Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

Historical Notes

This would be one of the last photos taken of the Plaza Church with its gazebo-like tower. It would soon be replaced with a "bell wall" (see next photo) similar to the one it had prior to 1861.

Historical Notes

Initially, the majority of vegetable selling in Los Angeles was done around the circular Olvera Street Plaza, just South of Macy Street, where Caucasian, Japanese and Chinese farmers congregated with their goods. However, the increased presence of wagons and the long hours of the makeshift vegetable market became a nuisance to the city.

Click HERE to see more about the Los Angeles City Market.

Historical Notes

“La Fiesta de Los Angeles” also called "La Fiesta de Las Flores" was a week-long party that the city threw in its own honor during the 1890s and early 1900s. Staged by the Merchants’ Association, it featured parades—a flower parade, a parade with floats, a torchlight procession—and athletic competitions, a costume ball, and a carnival attended by masked revelers. The first fiesta was held in April, 1894.

The Spanish title was reflective of a goal: to capture the color and the aura of old Los Angeles in its days as a pueblo under Mexican rule. Men in the garb of caballeros (horsemen) and vaqueros (cow hands) participated. So did Chinese, native Americans, and African Americans. It was a multi-cultural gala, distinct from any celebration elsewhere.

Historical Notes

A story on the original El Camino Real bell appeared in the Aug. 16, 1906 Los Angeles Times:

“Quaintly beautiful and picturesque were the ceremonies held at the old Plaza Church yesterday noon in dedication of El Camino Real and also in commemoration of the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the ancient and honorable pueblo of Los Angeles.  …

Father (Juan) Caballeria made the opening address and announced the object of the meeting. He spoke eloquently of the wonderful growth of the Golden State and the auspicious affair they were celebrating.

He told graphically of when the bare feet of the padre of a century ago trod the famous highway that stretched its entire length throughout the entire State and how the padres that followed in the footsteps  of the illustrious fathers of former days had endeavored to add their efforts to the building and growth of the great State.

A stirring scene followed the termination of Father Caballeria’s address. As he concluded Gen. Antonio Aguilar, one of the last of the old guard that fought under Fremont and was present when Los Angeles was taken by the United States troops, fired a salute and simultaneously the clapper of the bell on the sign post of El Camino Real was raised and throughout the city echoed the sounds of all the bells in the Catholic churches as they tolled in honor of the reopening of the King’s highway again to travel. …”

Historical Notes

Over its life, the Old Plaza Firehouse was used as a saloon, cigar store, poolroom, "seedy hotel", Chinese market, "flop house", and drugstore. The building was restored in the 1950s and opened as a firefighting museum in 1960.

Historical Notes

La Casa de Don Vicente Lugo located on the east side of the El Pueblo Plaza at North Los Angeles Street and Sunset Boulevard. Built in 1839 by Vicente Lugo, it was one of the few two-story homes in Los Angeles at the time. It was donated in 1867 to St. Vincent's College (which later became Loyola University), the first college in Southern California; but later became known as the Washington Hotel, and later, the Pekin Curio Store. Unfortunately, the structure was so altered, that it does not resemble an adobe.

Historical Notes

The site of the Vicente Lugo adobe house was designated California State Historic Landmark No. 301.

Click HERE for more about the Vincent Lugo Adobe.

Historical Notes

The Merced Theater, completed on December 31, 1870, opened its first professional engagement on January 30, 1871. It was "used later as an Armory, then again as a Fire Engine house".

Historical Notes

Don Francisco Avila, a wealthy cattle rancher and one-time Mayor of the pueblo of Los Angeles, built the Avila Adobe in 1818. The Avila Adobe, presently the oldest existing residence within the city limits, was one of the first town houses to share street frontage in the new Pueblo de Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

The Plaza Substation was an electrical substation that formed a part of the "Yellow Car" streetcar system operated by the Los Angeles Railway from the early 1900s until 1963. After being threatened with demolition in the 1970s, the Plaza Substation was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Historical Notes

In May 1903, Henry Huntington, owner of the Los Angeles Railway, announced plans to build a new substation near the old plaza. The Los Angeles Times reported: "Another mammoth electricity substation is to be constructed by the Los Angeles Railway Company. Its location will be on the Plaza, and its completion will mean a long step forward toward the perfection of a system that already is surpassed by few in this country."   The substatin was operating by 1905.

The substation is one of the two buildings in the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District that is itself separately listed in the National Register of Historic Places, having been so listed in September 1978 (The Avila Adobe is the other).

