Debby, you could also try the photography collection at the Los Angeles Public Library.  https://tessa.lapl.org/photocol and bizarrely enough, Youtube. My older son is a street artist who occasionally turns to me for historical photos of areas where he's painting.   I found a video on Youtube of someone driving down Venice Boulevard in the 1950s.  It showed the original exterior of a building he'd been asked to reconstruct.  Even the firm of the famous architect who designed it didn't have it.
Ronni Kern