Our Location in 1927
We were thrilled to be alerted to Brian Hsu’s wonderful then-and-now blog focused on old Los Angeles, Urban Diachrony, with his feature on our location at 7th and Alvarado in 1927.
Culled from the USC Digital Archives, and in particular, the Dick Whittington photographic collection, this shot of our corner in 1927 shows the Westlake neighborhood in its ascendancy, vibrant with businesses and thriving with the promise that was Los Angeles in the late Jazz Age.
In particular is our original location (704 South Alvarado), which then housed “Everybody’s Deli,” a precursor to what would become the Famous Delly, the immediate predecessor to Langer’s Deli, which was founded in 1947 (twenty years after this image was taken). Our back area was then a separate business location (we expanded into it in 1950); in this photo, it houses a Western Union office for sending and receiving telegrams.
Our warehouse was originally a See’s Candy location (as it turns out, only the third See’s location ever), which lasted into the 1960s, when the Langer family took the location over and converted it to the storage area of the restaurant.
The Alvarado Theater just south of our location (today, the Westlake Mall, a bazaar for local merchants), still wears its original column facade, and is stunning in its grandeur, befitting the rise of the Westlake neighborhood.
The Los Angeles Railway streetcar tracks are visible in the pavement, with the line running east-west on 7th Street, and turning east from southbound Alvarado onto 7th Street for a return to downtown. The scene is filled with 1920s-period vehicles.
We are grateful to Brian Hsu and his Urban Diachrony blog for bringing this fine USC scan to our attention, and for the opportunity to share it with our fans and customers. Thank you, Brian!
