The Hall of Justice in Los Angeles is located at 211 W.

Temple Street A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called church (building), churches), Hindui ...

in 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 of

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...

. It occupies the southern two-thirds of the block between Temple and First streets and between Broadway and Spring streets. Built in 1925, it was together with

Los Angeles City Hall Los Angeles City Hall, completed in 1928, is the center of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor's office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council. It is located in the Civic Cente ...

the first two large buildings opened in what would over the following decades demolish and transform the late-19th-century Central Business District to a Civic Center of modern landmark buildings and plazas. The Hall of Justice was designed in Beaux-Arts style by the

Allied Architects Association Allied Architects Association was a coalition of Los Angeles-based architects founded in 1921 to design public buildings. Participating architects included Octavius Morgan, Reginald Davis Johnson, George Edwin Bergstrom, David C. Allison, Myron ...

, a coalition of Los Angeles-based architects founded in 1921 to design public buildings. Participating architects included

Octavius Morgan Charles Octavius Swinnerton Morgan DL, JP, FRS, FSA (15 September 1803 – 5 August 1888), known as Octavius Morgan, was a British politician, historian and antiquary. He was a significant benefactor to the British Museum. Background and e ...

Reginald Davis Johnson Reginald Davis Johnson (1882 - 1952) was an American architect. His practice, based in Pasadena, California, focused on the Los Angeles area and southern California in general, with a mixture of residential and commercial work. Johnson's later wo ...

, George Edwin Bergstrom, David C. Allison,

Myron Hunt Myron Hubbard Hunt (February 27, 1868 – May 26, 1952) was an American architect whose numerous projects include many noted landmarks in Southern California and Evanston, Illinois. Hunt was elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Archi ...

Elmer Grey Elmer Grey, FAIA (April 29, 1872 – November 14, 1963) was an American architect and artist based in Pasadena, California. Grey designed many noted landmarks in Southern California, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Huntington Art Gal ...

Sumner Hunt Sumner P. Hunt (Brooklyn, NY, May 8, 1865 – Los Angeles, CA, November 19, 1938) was an architect in Los Angeles from 1888 to the 1930s. On January 21, 1892, he married Mary Hancock Chapman, January 21, 1892. They had a daughter Louise Hunt. Li ...

and

Sumner Spaulding Sumner Spaulding (1892–1952) was an American architect and city planner. He is best known for designing the Harold Lloyd Estate, Greenacres, in Beverly Hills, California, the Catalina Casino in Avalon on Santa Catalina Island, California, and t ...

. It was the centerpiece of the

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

justice system until it was damaged in the

Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately ...

. It was the home of Los Angeles County courts, the

Los Angeles County Coroner The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner (formerly the Department of Coroner) was created in its present form in Boyle Heights on December 17, 1920 by an ordinance approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, al ...

, the

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States a ...

, and the

Los Angeles County District Attorney The District Attorney of Los Angeles County is in charge of the office that prosecutes felony and misdemeanor crimes that occur within Los Angeles County, California, United States. The current district attorney (DA) is George Gascón. Some mi ...

, and was for many years the primary

Los Angeles County Jail The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States a ...

. The Beaux-Arts 1925 building was featured on television shows including '' Dragnet'', ''

Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a cli ...

'' and ''

Get Smart ''Get Smart'' is an American comedy television series parodying the secret agent genre that had become widely popular in the first half of the 1960s, with the release of the ''James Bond'' films. It was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, an ...

''. It was also featured in ''Visiting... with

Huell Howser Huell Burnley Howser (October 18, 1945 – January 7, 2013) was an American television personality, actor, producer, writer, singer, and voice artist, best known for hosting, producing, and writing ''California's Gold'' and his human interest sh ...

'' Episode 1014. Notable residents of the Hall of Justice included

Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...

Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ar, سرحان بشارة سرحان ''Sirḥān Bišāra Sirḥān'', born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian Jordanian man who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, a United States Sena ...

, and

Shorty Rossi Luigi Francis "Shorty" Rossi (born February 10, 1969) is the former star of ''Pit Boss (TV series), Pit Boss'', a reality series (now cancelled) on Animal Planet.Nolan, Maureen (May 7, 2011)Shorty Rossi - Animal Planet network star - helps raise ...

, star of the

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...

show ''

Pit Boss ''Pit Boss'' is an American television series docudrama that follows Shorty Rossi, owner of Shorty's Rescue, an organization set up for Pit Bull rescue. The series aired on Animal Planet from January 16, 2010 to March 30, 2013. Series overview Sh ...

''. Autopsies performed at the Hall of Justice include those of actress

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

and the assassinated presidential candidate and former

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, a ...

. It was used as a filming location for the 1997 Clint Eastwood movie '' Absolute Power'', as the Washington, D.C. police headquarters. The Hall of Justice was shut down after January 1994 after sustaining damage because of the

1994 Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately ...

. In 2015, the building re-opened after undergoing a complete restoration and

seismic retrofit Seismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on structures and with our recent exp ...

ting. The restoration and retrofit of the building was performed by the design build team consisting of Clark Construction, AC Martin Architects, and Englekirk Structural Engineers. The offices of the Los Angeles County Sheriff and the District Attorney returned to the building with its reopening.Los Angeles Conservancy , Preservation Issues
at www.laconservancy.org

References

External links

*{{Commonscatinline, Hall of Justice (Los Angeles) Civic Center, Los Angeles Buildings and structures in Downtown Los Angeles Office buildings in Los Angeles Government of Los Angeles County, California Headquarters in the United States Government buildings completed in 1925 1925 establishments in California 1920s architecture in the United States Landmarks in Los Angeles Welton Becket buildings Beaux-Arts architecture in California Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Allied Architects Association buildings