On payday, you rode the streetcar to Citizens National Bank at Third and Main. Maybe you spent that hard-earned money upstairs, on a $15 overcoat at Foreman & Clark. Maybe you didn’t.

The year was 1913.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

My love for Kim Cooper‘s projects & collaborations is no secret, but this latest endeavor thrills me even more. Chronicling the glittering and ghastly history of LA’s Historic Core, centered around the footprint of the Downtown Artwalk/Gallery Row, the blog “In SRO Land” is only a week old but already is a treasure trove of info that’s left me utterly absorbed.

Every year Kim’s original blog, 1947project, undergoes a re-casting and covers a different year in Los Angeles history. But this year it becomes “In SRO Land,” named alternatively after the Single Room Occupancy hotels that are so prevalent in the area, and “Standing Room Only”–the common refrain of Broadway, whose golden era was a cavalcade of dancers and entertainers, criminals and movie stars, freaks and fans.

I am so stoked to have this new blog up and running, and I’ll be sure to check it every day. Welcome to the party, In SRO Land.

Also, a great big Congrats to Kim Cooper’s husband & Esotouric curator Richard Schave, the newly-minted Director of the Downtown LA Art Walk.

Photo by In SRO Land contributor Rob Clampett.

Main Street, Los Angeles. Where all seats at the Arrow Theatre are 10¢.

The year was 1939.

Photo from the USC Digital Archive

It was second to none. A stately presence, with ballrooms graced by sophistication and class.

It was the Grand Central Hotel on Main Street, Los Angeles. The year was 1888.

Photo from the USC Digital Archive