Vintage Photo Friday

2451 Barry Ave., West L.A., 1940

The other day my cousin, Barbara called me. She's editing a memoir that her Dad, Mort is writing about his life. Mort is the last surviving brother of 3 (Mort, George [my Dad] and Hi). Mort is 94 years old!

Barbara was looking for some Bloom family archival photos to add to the memoir. Since I'm the keeper of most of the family photos, I was able to honor Barbara's request for a photograph of the Bloom family home in West Los Angeles. I drove by the old house that very morning and snapped a current photo. The house has since been divided up into apartments, but it really looks almost the same as it did years ago.

2451 Barry Ave., West L.A., 2011

As the story goes, my Grandfather had this house built during the depression...around 1933-34. Lawrence A. Bloom was an attorney. This was the depression however, so he wasn't exactly rolling in the dough. Grandpa called in many favors and performed legal services for all of the tradesmen he knew in order to have the house built. I do like the Streamline Moderne lines of this house.
Grandma and Grandpa moved from Barry Avenue toward the end of WW II. I have a picture of my brother as a tiny baby in 1945 in front of their next and last residence in Hollywood.
Today is Veteran's Day and it happens to also be 11-11-11. In honor of the Bloom brothers and their service to our country, below is a photo from March, 1946 of the boys in their uniforms. Thank you and Happy Veteran's Day.

Mort, Hi and George Bloom, Hollywood, March, 1946