The late-

Victorian-era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardi ...

Downtown of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

grew year by year, around 1880 centered at the southern end of the Los Angeles Plaza area, and over the next two decades, extending south and west along Main Street, Spring Street, and

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

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 A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

district with City Hall, numerous courthouses, and other municipal, county, state and federal buildings, and

Times Mirror Square Times Mirror Square is a complex of buildings on the block bounded by Spring, Broadway, First and Second streets in the Civic Center district of Downtown Los Angeles. It was headquarters of the ''Los Angeles Times'' until 2018. It is currentl ...

."Early Los Angeles Historical Buildings (1800s)", ''Water and Power Associates''
/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 (1880-1900), 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.

Location

By the mid-1890s, First and Spring was the center of the business district, and the Bradbury Building, opened in 1893 at Third and Broadway and still standing today,search for the location, ''Google Maps''
/ref> was its anchor at the southwest. 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.

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

Buildings

Broadway

Spring Street

Main Street

Buildings along Los Angeles Street

Transportation

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:Broadway-Temple-NW-Temperance-Temple-of-the-Womens-Christian-Temperance-Union-1890.jpg, The

Women's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program ...

building, also known as Temperance Temple, at Temple and Fort (now

) streets, with a Temple Street Cable Railway car, 1890 File:Pacific Electric 1001.jpg, "Red car" of the Pacific Electric File:The street railway review (1891) (14735748166).jpg, A

Los Angeles Railway The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent local ...

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

electric streetcar, c.1900-1910

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.

Cable cars (1885-1902)

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, 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 Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known f ...

/ Filipinotown, and the

Pico-Union Pico-Union is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. The name "Pico-Union" refers to the neighborhood that surrounds the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue. Located immediately west of Downtown Los Angeles, it is home to ...

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

with its "yellow cars". *In 1902, Huntington and banker Isaias W. Hellman established the

Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

, which would acquire other railways, providing interurban service to surrounding towns in what is now

Greater Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Coun ...

(Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties) and new suburban developments. The

Pacific Electric Building The historic Pacific Electric Building (also known as the Huntington Building, after the railway’s founder, Henry Huntington, or simply “6th & Main”), opened in 1905 in the core of Los Angeles as the main train station for the Pacific Elec ...

, with station underneath, was opened in 1905 at 6th and Main Street.

Funiculars

Angel's Flight and Court Flight were

funicular railway A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite en ...

s operating from Broadway up Bunker Hill.

Railroad depots

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 The Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, opened on October 17, 1875, was a steam-powered rail line which ran between the Santa Monica Long Wharf (north of the current Santa Monica Pier) and 5th and San Pedro streets in downtown Los Angeles. ...

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 The Arcade Depot was the main Southern Pacific Railroad passenger railway station, from 1888 until 1914. It was located on Alameda Street, between 5th and 6th Streets, in Los Angeles, California. History The land for the station was furnished to ...

, Alameda between 5th/6th, c.1895-1900 File:Exterior view of the Southern Pacific Depot, ca.1918 (CHS-5724).jpg,

Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

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 La Grande Station was the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's (Santa Fe) main passenger terminal in Los Angeles, California from 1893 until the opening of Union Station in 1939. The station was located at 2nd Street and Santa Fe Avenue on th ...

of the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

, Santa Fe and 2nd streets, c.1915 * Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad Depot, SW corner Alameda and Commercial streets *

Depot, San Pedro and 5th street (southeast of the business district) *

of the Southern Pacific Railroad along Alameda Street between 5th to 6th streets. Opened 1888, closed 1914. *

of the

, Santa Fe at 2nd (East of the business district), opened 1893, closed 1939 *

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 A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

was opened in 1939, replacing the existing Central and La Grande stations.

Landmarks shown on schematic map

References

External links

Photos of Los Angeles during the 1880s and 1890s at Calisphere (University of California photo search across multiple libraries)

Los Angeles Theatres (blog with detailed information about cinemas in Los Angeles including streetscapes, neighboring buildings, etc.)
{{coord missing, Los Angeles County, California 1880s in Los Angeles 1890s in Los Angeles Civic Center, Los Angeles * Districts of Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles History of Los Angeles