Victorian Downtown Los Angeles

{{short description|Historical neighborhood in California, US}} {{About|the area which formed the central business district during the 1880s and 1890s|the neighborhoods famous for Victorian residences|Angelino Heights, Los Angeles|and|Bunker Hill, Los Angeles}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}} {{Use American English|date=November 2023}} [[File:Central Business District of Los Angeles 1894 from Plaza (r) to Third Street (l).jpg|thumb|400px|1894 drawing by Bruce Wellington Pierce: portion from Third Street (bottom left) to Plaza (top right). The Red Sandstone Courthouse with its clocktower is prominent at center. At upper right is Los Angeles High School on Fort Moore Hill.]]

The late-Victorian-era Downtown of Los Angeles in 1880 was centered at the southern end of the Los Angeles Plaza area, and over the next two decades, it extended south and west along Main Street, Spring Street, and Broadway towards Third Street. Most of the 19th-century buildings no longer exist, surviving only in the Plaza area or south of Second Street. The rest were demolished to make way for the Civic Center district with City Hall, numerous courthouses, and other municipal, county, state and federal buildings, and Times Mirror Square.<ref name=wap>[https://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_LA_Buildings%20(1800s)_Page_1.html#Ducommun_Building "Early Los Angeles Historical Buildings (1800s)", ''Water and Power Associates'']</ref><ref name="lat1931">{{cite news |title=Los Angeles Fifty Years Ago: The Re-Creation of a Vanished City |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31539771/los_angeles_fifty_years_ago_1931/ |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=13 May 2019 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=November 15, 1931 |page=90 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190607023607/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31539771/los_angeles_fifty_years_ago_1931/ |archive-date= Jun 7, 2019 }}</ref> This article covers that area, between the Plaza, 3rd St., Los Angeles St., and Broadway, during the period 1880 through the period of demolition (1920s–1950s).

At the time (1880–1900s), the area was referred to as the business center, business section or business district. By 1910, it was referred to as the "North End" of the business district which by then had expanded south to what is today called the Historic Core, along Broadway, Spring and Main roughly from 3rd to 9th streets.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59394382/north-end-of-business-center-1/ |title=Fact and Comment |date=January 16, 1910 |work=The Los Angeles Times |via=Newspapers.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031005439/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-north-end-of-busin/59394382/ |archive-date= Oct 31, 2023 }}</ref> {{TOC limit|2}}

==Location== [[File:Baist's 1910 Real Estate Map Plate 3 with some post-1920 street alignments shown.jpg|thumb|Baist's 1910 map of the area. In blue, superimposed on the map: later changes in Spring and Temple streets, the current path of US-101, and most of the largest buildings standing today.]] By the mid-1890s, First and Spring was the center of the business district; the Bradbury Building opened in 1893 at Third and Broadway and is still standing today.<ref name=gmaps/> By 1910, the area north of Fourth Street was considered the "North End" of the business district and there were already concerns about its deterioration, as the center of commerce moved to what is now known as the Historic Core, from Third to Ninth streets.<ref>{{cite news |title=Believes in North End |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59394398/north-end-of-business-center-2/ |work=Los Angeles Times |date=January 16, 1910 |page=65}}</ref>

==Map== The map shows the street grid in 1910, and shows '''in blue''' three important road alignment changes that came in the 1920s–1950s: *Spring Street realignment north of First Street to run parallel to Main Street *Temple Street extension eastward from Main Street *Creation of the US-101 Freeway and its service roads, called Arcadia and Aliso streets, but not exactly in the positions of the old Arcadia and Aliso streets

==Overview of the area== {{Wide image|William Henry Jackson panoramic photo of Los Angeles business district, c.1900-1902 with labels.png|700px|William Henry Jackson panoramic photo of Los Angeles business district, c.1900-1902. The view stretches from the Bullard Block just south of Temple and Spring (left, bottom) to the Burdick Block at 2nd and Spring, right. Portions of Main Street and Los Angeles Street are visible behind. The vast majority of the buildings in this view have been demolished. Today, about half of the area in view is City Hall and its grounds, and most of the rest of the area is home to other buildings in the Civic Center district.|100%}}

