Historic Core, Los Angeles
Neighborhood of Downtown Los Angeles From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Historic Core is a district within Downtown Los Angeles that includes the world's largest concentration of movie palaces,[citation needed] former large department stores, and office towers, all built chiefly between 1907 and 1931. Within it lie the Broadway Theater District and the Spring Street historic financial district, and in its west it overlaps with the Jewelry District and in its east with Skid Row.
Historic Core | |
|---|---|
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  Historic Core Location within Downtown Los Angeles | |
| Coordinates: 34.05349°N 118.245319°W | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  California |
| County | Los Angeles County |
| City |  Los Angeles |
| Named | 1990s |
| Zip code | 90013 |
| Streets | 3rd Street, 4th Street, Broadway, Hill Street, Main Street, Olympic Boulevard, Spring Street |
The Historic Core falls into two business improvement districts, Historic Core (south of 4th St.) and Downtown LA (from 2nd to 4th Street). The total Historic Core is thus composed of:[1][2][3]
- Los Angeles Street from 2nd to 6th streets,
- Spring Street and Main Street from 2nd to 7th streets,
- Broadway from 2nd to 9th streets,
- Hill Street from 2nd to 10th streets
Please consult the articles about the individual streets and historic districts above for a full discussion of the architectural landmarks in the district.
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The Historic Core was the central business district of the city from the first decade of the 1900s through the 1950s. Before 1900 the business center was further north, between the Plaza and about Third Street.[4][5] Starting in the 1950s what is now the Historic Core started to decline. Upscale shopping had moved west to the Seventh & Hope area starting in the 1920s, and to Mid-Wilshire by the 1930s. When consumers lived and worked near the prolific streetcar lines, it was relatively easy for them to reach downtown, the hub of both the Los Angeles Railway and Pacific Electric systems. Now, an ever increasing number of consumers had cars, lived further away from downtown, and due to the proliferation of suburban retail, were able to shop, dine, and go to the movies there without worries about downtown parking and traffic congestion. In addition, after World War II, financial institutions moved several blocks to the west, ending up on Figueroa Street, Flower Street, and Grand Avenue. In the 1950s the Historic Core became the center of Latino retail and entertainment in the city, e.g.: the Million Dollar Theatre featured the biggest names in the Spanish language entertainment world. This paralleled the general white flight occurring in Central Los Angeles at the time, which saw Broadway become a major center for Latino life in the city.
Although prostitution and drug dealing had occurred in the area as far back as the early 1920s, they became epidemic in the 1960s. The area's movie palaces, built between 1911 and 1931, became grindhouses. The last of them closed in the 1990s; the Orpheum Theatre recently underwent a complete restoration at a cost of several million dollars, and is now used for major movie premieres (such as "Collateral" in 2005), celebrity events (Michael Jackson's birthday party), comedy shows (Bill Burr), fashion shows, concerts (Opeth), and plays. Most of the older buildings have stores that cater to the Latino immigrant working class.
The developing street gang problem in Los Angeles which began to worsen at the end of the 1960s and got considerably worse in the late 1970s, also hurt traditional commercial activity in the area, as it did much of downtown. While the LAPD indicates that the area is a sort of neutral zone, which has not been claimed by any single gang and random gang violence is rare, the area remains one of the major areas for street drug sales in Los Angeles.
In 1999, the Los Angeles City Council passed an Adaptive Re-Use Ordinance, allowing for the conversion of old, unused office buildings to apartments or "lofts." Developer Tom Gilmore purchased a series of century-old buildings and converted them into lofts near Main and Spring streets, a development now known as the "Old Bank District." Other notable redevelopment projects in the Historic Core have included the Eastern Columbia Building, Broadway Trade Center, Higgins Building, The Security Building, the Pacific Electric Building, The Judson, and the Subway Terminal Building. As of 2005, redevelopment projects in downtown Los Angeles have been divided about evenly between rentals and condominiums; though projects near the Staples Center arena in the South Park neighborhood have been overwhelmingly dedicated to condominiums.
