In the Arnold Hylen collection of photographs, I found one that shows three Victorian houses which once overlooked downtown Los Angeles from a position on Bunker Hill. Though they survived into my lifetime, I have no memory of them. All I can recall on that stretch of Olive Street is a parking lot. They are quite splendid still in Hylen's 1960 photograph. Their site today is occupied by the large development to which the Angel's Flight funicular railway was moved a number of years ago. In fact, if the house on the right were still there, the top of the railway (formerly about half a block north, at Third Street) would probably be right outside its southern windows. I've not seen the new development, except in pictures, but I doubt that I'd like it. I tend to react badly to the urban vacuities which have replaced the subtle and complex patterns of the old city.
These houses have probably been gone a bit more than half as long as they stood. Their site was vacant for decades after they were destroyed. I wonder if what has replaced them will survive as long as they did? If not, I wouldn't be apt to miss it. Undoubtedly, it could easily be replaced by something better. This stately row was not. I'm not sorry that I haven't seen whatever is in this location now, but I wish I could remember having seen these houses.
As always, click through on the picture to see the larger versions.
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| Olive Street, Los Angeles, 1960 These three Victorians were on the east side of the 300 block of Olive Street in downtown Los Angeles until the mid-1960s, when they, and all their neighboring buildings, were demolished for the Bunker Hill urban renewal project. |