Victorian Downtown Los Angeles
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. 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).
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.
1905 view south on Broadway from north of Temple Street. The Times Mirror printing house in foreground, marked 110 N. Broadway, now site of the Hall of Justice. Towers of the 1888 City Hall on the 200 block of S. Broadway in the distance. Fort Moore Hill, now leveled, at right.
c.1893–1900, looking east along Third St. from Olive St. on Bunker Hill. 3 buildings stand out from left to right: the 1888 City Hall (Broadway between 2nd/3rd), the Stimson Block (3rd & Spring), and the Bradbury Building (3rd & Broadway)
The Women's Christian Temperance Union Temple and a Temple Street Cable Railway car, 1890
El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument
El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument, also known as Los Angeles Plaza Historic District and formerly known as El Pueblo de Los Ángeles State Historic Park, is a historic district taking in the oldest section of Los Angeles, known for many years as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula. The district, centered on the old plaza, was the city's center under Spanish (1781–1821), Mexican (1821–1847), and United States rule through most of the 19th century. The 44-acre park area was designated a state historic monument in 1953 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
La Placita Church
Inscription on historical marker "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Ángeles - Felipe de Neve - September Fourth 1781"
Plaza in 1869
Los Angeles Plaza (1876)