Driving past the entrance to the Barker Hotel in the 1940s, 3rd Street and Bonnie Brae, Los Angeles, California


I found this picture on the Duke University site, which is a collection of advertising, and especially billboards, and thought that it would be fairly easy to identify the location, but it wasn't.


Sure, I found the address for the Barker Hotel, which is 2000 Miramar Street, but I could tell by looking at the pic that this street was much too big to be Miramar, so I set it aside, and asked a friend of mine, who is an awesome detective on this kind of stuff, to help out. He found a matchbook on eBay, and the mystery was solved.

You're looking west-northwest on 3rd Street, which is where the entrance to the Barker Hotel was, in spite of its having an address on Miramar. I suppose Miramar sounded better, but 3rd Street was, and is, a major street in downtown LA.

Here's the sign for the entrance. I love those old LA street lights!

Can't see the hotel in the photo, it's either just beyond the frame, or behind those houses.
Hey, let's go to the circus! It's at Washington and Hill.

Westlake Avenue sign




Modern view from Google Street View. If the Miramar Towers is the same building as the Barker Hotel, or is just in the same spot, I don't know. If you do know, please tell me!

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Comments

  1. www.vweisfeld.comFebruary 24, 2022 at 9:09 AM

    My parents did war work in Los Angeles in the 1940s and lived in a residential hotel with a lot of other singles. But it was in Downey, I think. However, I have an ashtray (remember those?) from the Everglades bar in the Barker. I recognize the hotel name, so perhaps it was a hangout!

    ReplyDelete
  2. www.vweisfeld.comFebruary 24, 2022 at 9:13 AM

    And see this: https://calisphere.org/item/6050b95a595cded58309034e1b337e9a/

    ReplyDelete

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