I was taking pictures of the details. I missed taking a picture of the floor, which is very distinctive. I was concentration on metal grills and tile.
This one really caught my attention, I have no idea who made these cast iron grill covers. But this one, with what looks like ears of corn, reminds me of the cast iron fences at the Banning House in Wilmington CA, as well as the Cornstalk hotel in New Orleans. A closer look shows that it probably isn’t corn, but that’s what I see.
No two grills were alike, this is a much more stylized version- more Art Deco?
Another one with that bold graphic feel.
Very ornate. Much more in the Beaux Art or Art Nouveau feel. Yes, I was getting down on my knees as the crowd milled around, taking these pictures. I told you, I really like the details.
The bathrooms are where the tile is. Back in those days, the shower stall was it’s own little room. In order to ventilate, there was a lovely metal grill over the glass door. Here is an example. Once again, they were different in each bathroom.
All of these are above the bathtubs. Plenty of space to create these panels. You can tell that the green and red shower and bath are in the same room.
The grey Greek themed bathroom. At this point I don’t remember who’s it was. Boy? Girl? Who knows, but the tile artists sure had a lot of fun in this house.
This was from one of the boys bathrooms. Sea theme. I guess I should have gotten a better image of the mural. But I didn’t, I went for the tile. I also have no idea how old the mural is. All the tiles look original – that was how bathrooms were tiled in the 20s and 30s. Even more modest homes had lovely tile. The mural looks much more modern.
OK, this isn’t from Greystone, it isn’t tile. But I had to include it somewhere. This is a painted plaster foyer in a building downtown. I love when the old buildings maintain their public artwork.
Here is the exterior of the building. Most of the building is rather plain, and yet, they did decorate the entry way.
Leah
So when Friends of Greystone offered a tour, I jumped on the opportunity! I think it was a great success, so they will probably do this again. This is the largest historic private home south of Hearst Castle. Hearst Castle dwarfs this, but still this is very impressive.
These signs are all over. It doesn’t refer to the average visitor, like The Bradbury building, they want the professionals and the movie people to pay for the privilage of filming here.
Even though we saw a lot more of the house than most people do, we didn’t get into this circular room.
Up the staircase in the central entry hall. I should have gotten pictures of the floor, it is iconic marble tile. In every room there was an explanation about the room as well as what movies were filmed there.
The woodwork is amazing! Most of the house isn’t furnished, still very very impressive.
From inside looking out, Love the play of textures, light and shadow.
There is a movie theater, too dark to take a picture, as is appropriate. A Bowling alley as well as a game room with a Billiards table made by Brunswick. If you saw my post from a few weeks ago, I shared the building that housed their LA portion of the company, exactly at the same time this house was built.
A few pictures from the gardens, I’ll be back to give them the appropriate attention.
There were plenty of wonderful details. I will be sharing some from inside the house shortly.
This is the kind of image I usually get of the sign, at a distance, not seeing the whole thing.
Here I am, up on the roof, right under this massive neon sign. Yay for special tours. 
Another angle, with some sky writing in the background. I think it had to do with a club. The skywriters must go up in the air with a number of commissions. Later I saw ‘Vote Yes On Prop 6’. Amen to that! repeal the gas tax! The only proposition I’m voting in favor.
From the Bendix roof looking over at the Applied Arts building. It is fun seeing these details close up.
A view towards the financial district downtown. I never get bored of this skyline, no matter what angle I’m looking at it. It is changing so rapidly, I should probably try and put together images I’ve taken in the last five years. If I can find the photos…
From this angle Santee Alley doesn’t look very busy, I can assure you, a Saturday in this area is a zoo. The alley is packed with people, the streets, like Maple and Santee are not only full of people but also wall to wall carts. Some selling fruits and many selling those hotdogs you see there. Hotdogs wrapped in bacon. Me, I had chicken tacos from one of the carts. Yummy street food.
Back on street level, these figures on the Bendix building, progress, innovation. There are others as well.
Inside the Applied Arts building, this is what the top of a mail chute looks like. This building is once again used for applied arts. The top floor, where I was standing is today a woodworking shop. The kind of place where as many tools as possible are available, and people can come in, rent time and make things. I’m used to sewing studios that offer, sewing machines, but carpentry tools take a lot more space and specialization.
One that has to have a human operator. And here he is. Btw, that round lever is very very important. He has to gauge when and where to slow down the car. It is never perfectly accurate when stepping on or off, it’s either step up or down. I know there are still a number of buildings downtown that haven’t upgraded the elevators. This is the first time I had the pleasure to be in one.
First stop was the old Woolworth’s. Today it is an antique mall. There are plenty of antique shops here, many specialize in records. Another legacy of the Bakersfield sound.
I had a burger and fries sitting at the lunchette counter. I will admit to not being able to take any of the cool aid, I guess I was chicken and was worried that my teeth would fall out. All I could think of is sugar overload.
I wandered around a couple of the stores. Old quilts and an old machine. It was selling for $190, I don’t know how good that is. It isn’t a featherweight, it is larger than that. Maybe if it is in good condition than it would be worth the money. The label says it’s from 1947.
