Thematic Photographic - Signs

For the next week, Carmi's Thematic Photographic will be exploring the theme of SIGNS:

These bronze letters are laid in the pavement at the exit to a parking garage in downtown Los Angeles. Cars on the ramp to the street encounter them before approaching the sidewalk.

The building, at 610 S. Broadway, today houses a large jewelry dealership at street level. The garage entrance is on 6th Street west of Broadway, on the north side of in a magnificent 12 story office building built in 1908 by Walter P. Story. The Story building was one of the first modern skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles, and considered one of the most beautiful, with its elaborately decorated terra-cotta facade.

Walter P. Story was the son of an early Los Angeles tycoon, and the parcel was given to him as a gift from his father at the age of 14. Walter became a Los Angeles financier and with the coming of World War I, he enlisted in the military. He eventually achieved the rank of Major General, received multiple citations and medals, and finally retired in 1942.

He and his wife lived in the penthouse atop the building, when they were not at their country estate.

I don't know when the parking garage would have been built, or when these bronze letters were inset in the ramps, but they are the finest looking parking garage signs I've ever seen. Don't you wish there were more words, so we could see what the other letters of the alphabet look like?

This sign marks the parking ramp entrance, with a gentle Art Deco reminder to mellow out.