Thanks to YouTube, scores of amateur videos of Downtown Los Angeles are posted, mostly taken from a moving car. Here's one from 1988 by "Meadowlawn" who was being driven north on Broadway. You will see some theaters still working as movie houses, and spot businesses now gone, including a FatBurger.
The shaky tape has a good choice of background music and offers an interesting peek of a Downtown LA from 20 years ago. Click on Downtown Los Angeles at Night.
From the UCLA Special Collections Archive is the "cityscape seen from top of city hall tower looking south in Los Angeles, CA", circa 1950. Below is a photo of Downtown Los Angeles from the same angle in March 2007, from the viewfromaloft archives.
On the way back to the loft, I was trying to picture the trees that once lined First
Street at Vignes, just at the foot of the First Street Bridge. After
hunting down this photo I took in May of 2005, I was surprised how they
were larger than I remembered. Of course, with the ongoing
construction for the Metro Gold Line extension along that side of the
street, these tree are all gone.
Above: First at Vignes. 2/2007
Below: First at Vignes. 5/2005
From the 360.yahoo version of View From a Loft, we blogged from a different time. 1912. Part 1 of 2 (with one addition)
Welcome back to our blotter,View From a Grove. In our part of this growing city just east of Los Angeles near the river, dwellings, hotels and factories have taken residence displacing the fields and groves. This blotter may have to consider changing it’s moniker. CONTACTS: Our friends at the La Grande Station at Santa Fe Avenue and Second Street continues to note the many visitors arriving. The Parmelee Dohrmann Warehouse across from the famed Santa Fe Station brings news from the hotels as they deliver their fine china. The Anhueser-Bush Brewery Association at Vignes and Second Street are our eyes and ears in the restaurants and pubs. In full view and disclosure we name them, for they bring View From a Grove important tempered news about the changes in this city. We leave the tabloid style to the former staff at The Herald, where ever they may end up. As we enter 1913, here‘s some news from the past year when you turn the page.
From ongoing series in and around Downtown Los Angeles. First presented May 2006.
Atomic Cafe (1982) William Reagh
Senor Fish (2005) View From a Loft
Atomic Cafe: Courtesy of LAPL
