and around Downtown Los Angeles. First presented May 2006.
Atomic Cafe (1982) William Reagh
Senor Fish (2005) View From a Loft

Atomic Cafe: Courtesy of LAPL