r/OldPhotosInRealLife

Here's a then and now photo comparison I put together of one of the locations used in the music video of the Dexys Midnight Runners song Come On Eileen. From my filming locations then and now website https://chrisbungostudios.com/photo-gallery-sampler

Hey y'all! I made a long-form video about LA Noire and the real life history of LA, and had a bunch of cool comparison shots from in-game and the 1940s. These are just 5 of them, but I have a lot more! Let me know if you want to see more!

1. Corner of Temple and Main St

2. Corner of Grand and 5th St

3. Orange and Hollywood Blvd

4. 6th St Viaduct Bridge

5. Hill St Tunnel facing North

The first old photo is from 1929 showing the western facade, taken from 3rd Avenue. The second is from 1940 showing the east and north facades, taken from Buchanan Street.

The Central Arizona Light and Power Company (CALAPCO) was started as the Phoenix Illuminating Gas and Electric Company around 1886 by W. C. Parsons, Josiah White, and Hutchlon Ohnick (westernized from Hachiro Onuki). Originally they only offered gas service, despite the name, but by the 1920s Phoenix was far more reliant on electricity than in the 1880s. To meet the growing demand for power, CALAPCO purchased a full block adjacent to one of their existing gas sites to build a warehouse and substation in April 1928 for around $60,000. They hired the prominent local firm Lescher & Mahoney to draw up designs. Many of their buildings still stand around Phoenix, including the Orpheum Theater, which was designed a year or so earlier. Designs were done by August, giving them a 2 story building that measured 102 feet along 3rd Avenue, and 142 feet along Buchanan Street. It was designed so that a 3rd floor addition could be easily added on, as well as a 50 foot wide addition to the entire length of the south side of the building.

Work on the basement and foundation began just after the designs were drawn up, with Eagan Construction Company being hired in September 1928 to build the warehouse. It would be built using bricks, reinforced concrete, and steel. The building itself cost just under $85,000 without the cost of the basement and installing electricity. Everything would be completed by mid February 1929 when CALAPCO moved just shy of 100 workers to the building along with their fleet of 49 cars and trucks.

In 1935 they would start the first expansion to the building. At the cost of $3200, the third floor addition that retains the original styling was added onto the eastern half of the building. In 1948, the larger, fourth floor brick addition that doesn’t retain any original styling was built at the cost of $80,000. This involved extensive renovations inside the building as well. In 1980 or 1981, the eastern facade was covered up with an addition that mimicked the original parts of the building in a basic way. This is how it still stands today. The CALAPCO sign still hangs high up on the western facade, but it is now owned by the Arizona Public Service Company (APS), Arizona’s largest energy provider. In the 1950s, CALAPCO merged with Arizona Edison to form APS.

While talking about WPA and CCC programs during the Great Depression with my high school students, I stumbled across this old photo of the CCC pavilion right after it was built in 1934. I ended up getting out of work early today, so I swung by to get some photos of the pavilion today.