Vintage Photo Friday

I snapped this photo last week. The Wilshire Ward chapel of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) is on Manhattan Place in Los Angeles, right around the corner from El Cholo Restaurant on Western Avenue. This building was originally known as the Hollywood Stake Tabernacle. It was a central meeting place for the local Mormon community from the 1930's until the 1950's, when the Westwood Temple was built.

I did a bit of online searching to see if I could come up with a vintage photo of this beautiful building. The only photo I could find was the one below and this one. This building hasn't changed at all. Only the palm trees have grown higher over the years.

There was quite a bit of information about this building. It was finished in 1929, designed by architects Hyrum C. Pope and Harold W. Burton. It appears that these two gentlemen designed many chapels and LDS buildings throughout their career. This area of Los Angeles is called Country Club Park because Los Angeles Country Club used to be located here before it moved to the area just between Beverly Hills and Westwood.
The building is a solid piece of reinforced concrete. it is a combination of classical and modern design. The building is a modern interpretation of the Byzantine and Gothic architectural styles. The building was designated L.A. Historic Cultural Monument #531 in 1991. This neighborhood is being proposed for a Historical Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ).
This area was developed to capitalize on land adjacent to the streetcar lines. The bulk of development occurred between 1919 and 1924. The architectural styles represented are Craftsman, Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Mediterranean Revival with a few California Ranch homes and Streamline Moderne buildings thrown into the mix. There's quite a bit of motion picture and TV location production in this part of town because of the authentic architecture.
You just never know what hidden treasures you'll find when you drive around the back-streets of Los Angeles!
Have a wonderful weekend!