I need to clean my camera lens! All these spots are my fault! Anyway, this is the Kress building, an office building across from Woolworths. Really lovely Art Deco. Pay attention to the street signs, I’ll be mentioning them again.
Look at the gorgeous Art Deco details. Love the design, love the color, of course I’m wondering if it’s Gladding McBean tile. There must have been other tilemakers in California. 
OK, so if you noticed the street signs in the previous picture, you see that the number streets go east-west and the letter streets go north-south.
There doesn’t seem to be any irony here. I happen to like it, but I can’t find any explanation for who was the creative person who came up with this. Btw, Thimble Towne is in a modern Industrial area, it’s on Unicorn St. right off Pegasus St. That is it for the mythical horses, but other streets nearby are named for Zeus, Mars and other Gods.
An old theater that is brightly painted. It was built in 1925. Today it is called Cinema 19 and it’s an Adult theater. I found an older image online, it wasn’t brightly painted then and it had 100 channels, not just 60. See what the internet has done! I guess it’s not just for viewing movies, but they also sell stuff now. Also, the Tattoo parlor used to be a pawn shop.
Built in 1906 as the Bakersfield Opera House, it was renovated in 1937 by famous Theater designer S. Charles Lee. He added the Art Deco facade and town as well as turning it into a movie theater. It has faired much better than the Virginia, today it is a Church.
And then we have the Fox Theater, The luckist of them all. Also designed by S. Charles Lee, this theater opened in 1930. It survived an earthquake, it survived the 1970’s when box theaters in malls were the rage. It sat empty for a while, until 1990 when The Fox Theater Foundation bought and refurbished the property. Today it is an events venue, for both live and movie performances.
A wonderful example of Art Deco. Pay close attention, this picture was taken maybe four years ago. Things have changed.
The tower and rooftop are the same.
When built, the tower acted as a billboard, someone said there is now an apartment there. Not sure if that is true.
A few years ago, Starbucks opened up on the ground floor. Eight years ago there was one Starbucks up in Wells Fargo Plaza, on Bunker Hill. Today there are all over downtown, which just goes to show how much development is going on.
I took this picture just the other day. After 40 years of being an empty lot, the Title Guarantee building will be surrounded by a large massive development. I’ll keep posting along the way.
Stephen Gee was able to turn the book into a documentary. I will be setting my DVR for Oct. 7, I also might be buying the DVD. It will be available on Amazon sometime next month.
Those staircases! I just can’t get over them, with all the snow and ice how are people not slipping and falling? You’ll never find me living in that climate with that kind of trek just to get to the front door.
There are plenty of stairs outdoors, it’s a walled city, with many points in and out, not just gates. Most stairs were stone, but this looks like a newly renovated wooden staircase. 
There is a funicular going down to the lower city, except it isn’t really a funicular. Each car travels independently, so no counterbalance. Originally, This was enclosed and used for merchants to get things from the top, which is where most of the city is, down to the businesses here. As tourism grew, they opened it and made it a tourist attraction. So now the food merchants have to navigate the stairs to get supplies… really, we saw it happen.
There were a number of great murals, not as many as Montreal, but fun to see. This is right next to the funicular. In the open area is a memorial to Joliet, he and Father Marquette left from here to explore and discovered the upper midwest and the Mississippi River. Which explains why the names Joliet and Marquette are scattered throughout. They lost all thier diaries from their first trip, which prevented others from following in their footsteps. Joliet disappears, I had heard in Chicago that he was killed by Indians, but here in Quebec they didn’t want to say.
The streets down here are fun, full of restaurants and very nice businesses, sure an occasional t-shirt shop, but mostly nice shops. 
We went into the covered market, were very happy to see Hebrew. We ended up buying some croissants and blueberries that we had for breakfast. The blueberries were amazing! Not like the ones we get here.
The Hotel Clarendon, the first hotel in Quebec. (well, the first to survive a fire, have I mentioned that fire was the biggest enemy in any city?) This is Art Nouveau, which is why Quebec has more in common with Europe than most North American cities. This is a European style, that didn’t really make it here. Maybe because of how expensive it is to create these intricate designs.
There are quite a few metal workers who would love to have this kind of commission again. Unless it’s a very wealthy private estate, I don’t see any builder willing to pay the price.
This Art Deco is right next door! How cool is that! The new style next to what it replaced. Today this is also an hotel, although originally it was an office building. There are a handful of other Art Deco buildings in Quebec. By the 1920’s the businesses and building was happening in Montreal, which is where we are going next.
I guess I should start with the most photographed hotel in the world. The Hotel Frontenac. When the city was created, they chose to build the city up on a hill, so that they’d need less walls. The city is 400 years old, ancient for North America. It is where the St. Lawrence River narrows, so it’s a great place for a port. At the time, the fur trade was all the rage. Very very hardy adventurous Frenchmen went into the backcountry and came back with furs, which were shipped from Quebec to Europe. Someone needed to build a port and a town for that to happen.