==Buildings== === Broadway=== {{See also|Broadway (Los Angeles)}} {{Buildings along Broadway from Temple to 3rd streets}}

{{For|buildings further south on Broadway|Broadway (Los Angeles)}} === Spring Street=== {{See also|Spring Street (Los Angeles)}} {{Buildings along Spring from Temple to 3rd streets}} {{For|buildings further south on Spring Street|Spring Street (Los Angeles)}}

===Main Street=== {{See also|Main Street (Los Angeles)}} {{Buildings along Main Street from Plaza to 3rd Street}}

===Buildings along Los Angeles Street=== {{See also|Los Angeles Street}} {{Buildings along Los Angeles Street from Plaza to 3rd Street}}

==Transportation== <gallery mode="packed" style="text-align:left;"> File:1880 Lithograph of the Baker Block on the southeast corner of Main Street and Arcadia Street.jpg|Lithograph showing the Baker Block and horse-drawn streetcar, c.1890 File:Cable car of the Temple Street Cable Railway 1890 at Fort (Broadway) at Temple streets looking northwest.jpg|Cable car of the Temple Street Cable Railway in 1890 at Fort (Broadway) at Temple streets looking northwest File:Pacific Electric 1001.jpg|"Red car" of the Pacific Electric File:The street railway review (1891) (14735748166).jpg|A Los Angeles Railway electric streetcar, 1891 File:Main Street & Agricultural Park Railroad.jpg|Main Street & Agricultural Park electric streetcar, c.1896 File:External view of a Plaza University trolley car of the Los Angeles Railway Company, showing two conductors posed in front, ca.1900-1910 (CHS-33085).jpg|A Los Angeles Railway electric streetcar, c.1900-1910 </gallery>

===Horsecars (1874–1897)=== *Horse-drawn streetcars started with the Spring and Sixth Street Railroad in 1874. The last horsecars were converted to electric in 1897.<ref>[http://www.erha.org/railwayhis.htm Excerpts from Los Angeles City Council in "The Street Railway History of Los Angeles", Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California]</ref><ref>[https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/las-first-streetcars-were-horse-powered "L.A.'s first streetcars were horse-powered", KCET]</ref>

===Cable cars (1885–1902)=== {{Main|Cable cars in Los Angeles}} Cable car street railways in Los Angeles first began operating up Bunker Hill in 1885, with a total of three companies operating in the period through 1902,<ref>[http://www.erha.org/railwayhis.htm "The Street Railway History of Los Angeles", Electric Railway Historical Association website, accessed August 16, 2020]</ref> when the lines were electrified and electric streetcars were introduced largely following the cable car routes. There were roughly 25 miles of routes, connecting 1st and Main in what was then the Los Angeles Central Business District as far as the communities known today as Lincoln Heights, Echo Park/Filipinotown, and the Pico-Union district.

===Electric streetcar systems (1887–1963)===

Electrically-powered streetcar systems were numerous starting with the Los Angeles Electric Railway in 1887, but were over time consolidated into two large networks: *In 1901, Henry Huntington bought various electric streetcar companies operating mostly within the City of Los Angeles (and not in the San Fernando Valley, Harbor area or Westside) and combined them into the Los Angeles Railway with its "yellow cars". *In 1902, Huntington and banker Isaias W. Hellman established the Pacific Electric Railway, which would acquire other railways, providing interurban service to surrounding towns in what is now Greater Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties) and new suburban developments. The Pacific Electric Building, with station underneath, was opened in 1905 at 6th and Main Street.

===Funiculars=== Angel's Flight and Court Flight were funicular railways operating from Broadway up Bunker Hill.

