History

German Restaurant's New Digs Formerly Housed Gun Dealer

By Eric Richardson — April 14, 2009
3 Comments

Winfield Arms

When Eugenia Chung and Klaus Schmidt signed a deal to open german restaurant Schmidt's Brauhaus at Olympic and Olive, they took over a building that didn't look like much of anything. Only once Discount Tire Center's ugly metal paneling was removed did a simple brick structure emerge. Also revealed were signs for an old tenant, gun dealer Winfield Arms.


Saturday: Learn All About the Tower, Rialto and Olympic

By Eric Richardson — April 09, 2009
3 Comments

Tower Theater

Another month, another chance to learn about some of Downtown's coolest historic buildings. The Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation offers a three-for-the-price-of-one All About event on Saturday, April 18, taking the curious on tours of the Tower, Rialto and Olympic theatres.


Downtown's Television History Over 75 Years Old

By Eric Richardson — April 07, 2009

Don Lee Television Camera and Tower USC Digital Archives / Dick Whittington Studio

When ESPN opened its new studios at L.A. Live yesterday, it proclaimed them the world's first 1080P production facility.

How appropriate, then, that these new studios would be located less than half a mile away from the Cadillac dealership at 7th and Bixel where on December 23, 1931, Don Lee's W6XAO launched one of the country's first regular television broadcasts. — Continued Inside...


Sixty Years Ago Today: Petroleum Building Dedicated at 6th and Flower

By Eric Richardson — April 01, 2009
4 Comments

Petroleum Building Under Construction

On April 1, 1949, Governor Earl Warren and Mayor Fletcher Bowron were on hand as General Petroleum Corporation raised the flag to the top of its new headquarters building on the southeast corner of 6th and Flower. The 504,000 square foot building, called the largest office building in Southern California, cost $11 million to construction. Today the building...


Signage Debate As Old as the City

By Eric Richardson — March 25, 2009 — 2 Comments

Signage at 11th and Broadway California Historical Society / USC Digital Archives

On Thursday morning the City Planning Commission will again debate a rewrite of L.A.'s signage codes, a task the body's been chewing on for the last two months.

As it does so, it's worth taking a brief look back. Signage, and the debate over how it should be regulated, is no modern invention. The streets of Downtown in the early half of the 1900's were even more filled with ads than they are today. — Continued Inside...


Saturday: Learn All About the Los Angeles Theatre

By Eric Richardson — March 19, 2009
2 Comments

Staged Lobby

On Saturday morning the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation continues its "All About" series by paying a visit to the last built and most elaborate of Downtown's theatres, the 1931 Los Angeles. The free event kicks off at 10:30am, and offers an unparalleled chance to explore these great Downtown treasures.


If Not a Ballpark, Chavez Ravine Could Have Held a Lake

By Eric Richardson — March 11, 2009
1 Comment

Rendering of Lake at Chavez Ravine

Even as the Dodgers played their first season in Los Angeles in 1958, a trio of lawsuits challenged the city's deal to give the team 315 acres in Chavez Ravine. Obviously, the courts ruled in favor of the Dodger deal. But if they hadn't, what then? In October of 1958, Assemblyman Don Anderson appeared before City Council to propose a lake.


Sixty-Two Years Ago: Downtown Factory Blast Killed 17, Injured 151

By Eric Richardson — February 20, 2009 — 2 Comments

O'Connor Electroplating Plant Explosion Los Angeles Times / UCLA Library

|Photo Gallery| At 9:45am on February 20, 1947, Downtown was rocked by a blast the L.A. Times called the worst in the city's history. The explosion leveled the O'Conner Electro-Plating Corporation's building at 926 E. Pico, killing 15 people, injuring 151 and demolishing nearby houses. — Continued Inside...


Saturday: Learn "All About the Globe-Morosco"

By Eric Richardson — February 05, 2009
4 Comments

GLOBE

On Saturday, the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation hosts another stop in its "All About" series, inviting Downtowners and theatre fans to come learn about the Globe Morosco, currently in operation as Club 740. The day will offer a history of the venue and a tour of its inner workings.


"Novel Plan" Would Have Double-Decked Broadway, Added Moving Sidewalk

By Eric Richardson — January 23, 2009 — 3 Comments

1922 Plan to Double-Deck Broadway Los Angeles Times, 8/6/1922

The answer to Broadway's 1922 traffic woes? A subway for streetcars, underground truck lanes and a pair of elevated moving walkways would have relieved congestion on Los Angeles' main thoroughfare according to a plan proposed by engineer Victor Falkenau.

The plan was one of a handful of fantastic schemes proposed by Falkenau, a Chicago builder who seems to have entirely enamored the Los Angeles Times' editors. — Continued Inside...