The Los Angeles Union Stock Yards were a livestock market and transfer station in the so-called Central Merchandising District south 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 ...

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

. The stock yards closed in 1960 and the facilities were demolished and replaced with other industrial warehouses.

History

The Central Manufacturing District was established on what had once been the pre-statehood Rancho San Antonio land grant. The Stock Yards were built on the site of the 1847

Battle of La Mesa The Battle of La Mesa was the final battle of the California Campaign during the Mexican–American War, occurring on January 9, 1847, in present-day Vernon, California, the day after the Battle of Rio San Gabriel. The battle was a victory for ...

. Planning for the development and some outdoor pens were established as early as 1913. The Los Angeles Union Stock Yards were developed by the businessmen who ran the

Union Stock Yards The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a central ...

of Chicago. The Central Manufacturing District Terminal building, sometimes called the Tower Building, was developed at the same time as the stock yards. The grand opening of the Spanish-style administration building was held on November 1, 1922. Beginning in September 1925, the Stock Yards and the Central Manufacturing District generally were served by the Los Angeles Junction Railway which permitted joint use of the tracks by

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

and Santa Fe trains. In 1926 the Stock Yards Company controlled 300 acres of land in the area but the Stock Yards proper encompassed 25 acres. The Great Western Livestock Show was held at the Los Angeles Union Stockyards from 1926 until 1953. Santa Fe Railroad bought out the Stock Yards Company in 1928 and eventually expanded the "Central Manufacturing District" into a 3,500 acre irregularly shaped industrial tract. Circa 1939 the Los Angeles Union Stock Yards advertised itself to ranchers as being host to four major national meat packing companies and 25 smaller regional companies. The Junction Railway Company took over the stock yard platforms, chutes, chute pens, facilities for feeding, resting and watering livestock in 1941. Beginning during World War II, stockmen began selling their animals directly to packers, and the industry shifted more generally to using trucks, rather than rail, for transport. The stockyard business declined but the value of centrally located Los Angeles real estate continued to increase. The Los Angeles Union Stock Yards were closed on April 30, 1960. The Stock Yard buildings were all demolished and eventually replaced with other commercial and industrial warehouses.

References

{{Reflist 1922 establishments 1960 disestablishments Gateway Cities Companies based in Vernon, California History of Los Angeles Meat processing in the United States

History

See also

References