Historical Notes

The Plaza Church bells were cast by Paul Revere's apprentice George Holbrook.

The bells bear inscriptions that read: "Across the street from the Plaza and to the west is the Old Plaza Church (535 Main St.), first established in 1784 as a chapel. The oldest religious structure in Los Angeles, this 1822 building is also known as the Church of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels. Originally built as a simple adobe by Franciscan Padres with the labor of local Native American Indians, it took an additional 40 years to construct the whole church. This Catholic Church now features some fine modern additions, including a tile mosaic of The Annunciation, created by artist Isabel Piczek in 1981. The interior displays ornate designs of wrought iron and gold leaf. A collection of religious canvases adorn the alter, and murals grace the ceilings. Today, Our Lady Queen of Angels serves as an active church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles."

Historical Notes

Prominent architect Robert Brown Young designed the Vickrey-Brunswig Building in a transitional Italianate style, varying the treatment of each story of the facade for greater visual interest.  The windows of the upper floor feature Romanesque arches, while those of the third floor are embellished with turned posts that serve as the mullions between the grouped sashes. 

R. B. Young was the principal of one of Los Angeles's earliest architectural firms, R.B. Young & Son. Young's office garnered a number of prestigious hotel commissions, such as the Clifton (his first commission in Los Angeles, at the corner of Broadway and Temple Streets), Lankershim, Westminster, Lexington, Hollenbeck, and Occidental hotels. Young also designed the Lankershim office building, the Barker Brothers' block, the Wilson Block, and the California Furniture Company.

Historical Notes

The Vickrey-Brunswig Building was constructed of brick on a trapezoidal plan and stands five stories with a full basement. It was constructed in the Italianate style commonly used for commercial architecture in the Iate-19th and early 20th centuries. Characteristic elements of the building include the decorative stringcourse located above the fifth floor windows and the segmental and rounded arched brick windows featured on the south and west elevations.

Historical Notes

Note the elevated kiosk on the edge of the plaza to the left of photo. Elevated booths like these were used by the Los Angeles Railway and the Yellow Cars as a switchman’s tower to control the flow and path of streetcars through the intersection.  Many of these were still standing well into the 1920s.

Historical Notes

In 1880, Pico lost the hotel by foreclosure. From 1892-1920 the building was called the National Hotel.

Historical Notes

The Garnier Building was built in 1890, by Philippe Garnier, a French settler who arrived in Los Angeles in 1859 at the age of eighteen.  Philippe Garnier and his brothers, Eugene, Abel, and Camille, owned the 4,400 acre Rancho Los Encinos in the San Fernando Valley where they raised sheep.  Despite losing a considerable sum of money in the wool market crash in 1872, the Garniers were financially well off and remained influential in local commerce. Philippe Garnier served as a bank director on the Board of the Farmers and Merchants Bank from 1879 to 1891 and is believed to have constructed several other buildings in Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

The Garnier Building was designed primarily for Chinese commercial tenants.   It is the oldest building in Los Angeles exclusively and continuously inhabited by Chinese immigrants from the time of its construction in 1890 until the State took it over in 1953.  The building was the headquarters of major Chinese American organizations and housed businesses, churches, and schools.  It was an important structure in the original Los Angeles Chinatown.

Historical Notes

Sepulveda House is a 22-room Victorian house built in 1887 in the East lake style. The original structure included two commercial businesses and three residences.

Pelanconi House, built in 1857, is the oldest surviving brick house in Los Angeles. In 1930, it was converted into a restaurant called La Golondrina, which is the oldest restaurant on Olvera Street.

Historical Notes

This small street, which ran south of the Plaza, was officially named in 1861 for Tomas Avila Sanchez, through whose property it passed. Sanchez was elected Sheriff of Los Angeles County 17 times. He resided for many years in a Glendale adobe.

Historical Notes

Sanchez Street juts south from the plaza, opposite its more famous twin, Olvera Street, on the north side. It's just a block long, but it's seen a lot of history.

In the 1880s and '90s, it was the scene of several crimes reported in The Times. Most involved the local saloons and Chinese gangs of the day, including the 1889 shooting death of the "Peruvian Princess," a woman whose tortured life took her from Lima to China to San Francisco and finally to her death in a Sanchez Street boarding house.

In 1914 police fought protesters on Sanchez Street during the Christmas Riot. A member of the International Workers of the World, or Wobblies, was shot and killed.

