Central Business District, Los Angeles (1880s-1890s)


During the 1880s and 1890s the central business district of Los Angeles was located around Spring and Main streets from just south of the Los Angeles Plaza to Second Street. Of the old CBD not a single building remains except at the extreme southern edge below 2nd Street, as all structures from this period were razed to make way for the construction of the Civic Center during the 1930s–1950s.

History

Prior to the completion of the transcontinental railroad, Los Angeles was a small town of low-lying adobe and brick buildings. Most businesses were located on or nearby the Plaza. With the arrival of the railroad the city grew in population, almost quintupling in ten years and businesses opened further south and west away from the Plaza; especially along Spring and Main, reaching southward to Temple, First, and Second streets.
After the turn of the 20th century, banks, hotels, and retailers established much larger buildings along Spring and Broadway from Third Street southward, in the area today called the Historic Core. The central business district shifted to the area between Third and Ninth streets: along Broadway for retail, cinemas, and restaurants; and along Spring Street for banks and financial businesses, the Spring Street Financial District.
The blocks north of Second Street lost prestige and began to house businesses catering to working-class and Spanish-speaking Angelenos; the buildings deteriorated.

Streets

The area contained many streets which no longer exist or only exist outside the boundaries of the 1880s-1890s CBD. These include: Arcadia St., Buena Vista St., Center Pl., Commercial St., Ferguson St., Franklin St., Marchessault St., Market Ct., New High St., Nigger Alley, and Requena St.
Maps of the area from Hill St. east to Los Angeles St. and from the Plaza south to 2nd St. in 1886, left; and today, right:

Buildings

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Water & Power Associates
Centrally located businesses and institutions in the 1880s-1890s CBD area are listed; some were built after 1900 when the area formed part of a larger CBD, but all were demolished for the construction of the Civic Center.

Mixed-use blocks

Arcadia Block

Arcadia, NW corner of Los Angeles Street. Built by Abel Stearns in 1858 for $80,000. Razed in 1927.

Baker Block

, SE corner Main and Arcadia, 1875. Built on the site of Don Abel Stearns' 1835-8 adobe "palacio", Col. Robert S. Baker having married Stearns' widow, Arcadia Bandini de Stearns. When built, it was called the "finest emporium of commerce south of San Francisco". The ground floor housed retail tenants such as B. F. Coulter, George D. Rowan and Eugene Germain. The second floor was offices, and the third floor held the city's most upscale apartments. By the 1930s, the block housed Goodwill Industries.

Bryson Block

, SE corner 2nd & Spring, built 1886-1888 for $224,000 on the site of a public school and an early city hall, as a 126-room bank and office building. Romanesque architecture. Two stories added 1902-1904. Demolished 1934. Architect Joseph Cather Newsom. Its exterior was, according to PCAD, "nothing short of amazing, displaying a riotous and eclectic amalgam of features". Built for mayor John Bryson and Major George H. Bonebrake, President of the Los Angeles National Bank and the State Loan and Trust Company.

Downey Block

NW corner Main & Temple, built in 1871 on the site of Jonathan Temple's old adobe store, the first dry goods store in Los Angeles. Romanesque architecture. The first home of the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Public Library and the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Victor Dol's Commercial Restaurant was located on the ground floor.

Philips Block

Main north of Temple, built c. 1882, architect Burgess J. Reeve, housed A. Hamburger & Sons "The People's Store", the largest retailer in Los Angeles at the time; four stories, cost $260,000 Shortly after construction housed most of the A. Hamburger & Sons "People's Store", eventually the city's largest retailer.

Temple Block

Actually a collection of different structures that occupied the block between the east side of Spring, west side of Main and south side of Temple St. Built 1858, expanded 1871, housing many law offices. On the ground floor retail tenants included Daniel Desmond, whose hat shop was the forerunner of a chain of department stores; Jacoby Bros. Dry Goods, which was purchased by May Company in the 1920s, Harry Slotterbeck's gun shop, and the Wells Fargo office.
The first or "Old" Temple Block was a two-story adobe structure on that block facing north on Temple street intersect. This was incorporated into the later Temple Block, and then demolished.

Clock Tower Courthouse

Temple Market a.k.a. Temple Theater, Temple Courthouse and Market, Clock Tower Courthouse, Old County Courthouse, etc., was also built by John Temple, in 1858, originally as a market and theater. It was located immediately to the south of the Temple Block across Court Street. It was demolished and replaced by the Bullard Block in 1895-6.

Wilcox Building

SE corner Spring & 2nd St., built 1895-6, 5 stories, all but the ground floor demolished 1971 after damage from the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, ground floor remains. Housed the California Club until 1904, when it moved to 4th & Hill. H. Jevne's wine and gourmet grocery store. Southwestern School of Law was located on its top floors 1915–1924.

Wilson Block

SE corner Spring & 1st

Retailers

Dry Goods store in Temple Block, Los Angeles, around 1896
on Pound Cake Hill, 1870s
At the east side of Main Street, between Arcadia and Commercial streets:
Building, photo about 1887