MailedLA

O Little Church of Bethlehem

December 13, 2019 / admin / 2 Comments

2538 W. 15^th Street at Dewey Avenue 1914

Bethlehem Norsk Ev Luth. Kirke
Ind viet den 13 Dec. 1914
Hjönet 15de og Dewey Ave
Los Angeles Cal.

Translated:
Bethlehem Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church
Inaugurated 13 Dec. 1914
The corner of 15^th and Dewey Ave
Los Angeles Cal.

2538 15th Street in 1914 reverse

I’ve always been rather fond of churches, and in LA there were so many ethnic churches. Bethlehem Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church was one of them. Began in 1905, by 1908 they were worshipping at a chapel at 2315 Maple Avenue, near 24^th Street.¹ Reverend S. T. Sorenson joined the church in 1912 and stayed through 1918, when he joined the war effort.² Under Sorenson, the church merged with Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, kept the latter church’s name, and conducted Norwegian, Danish, and English services. The church must have prospered under Sorenson, they built the church seen here in 1914. The building, designed by Bordeaux and Johnsen and built by George Jay, faced north on 15^th Street and looked down the length of Dewey Avenue. It was 40’ by 80’ with 16’ eaves, frame construction with stucco exterior, and seated about 300 with room for about 100 in the Sunday school.³ The $12,000 structure rose quickly, they laid the cornerstone in September, moved into the new church by November, and dedicated the building at the end of a Norwegian Lutheran conference on December 13, 1914.⁴ ⁵ ⁶ Sadly, it wasn’t to last. Sorenson moved to other things after WWI.⁷ Our Savior’s moved out in 1925, Loyola moved in, and the building became Boy’s Chapel by 1931.⁸ Loyola High School demolished the building in 1960, and the site is now the driveway to the Loyola parking lot.⁹

But I don’t want to end on that note. Today is the 105 anniversary of their church. In honor of these Norwegians and they church they were doubtless proud of, I wish you the message on the card: A Beautiful and Blessed Christmas to you.

The same site in 2019

The Traveling Shoemaker

December 14, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments

531 E. Pico at San Julian 1899-1904

LA is a city where people come to reinvent themselves. Here’s a case study. Alexander H. T. Kempfert lived here at the Northeast corner of Pico and San Julian between about 1899 and 1904. Kempfert was an immigrant from Flensburg, Germany by way of Austin, Minnesota. He came to LA for his health in 1898. The next year he divorced his wife.¹ By 1900, he owned the building.² Kempfert remarried and had a son. The family moved to Highland Park in 1905. Kempfert died in 1911 following surgery.³

Research suggests this neighborhood was heavily German, and, perhaps a bit rough. The spire you can just see in the left background (neatly masked by a tree) was Zion German Methodist Episcopal Church at 513 E. Pico, and St. Joseph’s German Catholic Church was just 4 blocks west at 12th and Santee.⁴ Kempfert’s lodger in the 1900 census, Harry Fedderson, was German American as well. I don’t think it was the safest of neighborhoods either. Kempfert testified in two neighborhood murder investigations.⁵⁶

This 4×5 photograph shows a variety of lost detail. Besides the church spire, one gets a glimpse of the residence at 529 E. Pico as well as Kempfert’s blade sign. It’s a boot. The black “shadow” in the window just above the boy’s hat is a leather sewing machine. Unfortunately, the three figures are unidentified.

This little corner went from shoe repair, to a Japanese owned grocery store, to the El Salvador Cafe before being demolished in 1963.⁷ For a 2018 view of the same corner, see below.

Preservation Alerts!

October 26, 2018 / admin / 1 Comment

I’m not just here to talk about old postcards, I want to save old buildings while we still can. There are three that are well worth saving, and hope is not lost.

First, 3563 Motor Avenue, Palms. This cute 1904 cottage at Motor and Tabor has been in the family since new. In fact, their name was Tabor, and the cross street has their name because they were the first building on the block. The house is wonderfully intact from the street, and it features prominently in the 1927 Our Gang film Dog Heaven. Hal Roach Studios were nearby, and the house is a background in several movies. Facebook link here.

It’s saveable and eminently relocatable, but YOU need to voice your support. Councilman Paul Koretz put in a motion at City Council to preserve the house. Email his staff member Aviv Kleinman at aviv.kleinman@lacity.org NOW.

Second, the James K. Hill & Sons Pickle Works. Metro wants to demolish most of one of the last Victorian industrial buildings in the city. This was one of the first artist repurposed warehouses. Without it, one could kiss the Arts District and half of the downtown renaissance goodbye. Read about it at the Conservancy here.

Last, Lytton Saving Bank. This is a significant Midcentury Modern Bank on Sunset. Despite being viable and architecturally well worth saving, Frank Gehry wants to build something new there. (Hollywood history buffs, this is also the site of the famous, perhaps notorious Garden of Alla. One historic demolition is enough for this site don’t you think?) Again, the Conservancy gives a good summary of the case here.

Time isn’t up until the wrecking ball swings. Email Aviv Kleinman, email or call the Conservancy. Talk to your council member, post on social media. Recently Angel’s Flight was rehabilitated by a social media campaign, and a cute late Victorian in Boyle Heights got relocated when enough people told Metro, “Don’t demolish that.” YOU can help save these places.

