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A Poor Choice
Submitted by nathan on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 03:08.
The Holy Trinity of Noir: the Tough Hood, the Tougher Cop, and the Dame. The Dame—in peril, and perilous to know. Tonight’s tale takes this Trinitarian shape, but contains, oddly, but two players.
Our first adherent is Mr. X., aka Tough Hood. He heard the clip-clop of heels reverberate throught the misty night air of February 7, 1944. He followed his prey—the Dame, in peril, to her pad, and once she was inside, he attacked! Maguire lived at the Carleton (across the street from the St. Angelo).
With a nod to its severe symmetry, Corinthian columns, and pointy pediment, Hill chronicler Hylen made sure to photograph Carleton's backside as to juxtapose Neoclassical majesty with good old American tenement living:
Below, the Sanborn Map, 1906.
In 1950, most of the block was gone. Only the Carleton, and a paltry few other structures, remain:
By 1952, they’d broken ground on the Hall of Administration. So the 1953 Sanborn Map would have nothing to show for the Carleton's time on Earth.
Carleton Apartments images courtesy Arnold Hylen Collection, California History Section, California State Library |
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At left, from the Birdseye, the block in 1909; it’s a bustling part of the world.
Carleton in Model Form
Dark before the dawn. Also, a raw maw has swallowed the St. Angelo across the street.
Note the Beth Israel, in red, bg, seen at the top of this page.
The man himself, Supervisor Kennth Hahn, dedicating the Hall of Administration that would one day bear his name. There's already a Blue Line station named for him, and that big park in Baldwin Hills; we couldn't have named this the Carleton Hotel Memorial Administration Building?
Carleton's Replacement
One of the most lavishly-planned local government office buildings in
the nation! This is the impression created by a visit to the new
$24,751,000 County Hall of Administration nearing completion at Civic
Center. This view is accented by figures showing this building cost
$8,250 per occupant, compared with $4,369 for the nearby State Building
No. 2, which will be completed next year. The County Building will house
3,000 workers from ten departments, plus the Board of Supervisors and
its staff. These constitute less than 10 per cent of the 37,000 persons
of county employ. Viewing the Mall façade of the two-blocks [sic] long
Hall of Administration, which also has entrances on Temple and Hill Streets and Grand
Avenue, the visitor is confronted with a vista of gleaming red Texas
granite (cost: $1,100,000) and white ceramic veneer (cost:$950,000).
Monday, April 18, 1960
(USC Digital Archives)
Carleton Before n' After
You'd think this would be a comment on the St. Angelo, which you see here just past the fluted column...
...because it's really about the flutes of the columnar Carleton of course. Some time later, though not long after, Hylen went on to capture this image: