… and fell into another Rabbit Hole.
But I completed my task and pulled myself out in under 2 hours!
So, to start, let me say that I am a big fan of the Public Library system and very fortunate to have access to the Los Angeles Public Library and its wonderful website. LAPL has an incredible collection of searchable materials available online free of charge – I suspect this is true of your public library system as well. I encourage you to investigate!
I visit the Research page at LAPL.org when looking for an answer to something historical. Well, last week I stumbled upon the City and Street Directories for Los Angeles and boom – I was in another rabbit hole!
City Directories – huh?
If you aren’t familiar with City Directories, simply put … they rock! These early “phone” books are one of the best resources for researching people by name, occupation or address – and of course by phone number in later years. In the earlier editions, every resident and household member and occupation was listed for each address.
City Directories can be searched by Last Name or by Street (this is known as a reverse directory) which can come in very handy. Let’s say, for instance, you are researching the ownership history of a particular house. You can search each years’ directory by the house address and learn the names and occupations of all house occupants via the reverse directories. Pretty neat, right?
Another cool example, perhaps you are researching 123 Flower Street but cannot find the address listed in City Directories prior to 1923 when J. Smith (shoemaker) lived there. You can search earlier directories for J. Smith (shoemaker) and find he resided at 10 Flower Street from 1909 to 1923. As it turns out, 10 Flower Street became 123 Flower in 1924. Lots of number and even street name changes occurred over the years in most cities – City Directories can help you sort that out.
So, Back to My Story
I was researching this guy … a distant relative who sponsored my father when he came to the U.S. in the late 1940’s. This fellow owned a lot of property in downtown Los Angeles, particularly in the Bunker Hill area. Many of these properties were former Victorian Era mansions that devolved into seedy apartment and flop houses. Very film noir stuff. Anyway, my dad worked on some of the properties but has forgotten the locations of most over time. He knows the Dorothy Chandler Music Center and Disney Hall now sit on land previously owned by his sponsor, as well as an open air parking lot, but that’s about it.
So, when I stumbled onto the City Directories portal, I knew I had to search this distant relative and learn what properties he owned and when. Frankly, this task has been on my to-do list for years but I thought it would involve days spent at the library and/or Hall of Records. Silly me! Within 2 hours I had printed 35 or so pages from City Directories spanning from 1908 to 1971. Not only did I find all of my subject’s properties but also learned where his father and family lived in the early 1900’s.
2 hours and The Result
Dad, now in his 90’s was thrilled to see this material. He had no idea his maternal Grandfather’s brother and his son (the man who sponsored my Dad) had been in Los Angeles that long. And seeing the names of other relatives and learning their professions was really fun for him. Of course, learning all of the property addresses and names (all of the Apt buildings had names in those days) sent Dad down memory lane and I promised him we will drive around to see if any of the apartments survived the last 70 years. That will be a fun rabbit hole indeed!
I hope my tale inspires you to learn more about free research tools available through your public library system. These resources grow each year as more and more original analog material becomes digitized and made accessible online. And as these resources become more available, there will be no excuse for not decluttering, sorting, editing and displaying all of those things we swear we’ll get to one of these days!
Right?
Please let me know what history you uncover and how you will use it! Would LOVE to hear how you accessed some information that delighted a senior and brought back fond memories. Please comment below ⇣
All for now friends ~
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