Here's another antique picture. The USC archives gives the date as c1915, and the location as North Spring Street in Los Angeles, just south of Sunset Boulevard. It seems likely to me that either or both are incorrect. Though the northward expansion of downtown was long delayed, this scene appears astonishingly rustic for a location so close to the plaza, and in a year so late as 1915. I'd expect to see taller buildings poking up over the background hill. It probably is somewhere in the area, though, maybe a few blocks west and north. The small adobe houses were certainly characteristic of Sonoratown, the old Californio neighborhood which has since been entirely displaced by L.A.'s bustling Chinatown. I'll have to consider the actual location of this scene a mystery. I am unlikely ever to see it solved.
 |
|
| Spring Street South of Sunset, c1915 This scene was on the edge of downtown Los Angeles,probably no more than a century ago. |