Historical Notes

The Hellman/Quon building is named for its two long-time owners, a white European builder and a Chinese businessman. When Hellman, the original owner, died in 1920, the building was sold to Quon How Shing, who helped fellow Chinese learn English and taught them how to adapt to American society. The building had a hidden bell to alert occupants to the presence of unwelcome visitors who might take issue with the gambling and opium smoking within. It is now the offices of Las Angelitas del Pueblo, the volunteer organization that offers free tours of El Pueblo de Los Angeles, and El Pueblo Education Center.

The Hellman/Quon Building site was where Governor Pio Pico's Office once stood, the last California capital of Mexico.

Historical Notes

Over its life, the Old Plaza Firehouse was used as a saloon, cigar store, poolroom, "seedy hotel", Chinese market, "flop house", and drugstore. The building was restored in the 1950s and opened as a firefighting museum in 1960.

Historical Notes

The sole occupant of the entire city block bounded by Los Angeles, Marchessault, and Alameda streets (upper left corner of the photo) was a sturdy, square, two-story brick structure. Built originally for a furniture factory, it was later remodeled to serve as a headquarters of  the Los Angeles Water Department’s predecessor, the Los Angeles City Water Company.

Click HERE to see more in Water Department's Original Office Building.

Historical Notes

The area’s decline as the center of civic life led to its reclamation by diverse sectors of the city's poor and disenfranchised. The Plaza served as a gateway for newly arrived immigrants, especially Mexicans and Italians. During the 1920s, the pace of Mexican immigration into the United States increased to about 500,000 per year. California became the prime destination for Mexican immigrants, with Los Angeles receiving the largest number of any city in the Southwest. As a result of this dramatic demographic increase, a resurgence of Mexican culture occurred in Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

Elevated kiosks were used by the Los Angeles Railway and the Yellow Cars (LARY) as a switchman’s tower to control the flow and path of streetcars through intersections. 

Historical Notes

Born in Oakland in 1881, Christine Sterling (originally Chastine Rix) migrated south with her husband and two children, residing on Bonnie Brae as early as 1920. In 1926, during a stroll through the rundown alley, Sterling cringed at what had become of the dilapidated Avila Adobe. In an effort to appeal to Anglo hearts and minds, she orchestrated a one-woman campaign to save the old adobe, reminding citizens that the structure had once housed such American luminaries as Commodore Robert F. Stockton, victorious General John C. Fremont, and early explorer Kit Carson.

Historical Notes

The Avila Adobe was built ca. 1818 by Don Francisco Avila, alcalde (mayor) of Los Angeles in 1810. Used as Commodore Robert Stockton's headquarters in 1847, it was repaired by private subscription in 1929-30 when Olvera Street was opened as a Mexican marketplace. It is the oldest existing house in Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

Sterling's sales pitch for a Mexican marketplace, replete with vendors and musicians in ethnic garb, persuaded L.A. Times owner Harry Chandler to contribute $5,000 dollars, and in the process several prominent Angelenos joined his philanthropic party.

Historical Notes

In 1930, through the efforts of activist Christine Sterling, the Plaza-Olvera area was revived with the opening of Paseo de Los Angeles (which later became popularly known by its official street name Olvera Street).

Historical Notes

Current historians note that the original intention of Olvera Street was to focus on LA’s Spanish past instead of its Mexican/Indigenous one. William Estrada, author of “The Los Angeles Plaza: Sacred and Contested Space,” writes: "Olvera Street was successful and even surpassed Mexican tourist zones along border in Tijuana & Mexicali because it fulfilled tourists’ preconceived notions about Mexico & quaintness of its culture without risk or ‘reality’ of actually crossing border."

Historical Notes

In 1930, through the efforts of activist Christine Sterling, the Plaza-Olvera area was revived with the opening of Paseo de Los Angeles (which later became popularly known by its official street name Olvera Street).

Sterling's vision for a "Mexican Marketplace of Yesterday in the City of Today" opened to the public on Easter Sunday in 1930. Her art and design education from Mills College served to inform her Olvera Street project, as well as her next ethnic re-envisioning, China City. Authenticity has always been tinged with historical fantasy in Los Angeles, and for better or for worse, Sterling's efforts indeed saved the Avila Adobe, and in the process created one of L.A.'s most visited tourist attractions.

Towards the end of her life, Sterling would suffer the same fate of the shop owners of old Olvera and the displaced denizens of the first Chinatown, after she was evicted from her Chavez Ravine home to make way for Dodger Stadium. Sterling moved in to the Avila Adobe, which would be her final home before she passed on in 1963 at the age of 82.

Historical Notes

The new City Hall was built in 1928.

