Bunker Hill, Los Angeles

It’s that time of year again! Come on by the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, all day Saturday and Sunday, at USC.

A whole gang of Angel City Press authors will be there to sign books, and talk with YOU alllll about their Los Angeles-related obsessions.

I’ll be there under the ACP tent on Saturday from 12-2, and Sunday from 2-4. See you there!

I’m not a morning person, and wouldn’t wish sunrise on my worst enemy, but I will still nevertheless appear for you at a 7:00 am event, come the 16th!

If you’re not familiar with the LABC, they are great group of folk and the club has just entered its hundredth year! Learn about them here.

↓↓↓↓↓All the event details may be found by clicking here↓↓↓↓↓

https://www.labreakfastclub.com/event-details/la-before-freeways

Postscript: we had a GREAT turnout! I want to heartily thank the Book Club of California, and the good folks at Pasadena Heritage.

The Book Club of California will host lil’ ol me in Pasadena this Wednesday the 9th!

I’ll be delivering an illustrated lecture about Arnold Hylen, his books, how I came to reprint Freeways, and take you on a visual tour of the architectural styles Hylen encountered on his long walks downtown (not to be confused with William Reagh’s long walks downtown, about which there is a wonderful book, appropriately titled A Long Walk Downtown, coincidentally published by…the Book Club of California).

Anyway, even if you’ve no interest in seeing me ramble excitedly about downtown’s few-that-survived-into-the-1950s Romanesque Revival structures, you should at least attend just to hang out in the Edmund Blinn house — recent article and video about the house, here and here — which is National Register, California Register of Historic Resources, and a Pasadena Cultural Landmark.

And it’s free!

Reception at 5:30; presentation at 6:00. To attend you must register — do so by clicking the link below:

Los Angeles Before the Freeways: Images of an Era 1850-1950

*** See you there! ***

So you’re flipping through your copy of Los Angeles Before the Freeways and thinking well, that’s a great old building, I wonder what’s there now?

So, just for fun (if your idea of fun is a hefty dose of hiraeth) here are ten shots from Freeways, paired with a contemporary view:

ABOVE: Looking north on Main; most prominent is the Ducommon Block (Ezra Kysor, 1874) at Commercial Street. Security First demolished the structure in mid-1951 and replaced it with a modernist bank building by Austin, Field & Fry. That building was demolished in mid-1970, as was this stretch of Commercial Street, wiped away for the Los Angeles Mall. The Mall, best known for its Triforium, was designed by Stanton & Stockwell in 1968 and opened in December 1975.

The torn awning indicates Jerry’s Joynt (home of the world-famous Jade Lounge) — see views toward it by clicking here and here — now wiped away by a freeway entrance. Look closely and you can see how the south end of the Garnier Block was removed for freeway construction.

Looking at the northeast corner of Main and Market streets; the Amestoy Block (Adolph Charles Lutgens, 1888) was made a parking lot by the city in late 1958. Market Street was then wiped away in favor of Stanton and Stockwell’s City Hall East (1972).

Behold the Robarts Block (John Hall, 1888) at the corner of Seventh and Main, in 1950. It was demolished in 1958. Note how its neighbor the Cecil has reworked its sign from “$1.50 Monthly” to “Low Daily.” This is of course the signage that existed for decades before nogoodnik Matthew Baron painted it over.

Center, the 1888 Cohen Block, 334 South Spring. At left, a bit of the Willard Block (Carroll Herkimer Brown, 1893). Both made into a parking lot, 1961. Note a corner of the Ronald Reagan State Office Building (Welton Becket + Associates, 1991) where the Willard Block once stood.

213-221 South Spring Street. At right, the Polaski Block (Abram Edelman, 1895); at center, the Brode Block (Robert Brown Young, 1891); and at far left a Romanesque Revival commercial structure (architect unknown, 1889). Image shot in 1954; the Times-Mirror Company demolished the buildings for surface parking in early 1956, eventually building this parking garage in 1988. Note the Tony Sheets bas relief. The structure was designed by Conrad Associates, who are best known for its 1975 World Trade Center at 350 South Figueroa — which ALSO has monumental Tony Sheets bas reliefs.