Landmarks are shown on the following street grid of the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles.
Abbreviations and notes
- Abbreviations: DS=Department Store. Res.=residential building
- Architectural styles: AD=Art Deco, BA=Beaux-Arts, BR=Baroque Revival, CR=Classical Revival, IRR=Italian Renaissance Revival, It=Italianate, Rom=Romanesque, RR=Renaissance Revival
- Architects: C&B=Curlett & Beelman, JP=John Parkison, P&B=Parkinson & Bergstrom, RBY=Robert Brown Young
- Italics indicate the building's current name or main tenant.
- Non-italics indicate a historic name or tenant of an existing building.
- *An asterisk indicates a demolished building.
For the area north of Third Street, see Victorian Downtown Los Angeles
For the area to the west of Hill Street, see Financial District, Los Angeles
| H I L L S T. |
Irvine Byrne Block/ now Pan American Lofts (1895) |
B R O A D W A Y |
Douglas Bldg. (1899) | S P R I N G S T R E E T |
Stimson Bldg. (1893–1963) | M A I N S T R E E T |
L O S A N G E L E S S T R E E T | ||||||
| THIRD ST. | THIRD ST. | THIRD ST. | THIRD ST. | THIRD ST. | |||||||||
| —Million Dollar Theatre | —Bradbury Bldg. (1893) |
Ronald Reagan State Bldg. (1990) | Toy District | ||||||||||
| Angels Flight | Homer Laughlin Building (1898): Now Grand Central Market. formerly Coulter's, Ville de Paris |
Broadway Spring Center parking structure (1990) | Round House | ||||||||||
| Jacoby Bros. DS* (#331–5; 1900–1935) —Grant Bldg. (1898) |
Trustee Building (#340, 1905 PB) —O. T. Johnson Block (#350, 1895 It RBY) —O. T. Johnson Bldg. (#356, 1902 JB Rom) |
parking lot | Hellman Bldg. (1902) | ||||||||||
| FOURTH ST. | FOURTH ST. | FOURTH ST. | FOURTH ST. | FOURTH ST. | |||||||||
| The Broadway DS/ Junípero Serra State Office Bldg. #2 |
vacant | parking lot | Continental Bldg. (1902) | San Fernando Bldg. (1906 IRR) | Toy District | ||||||||
| Subway Terminal Bldg./ Now "Metro 417" |
—Hotel Clark —Occidental Hotel —Boos Bros. Cafeteria —St. Clarenden Hotel |
Judson C. Rive Bldg. (1907) | 419 S. Spring 435 S. Spring |
Stowell/El Dorado Hotel/ El Dorado Lofts (1913) Dog Park |
|||||||||
| Title Guarantee Bldg. (1930) | Metropolitan Bldg. (1913)/Newberry's 5&10¢/Now Fallas Paredes DS and lofts | Chester Williams Bldg. (1926) | Crocker Bank/ Spring Arts Tower (1915) |
Title Insurance and Trust Company Building/ Trust Bldg. (1928) |
Rowan Bldg (1912) | King Edward Hotel (1906 P&B) | |||||||
| FIFTH ST. | FIFTH ST. | FIFTH ST. | FIFTH ST. | FIFTH ST. | |||||||||
| Pershing Square | Pershing Square station (Metro Rail) | Fifth Street Store DS | Roxie Theatre Cameo Theater Arcade Theatre (now retail) |
Hotel Alexandria (1906) | Security Trust and Savings Bank/ Security Bldg. Lofts (1907) |
Hotel Rosslyn Annex | Pershing Hotel/ Pershing Apts. (1889) |
Baltimore Hotel (1910) | |||||
| Spring Arcade | Los Angeles Theater Center (1916) | Parking Structure (#545) | Topaz Apts. | ||||||||||
| Paramount Theatre/ International Jewelry Center |
