“I never would’ve guessed LA. But my father did travel to California for conferences, and I think he was offered a job there at one point.”
The anonymous woman with whom I spoke guessed that her father, the photographer, might have taken these “somewhere in eastern Massachusetts, southern New England, NJ (Atlantic City?), or a Virginia area with access to DC.” Historic architecture almost always falls under the category of “immovable cultural property”. So when someone undertakes the movement of a Queen Anne style house, it attracts press. Searching the processing date stamped on the Ektachrome slide mounts revealed what this house was and where it was located (and relocated).
At the time just before its voyage, the house, known as “The Castle”, stood at 325 S. Bunker Hill Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Loyal companion “The Salt Box” stood close by at 339 S. Bunker Hill Avenue. Together they became the sole survivors of an urban renewal battle waged by the Community Redevelopment Agency. Narrowly escaping demolition, the houses were moved in March of 1969 to the Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park. In October of the same year, the houses were destroyed by what the Los Angeles Times described as “a fire of suspicious origin”. Other sources speculate arson.
In one of the photographs, The Castle is shown amidst two neighboring buildings erected in the 1960s. To the left is the John Ferraro Building where the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power resides. Behind is what appears to be the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Due to massive development in Downtown Los Angeles since 1969, recreating this view in Google Maps is nearly impossible.
These two slides encapsulate what I find most compelling about photography. Their story is immediately recognizable. The sun sets on The Castle for the last time, as it will for just about everything and everyone. This is okay. As humans, I believe we all have a tremendous propensity for storytelling. Many of us, especially nowadays, rely on photography to help us tell the stories of the past.
“He loved photography and taking pictures of quirky things, old buildings, tear downs”, the anonymous woman continued. “My father never went anywhere without his camera.”
Sources & Additional Information
https://www.onbunkerhill.org/castle/
https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CA-01-037-0088
https://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/21759/
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0536745,-118.2518744,154a,35y,30.64h,78.98t
