L.A. Christmas Card, 1911

Posted on December 18, 2011 by lmharnisch

Christmas Card, 1911, Philharmonic Auditorium

5th and Olive in downtown Los Angeles

Photo: Olive and 5th via Google’s Street View. Notice the vacant lot where Philharmonic Auditorium used to be. Demolition is forever.

This truly awesome 1911 Christmas card, showing Philharmonic Auditorium and part of what is now Pershing Square, has been listed on EBay. I’ve never seen anything like this. Very cool. Bidding starts at $4.99.

Unknown's avatar

About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
This entry was posted in 1911, Architecture, Downtown, Preservation, Theaters and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to L.A. Christmas Card, 1911

  2. Arye Michael Bender's avatar Arye Michael Bender says:
    December 18, 2011 at 4:14 pm

    Far less demolition in San Francisco… if you don’t count 1906.

    Like

  3. Mary Mallory's avatar Mary Mallory says:
    December 18, 2011 at 5:08 pm

    Beautiful and unique card. Why have we torn down so much, while the East Coast has preserved so much more?

    Like

    • lmharnisch's avatar lmharnisch says:
      December 18, 2011 at 5:16 pm

      @Mary: Part of it is developers and part of it is “seismic Darwinism.” Buildings were damaged by earthquakes or torn down to avoid the cost of seismic retrofitting.

      Like

  4. CatM's avatar CatM says:
    December 18, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    I always think of this lot as Hazard’s Pavilion. I keep forgetting about the Philharmonic.

    Like

Comments are closed.