The Bath Block (Robert Brown Young, 1898), at the southeast corner of Fifth and Hill streets, was developed by Albert Leander Bath, vice president of the Stowell Cement Pipe Company. The structure, with its nifty Venetian Gothic ogee arches, lasted all the way through the spring of 1980.

For a site called “BunkerHillLosAngeles” this post hasn’t had much Bunker Hill in it, so, here y’all are! At left, the gleaming-white Black Building (as seen in the book Bunker Hill, Los Angeles on page 133), a 1913 office building by Edelman & Barnett, for George and Julius Black, at 361 South Hill Street. Across Hill, the late-Victorian Strong Block (also known as the Stanford Hotel and the Brighton Hotel), Frederick Rice Dorn, 1895. Further on is the backside of the Grant Block (seen here with painted signage Grant Building), at Fourth and Broadway, which looked like this; it was originally a three-story structure (Frank Sawyer van Trees, 1898) until enlarged with four more stories (John Parkinson, 1902).

The Stimson Block was an outrageously important structure, designed in skyscraper-meets-Romanesque by Carroll Herkimer Brown in 1892. The man who built it, Thomas Douglas Stimson, used Brown to build an incredible Romanesque Revival house, which you likely know. Downtown’s Stimson Block was demolished in 1963, just because. It’s remained a surface lot these past sixty+ years.

Oh, one last thing about the Stimson Block, that neon sign in the Hylen image at left? Take a close look at the modern image on the right, on the wall of the building across Harlem Place. There it is:

If you liked these ten old images of vanished downtown, be sure to pick up a copy of the book—it has another 130!

If this post does well, I’ll do another; shoot me a note (see “contact” at upper right of this page) with the building of which you most want to see a then-n-now!

Fresh on the heels of this Instagram post, a nifty KCRW piece hit the airwaves this morning:

https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/kcrw-features/before-freeways

Check it out!

And while I have you here—

—I want to thank everyone who came out last Saturday to the book launch! We had a time!

Los Angeles Before the Freeways is officially out-and-in-stores as of this morning. Go grab yours! And if you do not as yet own Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, grab that too!

And if you want to know more about Bunker Hill — specifically, its less savory aspects — might I suggest you pick up the quaint and colorful compendium of crime that is Bunker Noir!

And should you wish to know what structures exist on the Hill at this very moment, I heartily advise you pick up Marsak’s Guide to Bunker Hill!

To buy Bunker Noir! please click here

To buy Marsak’s Guide to Bunker Hill please click here

If you want to buy both? Get both for $40. That’s like a $10 savings! And remember, if you send me money through Venmo, be sure to include your mailing address.

*********

There’s a terrific review of the book by Local News Pasadena‘s Robert Savino Oventile—

—which you may read by clicking here:

https://localnewspasadena.com/2025/picturing-history-in-las-architecture/

********

Then, in HeySoCal! —

Click →→ https://heysocal.com/2025/03/10/book-los-angeles-before-the-freeways-captures-images-of-lost-architectural-gems/ ←← here!

********

And check out this article in The Eastsider by clicking here!

As detailed in my last post, there’s a new book about old LA coming to stores near you (does it have Bunker Hill in it? Of course!)…

And to celebrate, this Saturday March 22nd, we’re having a party! Why should you come to this party? I’ll give you five reasons!

It’s at the Central Library. LAPL Central is a breathtaking structure with some of the most sublime interior spaces in the world. Perhaps you’re yet to see the Leo Politi exhibit, or the No Prior Art show (which features patent models and quack medical devices, and if that isn’t a good time, I don’t know what is).

There will be snacks! The invite reads “light refreshments” (I have no idea what that means, though I assume LAPL has rejected my suggestion of étouffée paired with a good Spätlese) so you won’t go hungry.

Be the first to get the book, fresh out of the shrinkwrap and signed to you no less. (And if you need to pick up a copy of the Bunker Hill book, there are signed copies at the library gift shop.)

Parking is easy and cheap. I’m sure you’re thinking ugh, if I go downtown I’ll have to pay $18 to stackpark in some surface lot but no! Parking in the structure under the library is a snap, and Saturday parking is a one dollar flat rate. (Provided you have a library card, which, of course, you do. But if not, go here; you’ve got two weeks.)

Last but not least, there will be me, presenting a nifty slideshow all about Hylen, his book, and the architectural styles contained therein, which you may watch from the plush confines of the Mark Taper Auditorium.

…and if there were a sixth reason, it would be that you could make a day of it downtown, taking in the area’s other wonders, like Angels Flight, Grand Central Market, the Bradbury Building, the Beaux-Arts marvels of Spring and Broadway, etc. Heck, bring along your copy of Before the Freeways as some sort of phantom Thomas Guide of lost L.A.! Then go have drinks in the revolving Bonaventure bar—you know the drill.

At this point you exclaim where do I sign?! Right here, is where:

That’s right, register above or click the Eventbrite link here.

See you there!

Greetings, friends!

I began this blog in advance of the 2020 publication of Bunker Hill, Los Angeles. Since then I’ve self-published a couple more books about Bunker Hill — Bunker Noir! and Marsak’s Guide to Bunker Hill — and now it’s time to announce the new book from Angel City Press! (And believe it or not, it’s not about Bunker Hill! …though y’know, it does have vintage Bunker Hill in it…)

Announcing Los Angeles Before the Freeways!

Though strictly speaking it’s not my book: it was written by a fellow named Arnold Hylen. Hylen had taken a lot of pictures downtown in the 1950s and 60s, compiling his images and research into his 1976 Bunker Hill, A Los Angeles Landmark and 1981’s Los Angeles Before the Freeways: 1850-1950 Images of an Era, both published by Dawson’s Books.

Bunker Hill and Freeways had very limited press runs — 500 and 600 copies, respectively — so finding them can be tough and paying for them even worse:

So I thought it would be a cool idea to ferret out Hylen’s remaining family, acquire the negatives and publishing rights, and get these books in the hands of hungry historians. The Bunker Hill book turned into something larger, of course, but Freeways…that is being republished now as a standalone, and I won’t be modest on this point: this new version is amazing.

********

So, how does this new edition differ from the 1981 original? A few standouts—

********

The book will be out, officially, on March 25th. We’re having a big launch party at Central Library on March 22nd, so….COME TO THE LAUNCH PARTY! There will be books there, and snacks, and presentations, and it’s free! Click here!

In the meantime, should you wish to preorder the book, please do so here!

********

One last thing — I asked Pumpkin Patch what her favorite image was, and she turned to this one:

Everyone loves the boom-era mansions of Bunker Hill, which we know primarily through images shot as they neared their demolition, photographed in the 1950s and 60s by the likes of Hylen, Reagh, Conner, et al.

More rare and important are those images captured of a house in its early years. Luckily, many of the most important homes were photographed soon after completion, e.g. these shots of the Crocker, Rose, Melrose, Castle, and Bradbury—

But those shots have been in the public view a long time; many were used in 1977’s Bunker Hill: Last of the Lofty Mansions, and a lot of the shot-within-a-few-years-of-their-completion house pictures, captured from 1888-1900, were some of the first “old Bunker Hill” images to be put online in the mid-1990s. (I should mention as well all the above shots were indeed used in Bunker Hill, Los Angeles.)

So, when a new-to-us image of an early Bunker Hill house is uncovered, it’s big news.