Historical Notes

The creation of Olvera Street in the 1930s was part of a larger effort to preserve and promote the historic El Pueblo de Los Angeles area, which is considered the birthplace of Los Angeles.

In 1953, Olvera Street was listed as a historic monument by the City of Los Angeles, recognizing its cultural and historical significance.

Historical Notes

As a tourist attraction, Olvera Street is a living museum paying homage to a romantic vision of old Mexico. The exterior facades of the brick buildings enclosing Olvera Street and on the small vendor stands lining its center are colorful piñatas, hanging puppets in white peasant garb, Mexican pottery, serapes, mounted bull horns, oversized sombreros, and a life-size stuffed donkey. Today, Olvera Street attracts almost two million visitors per year.*

Historical Notes

When it opened in 1930, Olvera Street featured shops and restaurants selling colorful Mexican goods, as well as musicians performing in the outdoor plaza. It was designed to recreate a romanticized version of "Old Los Angeles."

While it was initially created to cater to a largely Anglo population, over time Olvera Street has become more accepted as a symbolic center of Mexican culture in Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

The Sepulveda house was once the private home of one of the most powerful families in early Los Angeles. The Sepulveda House was built by Eloisa Martinez de Sepulveda in 1887, at a time when all predictions were that the population boom of the 1880s would last. However, Señora Sepulveda's hopes for Main Street were not fulfilled and by 1900 the area around her house was mostly industrial. Since the turn of the 20th century, Sepulveda House has been a bordello, a tearoom and the USO canteen during World War II.*

Historical Notes

Originally unveiled as "Paseo de Los Angeles" on Easter Sunday in 1930, the street quickly became known as Olvera Street, a name that stuck and is more commonly used today. This historic area, envisioned by Christine Sterling as a vibrant Mexican marketplace and cultural center, is now part of the larger El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. It represents the birthplace of Los Angeles and serves as a colorful tribute to the city's Mexican heritage. Olvera Street continues to draw millions of visitors annually with its array of shops, restaurants, and cultural events, offering a unique glimpse into the rich history and diverse culture of Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

After Olvera Street first opened in 1930, it quickly became a vibrant cultural and tourist attraction, celebrating the Mexican heritage of Los Angeles. Vendors and performers, often dressed in traditional Mexican clothing such as serapes, rebozos, and charro outfits, helped create an authentic atmosphere. Spearheaded by Christine Sterling, the street was transformed into a Mexican-style marketplace, evoking the early pueblo days of the city. This romanticized vision of Mexican culture became a significant draw for both locals and tourists, preserving the area’s historic charm while promoting Mexican traditions in the heart of Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

Located at 10 Olvera Street, the Avila Adobe was built in 1818 by Francisco Ávila, a prominent cattle rancher and early mayor of Los Angeles. It is recognized as the oldest standing adobe house in the city.

Click HERE to see more early views of the Avila Adobe.

Historical Notes

In its early days Olvera Street catered to a largely Anglo population; however, the meaning of Olvera Street has changed over the years, and the delusional fabrication has now been largely accepted as the symbolic epicenter of Mexican culture.

Historical Notes

The construction of the #101 Freeway (Hollywood Freeway) took away everything to the left of (south of) the Garnier Building, an area referred to as the Jennette Block. The Old Plaza Firehouse is to the right of the Garnier Building. The Jennette Block was built circa 1888 and the Garnier Building in 1890.

Historical Notes

The Avila Adobe, presently the oldest existing residence within the city limits, was one of the first town houses to share street frontage in the new Pueblo de Los Angeles. The original structure was nearly twice as long as it is now, and was L-shaped with a wing that extended nearly to the center of Olvera Street, which was the town's plaza.**

The Avila Adobe is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also listed as California State Landmark No. 145 (Click HERE to see more in California Historical Landmarks in LA.)

Historical Notes

In 1847, this adobe became the temporary headquarters for Commodore Robert Field Stockton and General Stephen Watts Kearny during the American occupation of Los Angeles. At that time, it was the permanent home of Doña Maria Encarnación Avila - widow of Don Francisco Avila. When the townspeople got word that American troops were rapidly approaching the pueblo, many of them evacuated their homes to seek refuge at outlying ranchos. Doña Encarnación was among those that fled their adobes. At which point, Commodore Stockton's men seized the adobe for their commanding officer. When the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed a few days later, Stockton abandoned the adobe and Doña Maria Encarnación returned to her beloved home, where she remained until her death in 1855.**

Historical Notes

The Avila Adobe consisted of a generous courtyard with covered porches for each of the garaging areas, stables, workshops, etc., as well as a garden and vineyard, which Don Francisco tended to regularly.**

