Driving towards the Monarch Hotel on Bunker Hill in Los Angeles


As I was exploring the wonderful Duke University site, I found a great photo of downtown Los Angeles. I was able to identify the location because of the Monarch Hotel, which used to be there, on Bunker Hill. You're looking northwest on 5th Street towards Flower, and of course Figueroa.

If your eye is caught by the gigantic ad for Ginger Ale, that makes sense. It must have cost the Canada Dry people a lot of money, and since the Duke site is dedicated to advertising, that's why the image is there. But I see so much more. Let's take a look.


This is a Los Angeles that has been completely erased. Yes, 5th Street and Flower are still there, but other than the street names, or the GPS position, it might as well be an entirely different city. I'm going to place this in the 1930s, based on the cars. If you see a car from the 1940s, please let me know and I'll update my file name. The intersection directly ahead of us is Flower. Take a closer look right where the sign says "Go" on the traffic light and it's clearly visible. It kind of makes me wonder why that lady is out in the intersection, but my best guess is that traffic really wasn't that heavy, and besides, California drivers stop for pedestrians. At least they did when I lived there in the '80s.

I can't say that I've ever even had corn-beef-hash, but that little place there, the White Log Coffee Shop, looks interesting. I suppose I'd like the egg, toast, and jelly. Thirty-five cents! Looks like a car wash was a dollar, and if you could get a whole meal for thirty-five cents back then, a dollar for a car wash sounds very expensive!

By the way, note the electric trolleys. Those were called the "Big Red Cars". Looks like you just walked out and got on them, I don't see a station. I'll admit that all I ever learned about the Big Red Cars was from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" They did go away after World War II to be replaced with busses. I've read that many people do consider it a big conspiracy, but I'm inclined to think that they were just terribly old and uncomfortable, and since people weren't willing to pay more than a nickel to ride them, it became impossible to keep them up. The brand new busses must have been nice!


Anyway, there's the Monarch Hotel, on Bunker Hill. Modern maps still say "Bunker Hill", but most of the hills were bulldozed away in the 1950s. Finding old postcards of the Monarch Hotel was easy, that's how I found the location. By the way, I just love those classic LA street lights, and you can still see them nowadays in some parts of town. There's an apartment complex there, I wonder what it says? Str__ Apartments. String? Strength? Maybe I'll snoop around after I post this and see if I can find what it was?

Well, there you go. Thank you for visiting Bunker Hill with me today, and yesterday!









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