===Railroad depots=== <gallery mode="packed" style="text-align:left;"> File:Exterior view of the Los Angeles and San Pedro Station, the first railroad into Los Angeles, ca.1880 (CHS-6107).jpg|Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad Depot, SW corner Alameda and Commercial streets, c.1880 File:Steam locomotive in front of the Los Angeles and Independence Rail Road Terminal at Fifth Street and San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, 1875 (CHS-14279).jpg|Los Angeles and Independence Railroad Depot, 5th & San Pedro streets, c.1875 File:Southern Pacific Arcade Station on Alameda Street between Fourth Street & Sixth Street, ca.1895-1900 (CHS-4258).jpg|Southern Pacific Railroad's Arcade Depot, Alameda between 5th/6th, c.1895-1900 File:Exterior view of the Southern Pacific Depot, ca.1918 (CHS-5724).jpg|Central Station of the Southern Pacific Railroad c.1918, Central & 5th streets, c.1918 File:The Santa Fe Station by night, Los Angeles, Cal..jpg|La Grande Station of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Santa Fe and 2nd streets, c.1915 </gallery> *Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad Depot, SW corner Alameda and Commercial streets *Los Angeles and Independence Railroad Depot, San Pedro and 5th street (southeast of the business district) *Arcade Depot of the Southern Pacific Railroad along Alameda Street between 5th to 6th streets. Opened 1888, closed 1914. *La Grande Station of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Santa Fe at 2nd (East of the business district), opened 1893, closed 1939 *Central Station of the Southern Pacific Railroad, Central and 5th streets (southeast of the business district), opened 1914. Union Pacific Railroad started operating from the station in 1924. Disused 1939. *Union Station was opened in 1939, replacing the existing Central and La Grande stations. <!-- ==Timeline== The business district evolved and grew in tandem with the increase of the city's population from eleven thousand to about a hundred thousand residents over twenty years.<ref>[http://www.laalmanac.com/population/po25.php ''Los Angeles Almanac'']</ref>

===1880-1889===

'''1880.''' The U.S. Census recorded 11,183 people within the Los Angeles city limits. Only one section of roadway was paved: a short strip of Main Street near its junction with Spring Street for the benefit of the patrons of the Temple Block, where the City Hall now stands.<ref name=LA50TearsAgo>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/380660696/ "Los Angeles Fifty Years Ago," ''Los Angeles Times,'' November 15, 1931, image 90]</ref><ref name=Almanac1866>[http://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi01d.php "History Timeline; Los Angeles County, 1866 to 1886, ''Los Angeles Almanac'']</ref>

'''1882.''' The Los Angeles Telephone Company began erecting telephone poles, and the Brush Electric Lighting Company installed the first electric streetlights.<ref name=Almanac1866/>

'''1883.''' Southern California’s first woman physician, Elizabeth A. Follansbee, set up a practice in her residence at 240 South First Street,<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/41088945/?terms=Follansbee Classified advertisement, ''Los Angeles Daily Herald,'' April 11, 1887, image 3]</ref> and J.W. Robinson opened the Boston dry-goods store in the Allen Block.<ref name=Almanac1866/><ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/46523055/?terms=Boston%2Bdry%2Bgoods%2Brobinson Opening! (classified advertisement), ''Los Angeles Daily Herald,'' February 27, 1883, image 2]</ref><ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/380084387/?terms=J.W.%2BRobinson "J.W. Robinson; Sudden Death of a Prominent Business Man," ''Los Angeles Times,'' March 1, 1891, image 2]</ref>

'''1884.''' A channel for the Los Angeles River was dug through downtown, and the Volunteer Fire Department opened a firehouse at the Plaza.<ref name=Almanac1866/>

'''1885.''' The Santa Fe Railroad completed a second transcontinental rail line into the depot, which was said to be "a 10 minutes' ride to the business center of Los Angeles." The University of Southern California opened its medical school in a former winery on Aliso Street.<ref name=Almanac1866/><ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/378363065/?terms=business%2Bcenter "Grand Holiday Excursion to Nadeau Park, 'The Railroad Center'" (display advertisement), ''Los Angeles Times,'' December 25, 1887, image 2]</ref>

