Blowhard, Esq. writes:
The intersection of Hill and Third in downtown Los Angeles, 1919 v. 2014. The concrete structure on the left is the parking lot for the Grand Central Market.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Blowhard, Esq. writes:
The intersection of Hill and Third in downtown Los Angeles, 1919 v. 2014. The concrete structure on the left is the parking lot for the Grand Central Market.
Click on the image to enlarge.

Grim.
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From Victorian oasis to blank megapolis.
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“Progress.”
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Ugh.
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The building top of the hill on the left is quite amazing. Wonder if that was a hotel of some sort. And are these pictures facing the same direction? Even the hill itself is gone.
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Yes; the very reason for the name ‘Hill Street’ is gone!
And they have the audacity to put up a retro-ish style lamppost, when they haven’t preserved diddly squat…
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Yeah, the pictures are both facing Bunker Hill, but the “now” picture isn’t as close as the “then”. Here’s a closer angle: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0514887,-118.2488164,3a,75y,308.1h,97.18t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sYjiXwDDi3CXck5qtGVKeTw!2e0!6m1!1e1
The hill is still there, you can see the Third Street tunnel that goes underneath it.
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Oh, okay.
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I agree that one building IS amazing, but all the other buildings, literally 100 percent of them, are somewhat interesting too. And then 95 years later, NONE of them are remotely interesting.
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So the building on the left is the Crocker Mansion. There are a lot of views of it and this general area here. Scroll down a bit to get to the Crocker Mansion.
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_City_Views%20(1800s)_Page_4.html
More on the mansion here:
http://www.onbunkerhill.org/node/86#.VDCtU_ldU1J
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The movie KISS ME DEADLY features many shots of the old Bunker Hill, before all of the old Victorians were razed for those boring apartment blocks and office towers.
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Looking at those old photo’s you really begin to appreciate the aesthetic ugliness that has been wrought by Modernism. I also found it interesting that although the population at the time was between fifty to one hundred thousand there appeared to be more “street” life than there is now. It’s not just that modernism is ugly, it also kills civic life.
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