Swelldom DS | Silverwoods DS/ Broadway Jewelry Mart |
Pacific Southwest Bank (1910) | Santa Fe Bldg. (1906) | |||||||||
| SIXTH ST. | SIXTH ST. | SIXTH ST. | SIXTH ST. | SIXTH ST. | |||||||||
| —Consolidated Reatly Bldg./ California Jewelry Mart (1908/1935) —Sun Realty Bldg./ Los Angeles Jewelry Center (1931) —Harris & Frank Bldg./ Wholesale Jewelry Exchange (1925) |
—Western Jewelry Mart —William Fox Bldg. (Fox Jewelry Plaza) (1932) |
Los Angeles Theatre | —Mullen & Bluett DS/ Walter P. Story Bldg. —Desmond's Bldg. —Palace Theatre —J. E. Carr Bldg. —Harris & Frank 1947-1980 |
Hotel Hayward E. F. Hutton (1931) California Canadian Bank (1923) Barclays Bank (1919) |
United California Bank Stock Exchange Mortgage Guaranty Building (1913) Banks & Huntley Bldg. (1930) |
—Pacific Electric Bdng. (1905) —Cecil Hotel (1924) |
|||||||
| Warner Bros. (a.k.a. Pantages, Warren) Theatre (1920) Now Jewelry Theater Center |
Bullock's DS/ St. Vincent Jewelry Center |
Bank of Italy/ Bank of America/ SB Lofts (1924) |
Bartlett Bldg. (1911) | ||||||||||
| SEVENTH ST. | SEVENTH ST. | SEVENTH ST. | SEVENTH ST. | SEVENTH ST. | |||||||||
| Foreman & Clark DS/ Foreman & Clark Bldg. (1928, Curlett & Beelman, Art Deco and Neo-Gothic) |
State Theatre | —Hotel Lankershim —Globe Theatre |
Dearden's DS | ||||||||||
| Garfield Bldg. (1930) | Union Bank & Trust Company Bldg. Union Lofts (1922) |
Griffin on Spring Apts. (2018) | Great Republic Lofts (1923) | ||||||||||
| EIGHTH ST. | EIGHTH ST. | EIGHTH ST. | EIGHTH ST. | EIGHTH ST. | |||||||||
| RKO Hillstreet Theatre (1922-1963)/ 820 Olive/ 825 South Hill (res.) |
Hamburger's DS (1908-1923)/ May Company DS (1923-1986)/ May Company Building |
Tower Theatre (1927 BR) Rialto Theatre (1917 AD/CR) Orpheum Theatre (1926 BA) |
Lane Mortgage Bldg. (1923) | National City Tower (1924)[6] | —California Theatre (1918–1990 BA) |
Gray Bldg. (#824) | |||||||
| Coast Fed. Savings Bldg. (1926) | Parking lot Alexan tower (planned) |
Eastern Columbia Bldg. (1930) | City Club Bldg. (1925)[8] | Harris Newmark Bldg. (1926 RR C&B) | Cooper Bldg. (1926 C&B) | ||||||||
| NINTH ST. | NINTH ST. | NINTH ST. | NINTH ST. | ||||||||||
| small retail | May Co. Garage Bldg.(1926) | —Blackstone's DS (1907–1917)—United Artists Theatre/ Ace Hotel |
Gerry Building (1947 SM) | ||||||||||
| South Park by Windsor Apts. | Broadway Palace Apts. (2017) | ||||||||||||
| OLYMPIC BL. | (formerly TENTH ST.) | OLYMPIC BL. | (formerly TENTH ST.) | ||||||||||
| Mayan Theater Belasco Theatre |
Broadway Palace Apts. (2017) | ||||||||||||
| Western Pacific Bldg. (1925) | |||||||||||||
| White Log Coffee Shop[9] | Los Angeles Railway HQ/ Hoxton Hotel (1925) |
||||||||||||
| ELEVENTH ST. | ELEVENTH ST. | ELEVENTH ST. | ELEVENTH ST. | ||||||||||
| Proposed 43-story Sky Trees res. tower[10] | Herald-Examiner Bldg. (1914) | Commercial Club/ Proper Hotel (1926) |
Harris Building (1923 BA) | ||||||||||
Within Downtown Los Angeles
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