Get Your Horse Shod Here!

October 20, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments

E. J. Jaquith 360 S. Alameda St. c. 1904-1907

MailedLA is all about telling stories of Los Angeles and Angelinos from the things left behind. Here’s the blacksmith shop and carriage works of E. J. Jaquith between about 1904-1907. Edward J. Jaquith was a Canadian, born around 1846. He immigrated in 1879 and became a US citizen in 1884.¹ He shows up in the 1892 Los Angeles City Directory as a carriage and wagonmaker. A 1905 article in the Los Angeles Herald called him a “veteran” with 45 years experience. He also provided expert horseshoeing for $1.25 on up.² I think he retired in the early 1920s, and his last City Directory listing is 1925.

Building records for 360 S. Alameda show that Jaquith demolished a wooden shop and built a new corrugated iron building in 1907. This wood structure must predate it. The photo print is trimmed down from 5×7. The employees are unknown, but I suspect E. J. is the older man in his undershirt and vest at the left. He would have been 60 in 1906, and the age looks about right. I love the details of this. First, notice that the building to the left and the tree to the right have been pretty crudely retouched out. (Photoshop is nothing new.) Next, there’s a wealth of Edwardian working class detail in the signs and the workmens’ clothes. Lastly, this is 1904-1907 and there is no mention at all of automobiles. That didn’t last long.

Now the old industry of the Alameda Street corridor is long gone, so if you go there now to get your carriage repainted or your horse reshod, well, this is what’s there now.

Stay on Spring, or Main, sort of.

October 18, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments

Hotel Jovita 726 S. Spring, Annex 727 S. Main 1916-1993

Dear Minnie, I wrote you a long letter, and hope you received same. I am here for a short visit will [sic] be back to S.D. in a few days. love to all Aunt Jess

The Hotel Jovita story begins began 1914 when Mrs. Francisca Jesurun took out a building permit and demolished a 1 story building frame building.¹

The Jovita and Annex across the alley were built together and joined by bridges. The hotel opened for Christmas 1915.² The name changed to Hotel Haven in 1929 and to Senator Hotel in 1940. Eventually it became SRO housing. In 1993, the hotel was demolished, but the Spring St. facade remains. The new Senator Hotel at 729 S. Main opened in 1994 and is operated by the Skid Row Housing Trust. Now, the old front entrance is the back wall. The tiled lobby with an elevator, Mission furniture, and some lovely plasterwork, is gone.

The Jovita was a small, economical hotel. It wasn’t a grand palace like the Hayward and Alexandra up the street. Still the place got in the papers at least once. On August 11, 1918, Edward Fink held up the night clerk George Van Buren. In an epic fail, he was tailed by Gene Watson. Fink stopped to hold up Herb Brodie in the lobby. Watson came up from behind and tried to knock Fink’s gun out of his hand. He missed, but Brodie punched Fink the jaw and knocked him out. Detectives found Fink unconscious on the lobby floor. ³ What’s the chance that your robbery would be interrupted by two professional boxers? Oops.

Well this didn’t end up the way I expected it to…

October 4, 2018 / admin

Dear friend: have received your postal and see your (sic) back in S. F. again, but expect to leave in a short time, but I found out last night through Mrs. Ward you were still there and I presume you will stay there for good. Is Miss Gibbs back from the mountains yet? I suppose Miss Kagay(?) is still with you in the work? Is Johansen in the city? With best wishes C. Olsen

At first I thought this was a new house at 314 W. 14th Street. It’s not. There were no records at Building and Safety for the address before the 1940s, and consulting Sanborn maps showed two one-story buildings on site. Neither of these matched the postcard. Next, I looked for “C. Olsen” in the 1909 and 1910 City Directories. There I struck gold. Carl Olsen was a carpenter living at 314 W. 14th in 1910. It was busy household, Lavinia Gallagher, Robert A. Hall, Garfield Johnson (a chauffeur,) and Annie Vickers all lived in the back house.

Mrs. Vickers was listed as a widow. In the 1890s, she was a LA school “janitoress,” and I found her renting 4 rooms at 314 W. 14th Street in 1909 for $20. ¹ She’s last in the City Directory in 1917, and she was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in 1925. ²
Of Carl Olsen, it’s really hard to tell. The 1910 census has him as age 37, born in Sweden in 1872, and immigrated in 1902. He may have been a boilermaker in Portland,OR in 1920, and he may have died in Pittsburgh in 1950.

But life went on at 314 W. 14th Street. D. F. Crampton died of heart disease there, aged 70, in June, 1912. ³ The Toledo family brought a son into the world there in 1915. ⁴ Whatever existed on the property was demolished in 1946, and the new building was the Moto-Parts Exchange Co. The CRA demolished that in 1988. Now a garage and medical center stand on the site.
So what I thought was an appealing Mission Revival house in South Park turned into discovering an itinerant carpenter and a widowed landlady. Maybe Carl’s in the postcard. I like to think he’s wearing the overalls on the right. Either way, Mr. Olsen and Mrs. Vickers, here’s to you!

We’re brand new!

September 30, 2018 / admin

Thank you for visiting MailedLA. While my site is under construction, enjoy this house under construction. Stay tuned for a post soon, and I’ll tell you more about this house, what happened to it, and what’s there now.