Where the skyscrapers rise today

I realize I've been remiss in my duty here of late – not posting as much as I should (nor as much as I want). To make amends, I'm going to try to make up for my lack of quantity lately with an emphasis on quality. For starters, here's a view of old L.A. that I'll wager you've not seen before...


Source: USC Digital Library.


It's winter 1905-'06, and we're looking northwest from atop the old Hotel Lankershim at Broadway and Seventh, with Seventh Street stretching out to the hills at left. The vista shows what was called the "Apartment District" at the time. Within 25 years, frontage on Seventh would become some of the most valuable urban real estate in the West. And a quarter century after that, the area to the right of center would become the skyscraper district.

It's really something to see this area as an ordinary residential neighborhood, isn't it? Remarkable that essentially everything we see here was wiped clean off the face of the earth without a trace. No earthquake or fire or other natural disaster could have accomplished such a thorough obliteration as was wrought here by the hand of man himself...

Stay tuned! There's another even more remarkable image to follow soon.