Obviously some are pre T.
It never ceases to amaze me that we have all these huge buildings and streets that were built with horse conveyance before the automobile!
Jim, I am in the same "awe" about all these huge buildings. We have to keep reminding ourselves too that most if not all of this happened in a mere 30 years, if not less. Most by brute muscle. Just awesome the rapid growth. What an exciting time that must've been (from our perspective, not necessarily those living at the time actually).
Thanks to you Erich for taking the time posting these absolutely fantastic pictures recording a fantastic period of time.
Very nice pictures Erich.
Thanks for posting them.
Rich
1900 Waverley Electric Model 18 Road Wagon. Photo taken in Los Angeles on Spring Street. (I'm very familiar with this photo - my dad has a 1900 Waverley.)
Great pics!
Thanks Erich.
Having grown up in the Los Angeles area, I'd say most all of these photos were taken there.
at my age I just gotta add tears seeing these.
Now a days they destroyed all that. Just look;
down town has no face just like new cars. No more veggies in bushel baskets on the side walk. Hunter
ceiling fans not for cooling but to keep flys out.
Role up awnings painted windows yes hunter green
buildings all gone to make way for no face box stores. Hardware stores; I need a pound of black
gun powder-what you want that for son? I say 2 inch
water pipe! OK: try that now. No local hardware
dont even know what black powder is. Kerosine .10
cents a gal. I pitty these young kids. only going ta get worse. I dont know of any kid without a jack knife in school, just try it now.
The first one at the top looks like the corner of Brand Blvd. and Broadway in Glendale Ca. The third one looks like Glendale South of Broadway. The railroad tracks in the center of the street was the Pacific Electric which went to Glendale and Burbank from the Subway Terminal in Los Angeles. The first mile or so from L.A. was underground.
That looks like chaos as there are no stop lights or stop signs or police in the first photos.
Rick
Erich Bruckner:
Really great pictures, Man are some of those street crowded.
Cool Pics. Thanks Erich. I wonder if the "Vote for Water" signs had anything to do with DWP getting water from Hoover Dam and Lake Mead?
Wow. Just, Wow. Incredible pictures. Thank you.
(And I like the pre-T photos)
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
Larry and Norm are correct. Most of those, if not all, are L.A. area shots. The last one shows the Subway Terminal Building at 417 South Hill Street. It's still there.
Thanks all. I love them too. Glad the pre T images were enjoyed too. These were all from southern CA, mostly in the areas you already identified. I do not at this time know the story behind the water vote but will post if I find out.
The 3rd photo reminds me of the background for that famous movie where Harold Lloyd is hanging off the Clock.I think it was "Safety Last", but stand to be corrected.
-Don
Modern view of the intersection in the photo just above the water vote image.
0%2C-7.67,https://maps.google.com/maps?q=sunset+%26+cahuenga,+hollywood,+ca&hl=e n&ll=34.097999,-118.329513&spn=0.012243,0.017874&sll=37.269174,-119.306607&sspn= 12.037555,18.303223&hnear=Sunset+Blvd+%26+N+Cahuenga+Blvd,+Los+Angeles,+Los+Ange les+County,+California+90028&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=34.098001,-118.329619&panoid= _YdRlPhpO_h3WlnMWHKgig&cbp=12,357.19,,0,-7.67
Not 100% sure I got that modern view correct.
Erich
My Brother told me the water vote concerned the bond issue for the Owens Valley Project.
The "Daily Planet" building aka City Hall being constructed in 1927.
Or, as Lohman & Barkley called it The Pointy Building.
The second picture is Broadway. I think the third is looking west on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
Great photos!
I'm not an expert at identifying old cars by year, but I would venture a guess that all the "later" pictures were no later than about 1930.
What strikes me, is how fast the automobile made the horse-drawn obsolete! I always knew the Model T put America on wheels, and made horses obsolete, but if those pictures are 1930 or earlier, autos were available to the masses for no more than about 15 years. Horses had been used for centuries. In the picture of the marketplace, I can see only one horse-drawn, and maybe 100 autos.
The best modern example I can think of is the cell phone. I can remember when Popular Science did a cover story on its invention, and here we are not more than about 20 years after they were widely available, and EVERYBODY carries one, and land-line phones are fast being taken out of homes and made obsolete.
Is this a wonderful country, or what?
If I recall the figures correctly from my days in the industry. The USA crossed the 50 percent line for phones in homes in the country in 1947 (may have been '48). At that point, half the homes in the USA could make a call in an emergency from home. Half still could not. About 1990, half of families had a cell phone and could make calls from almost anywhere they went. I don't know. Have we hit half of all people have a cell phone yet?
I have for many years said that "the years from the mid-1890s till the mid-1920s was the biggest single-generational leap in all of human history, both technologically and sociologically. No other hundred years comes even close." Specific start and end years could of course be debated till doomsday.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2