The other day I was contacted by a descendant of Samuel Weller, founding president of Occidental College. Said descendant wondered if I knew about Weller’s house on Bunker Hill, and, was it in my book? I said that no, 211 South Bunker Hill Avenue, built by Weller in 1886, was an important house, but, no decent images of it existed.

At which point she sent me this:

And my jaw dropped. That’s an incredible image of an important house!

The descendant said that the original of this image lay with Occidental, whom I contacted, and they said no, they had received it from the family, when they included it in this, ten-something years ago:

So the family says Occidental has the original and Occidental says the family has it, and while I still have no idea who is in actual physical possession of the original, I did get this (decent-sized, but I wish it were much larger) scan:

Which has on its verso—

Great information here, but, much of it a bit off. It was certainly not the “first house on Bunker Hill.” Samuel’s father was not named John (you’ll note someone scribbled “Tobias” in pencil to correct this). And it refers to “Samuel Higgins Weller” when his middle name was Harold (understandable, since Samuel’s mother’s maiden name was Higgins). “Octave” Morgan would refer to Octavius Morgan—of the firm Kysor & Morgan (becoming Kysor, Morgan & Walls in late-October 1886)—who certainly may have designed this house, but I do not believe designed “Occidental College’s first building,” which by all evidence was product of the Newsom boys. Of Morgan it goes on to say his “daughter Julia Morgan” designed Hearst Castle, which is a nice thought, but Julia Morgan’s father was Charles Bill Morgan, no relation.

Note, in pencil, “his fathers anniversary birthday” in pencil across: as June 18, 1886 was Tobias Weller’s 85th birthday, it’s not unreasonable to conjecture that that was the day of this photograph.

A bit about the Weller house construction—the house may have been built/owned not by Samuel Weller, but by the Rev. Oliver Clinton Weller (Samuel’s younger brother), or at least, that’s what the 1886-87 City Directory would indicate:

Nevertheless, come the 1887 directory, we have Samuel H. Weller in residence:

And in the 1887-88 Maxwells’ Directory:

But with the 1888 directory, Weller has already moved to Boyle Heights, site of his new school:

And the Weller house, thereafter, became rented rooms:

Let’s get you acquainted as to where 211 South Bunker Hill was—which gets tricky because of course it doesn’t retain “211” as its address for very long. Los Angeles went through street renumbering in December 1889, and 211 became 309.

Here’s a shot looking east at Bunker Hill from Figueroa—

Now let’s look at the house again, and see what we see:

Two-story wraparound porches! Now that’s California living. That most of the detailing is reserved for the porch scrollwork and balustrade panels gives it a Folk Victorian flair, albeit not of the “gablefront and wing” configuration most commonly seen in the Folk styles of pre-Queen Anne Bunker Hill. Despite all its picturesque elements — a scrollwork’d balcony and a shed dormer and bicolor variegated shingle, this is a transitional house; had it been built two years later, we’d have seen a proliferation of gables and dormers and likely a turret. Instead, our massing is more sedate, but the Dutch Gable-Jerkinhead roofline is still pretty nutty. Note the stained glass window on the porch, flanked by the matching entrance stairs.

How rare is this image of the Weller house? Exceedingly; it’s basically the only decent image of the house we have. By comparison, we have well-known shots of the Castle near both its birth and death:

And yet virtually none of 309 South Bunker Hill (a scant three doors down from the Castle at 325). For example:

Note, though, a significant difference: the house as originally built was, at street level, one story (two, if you count the marvelous roof-balcony). Some time later, either the grade was lowered on Bunker Hill Avenue, or the house was raised to bring its lower floor up to the street.

I don’t have to tell you what happened to the house—but I will anyway—it gets eminent domain’d by the CRA and receives its bye-bye papers in October 1964.

And in case you’re wondering about the former site of Weller’s house: since Bunker Hill Avenue between Third and Fourth has been wiped out, and the hill on which it ran was shaved down about forty feel, next time you’re at the Wells Fargo Center, picture the Weller house as floating over the north side of the Halo foodcourt, or thereabouts…