Wagons in vintage Street scenes

Epic vintage pic!

 

Bunker Hill

Bunker Hill view of 4th Street, looking west, show the new Grand Ave pedestrian crossing. Two staircases, joined by a landing, at the top 4th & Grand Service Garage with the Biltmore Apartments directly across. May 2, 1956
Early development of Bunker Hill


In 1867, a wealthy developer, Prudent Beaudry, purchased a majority of the hill's land. Because of the hill's excellent views of the Los Angeles Basin and the Los Angeles River, he knew that it would make for an opulent subdivision. He developed the peak of Bunker Hill with lavish two-story Victorian houses that became famous as homes for the upper-class residents of Los Angeles. Angels Flight, now dubbed "The World's Shortest Railway", took residents homeward from the bottom of the 33% grade and down again.
Initially a residential suburb, Bunker Hill retained its exclusive character through the end of World War I, but in the face of increased urban growth fed by an extensive streetcar system, its wealthy residents began leaving for enclaves on the west side and Pasadena. Bunker Hill's houses were increasingly sub-divided to accommodate renters. Still, Bunker Hill was at this time "Los Angeles's most crowded and urban neighborhood." By World War II the Pasadena Freeway, built to bring shoppers downtown, was taking more residents out. Additional post-war freeway construction left downtown comparatively empty of both people and services. The once-grand Victorian mansions of Bunker Hill became the home of impoverished pensioners

Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project

In 1955, Los Angeles city planners decided that Bunker Hill required a massive slum-clearance project. The top of Bunker Hill was cleared of its houses and then flattened as the first stage of the Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project to populate Bunker Hill with modern plazas and buildings. When the height limit of buildings for Los Angeles was finally raised (previously buildings were limited to 150 feet), developers built some of the tallest skyscrapers in the region to take advantage of the area's existing dense zoning. In approving such projects, the city sought to project a modern, sophisticated image.
The project is the longest redevelopment project in Los Angeles history, and is scheduled to end in 2015. The majority of the skyscrapers on Bunker Hill were built in the 1980s, with a new skyscraper or two being finished nearly every year. However, the momentum died down in the 1990s, shortly after the fifty-two story, Two California Plaza was finished. In 1999, the vacancy rate for downtown commercial skyscrapers was 26%, one of the highest in the nation for that time. Planned office towers were canceled, including California Plaza Three,and the 4-towered Metropolis (brought back to life in 2005)

This information about Early Development of Bunker Hill &
The Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project was copied from wikipedia.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles and surrounding areas and I
still don't feel articulate enough to describe the inner workings of
early Los Angeles. But I love the history.

 

Remember it well......

I lived about 3-4 miles south of here, and would have been around 14 yrs old at the time this pic was taken. During August and early September, you would frequently find me riding my bike around to all the new car dealers in the immediate area - Santa Monica, West L.A., Marina Del Rey, Culver City, looking for the new models that would just be arriving and stored on the dealer's back lots. I got real good at scouting out all the locations where they would 'stash' the next-years models until the official release date.

 

Ford Torino Station wagon takes a detour.

 

1 killed as massive crane collapses on Volvo station at LAX



This is the crane

 

This is the caption for the this photo: One of the fatalities, a woman about 25, was found lying at the curb of
Washington Boulevard and Grand Avenue.
Police did not know if she had been ejected from a vehicle or had been struck while walking near the intersection.





Officials survey the accident scene at a downtown Los Angeles intersection. Authorities said a state police car was
chasing a suspect on Grand when the suspect's car hit a station wagon at Washington, pushing the wagon into two cars.
December 24, 1984; Merry Christmas

 

Rescue paramedics give treatment to a critically injured victim
after the car in which she was traveling, plunged through a
guard rail on the northbound side of the Hollywood Freeway
and landed on Melrose Avenue, 60 ft. below. The driver of
the car died instantly. Photograph dated September 2, 1984.

 

This was the scene this afternoon at Crenshaw Blvd. and Hyde Park where a car and an RTD bus collided. Paramedics said seven persons were injured, injuries were minor.
January 20, 1982

 

Fire Department visits Jefferson School (the back side) during Fire Prevention Weeks in the later 1950s.

 

The aftermath of a 2-car crash on the eastbound side of the
San Bernardino Freeway near the exit for City Terrace Drive.
The car was heading westbound in the #5 lane when it
collided with a Los Angeles County Fire Dept. station wagon.
The 2 persons in the station wagon and 1 in the wrong-way
vehicle were killed. The wrong-way driver was reportedly
traveling at a high-rate of speed. The vehicles were a
Pontiac Grand Prix, 2-door & a 70's AMC Matador or
Ambassador station wagon.
The County Fire Dept. employees were working in the
mechanical dept. No names of the victims have been released,
pending notification of the next of kin. All 3 victims were males.
June 30, 1982

 

Baho Ashcazai and his dog, ''Scoopek'', near the edge of the Long Beach Freeway at Washington Boulevard in the City of Commerce, not far from where his car hangs over the side after a freak accident; it is a 50' drop to the train yard below. Photograph dated February 5, 1980

 

View of a traffic accident, with a victim shown lying on the street. The Sheriff is halting traffic, and KFWB News is covering the accident

 

I was just reading about the Olympic site in Sarajevo for the 1984 games... I came here and car crashes... A podium in the Sarajevo Olympic site now sits full of bullet holes and was used as a place for executions during the siege of Sarajevo. The Olympic Sports Complex is now a graveyard... literally...

Nice perspective on humanity... We're an interesting species, to put very lightly...