'''1886.''' A flood washed away every bridge and many other structures in the city; many people were killed. The first "fast fruit train" left the depot for eastern markets.<ref name=Almanac1866/>

'''1887.''' An attempt to move the Los Angeles High School building from atop Pound Cake Hill to Sand Street (now part of the Hollywood Freeway) failed for lack of funds, and it was abandoned in the middle of Temple Street. The structure had to be raised high enough with scaffolding so that streetcars could run under it.<ref name=Almanac1887>[http://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi01e.php "History Timeline; Los Angeles County, 1887 to 1909, ''Los Angeles Almanac'']</ref>

'''1888.''' An African American residential area formed in Los Angeles, centered at First and Los Angeles Streets.<ref name=Almanac1887/>

'''1888.''' A reporter checking the local hotel registers found that "a considerable number of Eastern people are already here, and many of them are seeking investments in the city and country. Central business property is especially in good demand."<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/607596421/?terms=Central%2BBusiness%2BDistrict Cambria, "Pungent Paragraphs," ''Los Angeles Evening Express,'' August 11, 1888, image 4]</ref>

===1890-1899===

'''1890.''' The census recorded 50,395 residents. Morris Cohn opened the city's first garment- manufacturing business.<ref name=Almanac1887/>

'''1891.''' The first Los Angeles County Courthouse was completed<ref name=Almanac1887/> at Temple Street and Broadway.

'''1893.''' Four Los Angeles banks closed from financial stress.<ref name=Almanac1887/> The Bradbury Building opened at Third Street and Broadway.

'''1895.''' In an editorial, the ''Los Angeles Times'' noted that "the business section of the city is moving south at a remarkably rapid rate." It complained of the "constantly increasing crush at the corner of Spring and First streets," which it called "a menace to life and limb" and urged a North Broadway tunnel to "accommodate travel."<ref name="1894anchor"/>

'''1896.''' The ''Times'' reported:

<blockquote>Postal authorities in Washington have graciously accorded Los Angeles one more carrier, and that for a limited time only. This extra man will be employed in the central business district only, where the crush is greatest. Fay Stephenson, who has done faithfull ''[sic]'' and intelligent work, has been given this newly-created position. He will begin work this morning.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/380269570/?terms=Central%2BBusiness%2BDistrict "An Extra Carrier," January 29, 1896, image 5]</ref></blockquote>

'''1897.''' The first known automobile to appear on city streets was built by J. Philip Erier in a downtown shop. Frederick Blechynden created the first motion picture made in Los Angeles when he filmed 25 seconds of traffic on Spring Street.<ref name=Almanac1887/><ref>[http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-white-blechynden.html ''Pioneering Filmmakers'']</ref>

'''1899.''' The Los Angeles Stock Exchange was established.<ref name=Almanac1887/>

'''1899.''' The city's population was close to 100,000. -->

==Landmarks shown on schematic map== {{Street grid of landmarks in Victorian Downtown Los Angeles}}

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == * [https://calisphere.org/search/?q=los%20angeles&facet_decade=1880s&facet_decade=1890s Photos of Los Angeles during the 1880s and 1890s at Calisphere (University of California photo search across multiple libraries)] * [http://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com Los Angeles Theatres (blog with detailed information about cinemas in Los Angeles including streetscapes, neighboring buildings, etc.)] * [https://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_City_Views%20(1900%20-%201925)_Page_1.html "Early Los Angeles city views", Water and Power Associates] *[https://home.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal1.html "A Visit to Old Los Angeles", with support from CSULB] * [http://dtla1900.wordpress.com Victorian Downtown Los Angeles (blog)]

Category:1880s in Los Angeles Category:1890s in Los Angeles Category:Civic Center, Los Angeles * Category:Districts of Downtown Los Angeles Category:Downtown Los Angeles Category:History of Los Angeles