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Los Angeles in the 1900s A muster of morticians by George Garrigues

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L.A.’s three principal mortuaries were huddled together in the same neighborhood as many of the town’s mainline Protestant churches and the leading Jewish temple. Bresee Bros. and W. H. Sutch flanked the Fraternal Brotherhood [of Eagles?] on Figueroa Street, and Pierce Bros. & Co. (still in business all over Southern California) was catercorner from the First Evangelical Lutheran Church on Flower Street. Although Los Angeles enacted the nation’s first zoning code in 1904, as you can see by this 1909 map, the results were not immediate. The 1910 postcard view below shows the Fraternal Brotherhood building and the two little houses on Figueroa Street to the north.

Below is the kind of hearse that might have been used at any of the mortuaries. This one was pictured in Madera, California, in 1910. Source.

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SOURCE OF THE MAP Los Angeles 1909. Compiled by Worthington Gates. Western Litho Co. CREATED/PUBLISHED Los Angeles, Birds Eye View Pub. Co., about 1909. NOTES Perspective map not drawn to scale. Bird's-eye-view. On verso: City and suburban street map of Los Angeles. Accompanied by index. 24 p. REFERENCE LC Panoramic maps (2nd ed.), 29 MEDIUM col. map 54 x 91 cm. CALL NUMBER G4364.L8A3 1909 .G3 CONTROL NUMBER 75693097 REPOSITORY Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. 20540-4650 USA DIGITAL ID g4364l pm000290 urn:hdl:loc.gmd/g4364l.pm000290 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g4364l.pm000290

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