On all the tours we took one word was repeated over and over again – fire. Fire has always been the biggest enemy in any city and for years people have tried to figure out how to safeguard buildings. Today a restaurant is in this building, the oldest surviving building in the city. In Quebec’s case, war and bombardment destroyed many of the old buildings. This is a typical house, built of local limestone, it would be limed, with white lime to make the stone less porous. The roof would be slanted, they get up an average of 10 ft. of snow in the winter, flat roofs will collapse. There is a railing along the roof line to prevent big chunks of ice falling, but then you do have to worry about icicles. The roofs were made of tin from barrels, recut into tiles. The red color came from mixing cow blood into the resin. Nothing was wasted.
Here is an example of the tin being cut into tiles for the roof.
The advantage of taking the double-decker bus, I get a better view of the rooftops. This and many others are copper that has gotten this green patina over time. The combination, of green, red, tin and other shades of brown, really makes the skyline very interesting.
Some more of those outdoor metal or wooden staircases, even the British Victorians adopted them.
Down in the lower city, are four houses that were renovated with four different types of roofs from Quebec’s history. On the left, the red roof as it probably would have looked originally, it would have been made of wood – fire hazard. Then a slate roof, but that was very expensive, the cut tin roof and the British tile roof.
Flag of the province.
We have some wonderful florists here, with amazing window displays. How nice that in summer, Martin can have this beautiful display outside.
There are many beautiful churches here, unfortunately, these days many are no longer in use. This one in Beloil still is.
There was a large cemetery next to the church, of course I had to check it out. Joel went and took a walk by the river, there are only so many cemeteries he can visit. One marker really stood out from the rest.
I went to check it out.
An eight year old boy, sad, very sad. I didn’t check to see if in later years his parents were buried nearby. If they are still alive, they would be very very old.
Another church across the river. I could have just taken pictures of churches there were so many.
In Beloil, a 100 year old business, this old town isn’t very big, but it now has restaurants and that gorgeous florist. 
I like the paint job here, reminds me of colorful New Orleans. Other than this old town, most of Southern Quebec looked dull, main drags that could have been anywhere in Canada or the US, just all the signs are in French.
I took the picture the next morning. We waited half an hour for the owner to come over from her restaurant. Turns out we got a very nice room for the night. Since we had to wait, she even took $5 off our bill, which wasn’t expensive to begin with.
While driving through Trois Rivieres I saw a lot of this, outdoor circular staircases going up to the second floor of buildings. Later in Quebec I got the explanation that was very common throughout the Province. Rather than waste space inside on staircases, they are outside. I get it, 100 or 200 years ago people simply lived in weather. They didn’t control it like we do today, so exiting to such a staircase would be normal. I understand that these kind of flats are popular in places like Quebec or Montreal – until you have a baby and need to schlep up and down them with a baby and stroller, especially in winter.
Yes, a beautiful church among the cornfields.
We arrived in Quebec to a whole new adventure.
The office is still very sparse, they only recently moved in. I had heard of fireplaces in the offices. Here is one.How cool is this, with a wall between, these two are simply a two sided fireplace. Not functional anymore, but oh so beautiful.
Another room had this beautiful exposed brick one. There were a few employees, as well as a lovely Golden retriever, sorry I didn’t get his picture.One of the office doors, looking back out to the landing. These are strong massive wood and literally, go from floor to ceiling.
Another tall window, it may be a little hard to see how wavey the top pane of glass is. Glass isn’t a solid, it’s somewhere between solid and liquid and this 120 year old pane is getting the wave look old glass gets. This is because gravity is slowly dragging it down.Out on the landing, more wonderful details. Look at this firehose reel. Although it is no longer functional, they have kept these on display – once again, design and function working so well together. In the 1950’s one of the elevator operators was in the building late at night and fire did break out, she called the fire department and saved so much of this building.
More wonderful terra-cotta.
Another newel post, this time cast iron.
The floor, another beautiful element.
An angle only workers and visitors to the offices get to see.From one of the midlevel landings. This really is one of Los Angeles’ treasures. One of the big payoffs for these years of volunteering was the ability to see more details of the wonderful landmark.
I explored parts of the compound I hadn’t seen before. Always a fun thing to do.
The ghost sign from Edison, this building was built in 1902 as the first Edison power plant west of the Mississippi.
Tucked off in the corner is a workshop of innovators and builders of amazing things. I have to confess that I didn’t go see their installation, next time.
This is the backside of the building, so maybe the building was built in 1894, or maybe most of the powerplant was added on later.
You know me, I will take any chance I can get of taking pictures of the downtown skyline. From this angle the new Broad tower is invisible.
Teresa and Hawke in front of their Ascension quilt. 
Me too! I got into the fun. As did many of the visitors to this studio. They are planning a series of quilts with the theme of wings. I’ve watched this one being created on Instagram, was so much fun to see it in person.
Among the industrial and the freeway, old homes survive. Some like this one are well cared for.
Or how about dressing up a small cottage with some Victorian flair?
Then there is the old rundown Victorian, broken up into apartments. So this is how one uses the vestibule to create two private entrances. It is a large building, so it could be there more entrances were created on the sides or the back.