Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Historical Society of Southern California Collection - A Pictorial History of the Edison Building and Grauman's Theatre
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Visual Materials
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Visual Materials
A photograph album with 23 views of the Southern California Edison Company building, located at 601 West 5th Street in Los Angeles, California. There are various views of the building's exterior; one photograph of the building at night; and interior views of entries, hallways, and offices. There is some furniture in the building, but the photographs appear to have been taken before people started working there. This album was presented to George C. Ward, the President of Southern California Edison from 1932 to 1933, by Allison and Allison, the Los Angeles architectural firm that designed the building.
photCL 29
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Visual Materials
The Rolfe collection consists of 325 photographs (the majority of which are housed in two photograph albums), 574 negatives, one book, and ephemera, created and collected by Los Angeles civil engineer and local history enthusiast Frank Rolfe between 1899 and 1959 that depict locations throughout California and the Western United States. Many of these were locations where Rolfe worked on various surveys, including the Los Angeles aqueduct survey. The majority of the photographs appear to have been taken by Rolfe, but there are a few, in the photograph album in Box 2, credited to Charles J. Prudhomme. The collection begins with Rolfe's photographs of the initial Los Angeles aqueduct survey, the majority of which are housed in an album. These photographs depict Owens Valley and Black Rock Springs. The collection also contains a published work on the aqueduct. A second album contains photographs taken primarily by Rolfe; these are photographs of Los Angeles (central Los Angeles and neighborhoods where Rolfe and his wife lived); the San Gabriel Valley and other locations in Los Angeles County (Devil's Gate Dam, the San Gabriel Mountains, the St. Francis Dam and San Francisquito Canyon); San Bernardino County (the San Bernardino Mountains, Big Bear Lake); Riverside County (the Coachella Valley, Tahquitz Canyon, the Temescal Valley, Riverside, the San Jacinto Mountains); Kern County; and commercially produced images of Yosemite. Boxes 3 and 4 contain negatives depicting street scenes in central Los Angeles, including the wrecking of the Temple Block, the Amestoy Block, the Hall of Records, and Bunker Hill. Also included are views of the West Adams neighborhood; houses where Rolfe and his wife lived in the 1920s and 30s; the snowstorm of 1932; and the 1920 Inglewood earthquake. The collection also includes images of Hollywood and vicinity (including a number of photographs of the Mulholland Dam and images of Brentwood and Bel Air); Santa Monica (including the Santa Monica Mountains and Decker Canyon); Santa Catalina Island; north Los Angeles County (including the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, the ruins of the Saint Francis Dam and San Francisquito Canyon, and the "golden spike" celebration at Lang); the San Gabriel Valley (including many views of the San Gabriel Mountains); Orange County (including Modjeska's home, Santiago Canyon, San Juan Capistrano, the Puente hills, and Santa Ana Canyon); San Diego County; San Bernardino County (including a number of photographs of mining camps, including Ivanpah and Camp Roach; construction of the Ludlow and Southern Railway; and mining operations, such as the Bagdad Chase Mine and the Bagdad Mining and Milling Company); Riverside County (including the Temescal Tin Mine, Temescal and the Temescal Valley, Hog Lake, the San Jacinto River, Mount San Jacinto, and Idyllwild); Ventura County; Kern County (images of the Kern River); Inyo County; Yosemite; northern California (including Stanford University and Susie Lake); Nevada (Truckee River dam projects); Oregon; Washington; Utah; Glacier Park, Montana; people (Rolfe, his family and friends); and miscellaneous photographs (a number of desert views, mostly Southern California). The collection also contains commercial photographs of the Rolfe family, many in carte-de-visite format. These were produced by California photographers Bradley and Rulofson, Ellis and Son, Frank G. Schumacher, George Steckel, Carleton Watkins, Michael A. Wesner, and James D. Westervelt, as well as A.J. Beals and Sutterly and Company (Nevada), A.F. Burnham (Faribault, Minnesota), E. Balch (New York City), Charles C. Hartwell (Maine), and Hart's Arcade Photographic Gallery (Watertown, NY). The ephemerial materials consist of a letter written in 1862 from Sutter Creek by Rolfe's father Ovid to his brother Alfred in Dorchester, Massachusetts; biographical sketches of members of the Rolfe family; clippings compiled by Rolfe; Rolfe's high school and college diplomas; card files on Rolfe family history, covered wagons in Los Angeles, and Temescal history; and negative books. Some photographs exist in duplicate. The majority of the negatives are unprinted. Some negatives have deteriorated or are damaged. Original negatives exist for 15 of the photographs in the second album; 2 copy negatives exist of photographs in the first album.
photCL 400 volume 12
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Visual Materials
4 sets of souvenir views: "Winter Scenes in Los Angeles" and "Southern California: The Land of Fruit and Flowers" in book format and "Miniatures: Catalina Island" and "Souvenir Views: Catalina Island" in card format. The photographs depicting views of Santa Catalina Island and scenes of Los Angeles and vicinity (including central Los Angeles streets and buildings), Pasadena, Sierra Madre Villa, Santa Anita Rancho (E.J. Baldwin residence), Mission San Gabriel, Riverside, San Bernardino, Hotel del Coronado, and San Diego.
photCL 400 volume 30
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Visual Materials
The album is a published collection of souvenir views of Los Angeles, California, and vicinity. Included are views of Figueroa Street; Hollenbeck Home; Adams Street; West Lake Park; Palm Drive; Plaza Church; Broadway and the "old" City Hall; the "old" Court house; Chester Place; a panorama of central Los Angeles; San Gabriel Mission; Marengo Avenue in Pasadena; the Raymond Hotel; the Mount Lowe cable incline railway; the home of Ramona (Rancho Camulos in Ventura County); Avalon harbor and Santa Catalina Island; the Potter Hotel in Santa Barbara; the Santa Barbara Mission; Redlands; the Hotel Coronado in San Diego; and Magnolia Avenue in Riverside.
photCL 400 volume 26
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Visual Materials
The collection contains photographs, clippings, and other ephemera related to the architectural work of Thornton Fitzhugh. Included are photographs and renderings of commercial and residential buildings designed by Fitzhugh in Los Angeles and Arizona; among the more notable are the Pacific Electric Building, the Jonathan Club, Union Labor Temple, and Bimini Hot Springs, in Los Angeles, and the Territorial Institute for the Insane, Phoenix. The original album contained many loose and unidentified photographs and for this reason the original order of the collection was not preserved. The collection was originally in album form and titled "Some Examples of Architectural Work from the Office of Thornton Fitzhugh, Los Angeles, Cal. & Phoenix, Arizona."
photCL 400 volume 10
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Visual Materials
The album is a published collection of souvenir views of Los Angeles and vicinity. Included are views of Figueroa Street; Hollenbeck Home; Adams Street; West Lake Park; Palm Drive; Plaza Church; Broadway and the "old" City Hall; the "old" Court house; Chester Place; a panorama of central Los Angeles; San Gabriel Mission; Marengo Avenue in Pasadena; the Raymond Hotel; the Mount Lowe cable incline railway; the home of Ramona (Rancho Camulos in Ventura County); Avalon harbor and Santa Catalina Island; the Potter Hotel in Santa Barbara; the Santa Barbara Mission; Redlands; the Hotel Coronado in San Diego; and Magnolia Avenue in Riverside.
photCL 400 volume 25