Historical Notes

In 1953, the State of California acquired the Avila Adobe as part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park, and has been opened to tours since 1976.**

Historical Notes

Avila adobe holds the record for being the oldest house in Los Angeles. It was built in 1818 by Francisco Avila. It's protected by the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District & California State Historic Park. The walls of the Avila Adobe are 2.5–3 feet thick and are built from sunbaked adobe bricks.*

Historical Notes

In 1868, Pío de Jesús Pico constructed the three story, 33-room hotel, Pico House (Casa de Pico) on the old plaza of Los Angeles, opposite today's Olvera Street. At the time of its opening in 1869, it was the most lavish hotel in Southern California. Even before 1900, however, it began a slow decline along with the surrounding neighborhood, as the business center moved further south. After decades of serving as a shabby flop house, it was deeded to the State of California in 1953, and is now a part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Monument. It is used on occasion for exhibits and special events.^*

Historical Notes

The Church is located on the site of the Tapia/Olvera adobe, which served as an early service building for the United Methodist Church mission in Los Angeles.  The Methodist Church was also the founding agent in Southern California for Goodwill Industries.  The adobe was torn down in 1917 and, nine years later, architects Train and Williams completed this Churrigeresque-style church. ^#^

Historical Notes

The Olvera Adobe was torn down in 1917 and, nine years later, architects Train and Williams completed the Churrigeresque-style Plaza Methodist Church.

Historical Notes

Felipe de Neve (1724–1784) was the fourth governor of Las Californias, a province of New Spain, from 1775 to 1782.  Neve is considered a founder of Los Angeles and helped to settle towns of Santa Barbara and San José whose surrounding communities became California cities. In 1781, Neve issued the first rules regarding governance of secular pueblos like Los Angeles, the "Regulations for the Government of the Province of the Californias" (Reglamento para el gobierno de la provincia de Californias).^

Sculptor Henry Lion was born in Fresno, California. He studied at the Otis Art Institute and with Stanton Macdonald-Wright. Most of his works were executed in bronze. Lion wrote the book SCULPTURE FOR BEGINNERS, and worked on the WPA art project.

Historical Notes

In 1932, the 7 foot high statue of De Neve was set in the 1873 pool at the center of the Plaza facing the Plaza Church. The statue was donated by the Daughters of the Golden West.

Historical Notes

The inscription on the statue reads: "Felipe de Neve (1728-84). Governor of California 1775-82. In 1781, on orders from King Carlos III of Spain, Felipe de Neve selected a site near the River Porciuncula and laid out the town of El Pueblo de La Reina de Los Angeles, one of two pueblos he founded in Alta California."

Historical Notes

In 1926, a measure was placed on the ballot giving Los Angeles voters the choice between the construction of a vast network of elevated railways or the construction of a much smaller Union Station to consolidate different railroad terminals. The election would take on racial connotations and become a defining moment in the development of Los Angeles. The proposed Union Station was located in the heart of what was Los Angeles' original Chinatown. Reflecting the prejudice of the era, the conservative Los Angeles Times, a lead opponent of elevated railways, argued in editorials that Union Station would not be built in the “midst of Chinatown” but rather would “forever do away with Chinatown and its environs.” Voters approved demolishing much of Chinatown to build Union Station by a narrow 51 to 48 percent.^*

Historical Notes

The above photo comes from the September 18, 1933 issue of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.  The article reads:  "Chinatown faces extinction in Los Angeles with erection of the new Union Station on the Plaza site. The area enclosed by broken line will be occupied with tracks and the station. It includes most of Chinatown. Upper left hand line shows where trains enter station area from Southern Pacific bridge over Los Angeles River." ***

Historical Notes

The ornate three-story Baker Block was completed in 1878 by Colonel Robert S. Baker. For a number of years, the building housed offices, shops, and apartments. Goodwill Industries of Southern California purchased it in 1919. Despite plans to relocate the structure for another purpose, the city purchased the Baker Block from Goodwill in 1941 and demolished the building a year later. U.S. Route 101 now runs beneath where these buildings once stood.^

Click HERE to see more in Early LA Buildings (1800s).

Historical Notes

By the early 1950s, the section of the 101 Freeway (Hollywood Freeway) that runs through downtown would go right through where Aliso Street is shown above, running diagonally away from bottom center of photo.

Historical Notes

When Union Station was opened in May 1939, it consolidated remaining service from its predecessors La Grande Station and Central Station. It was built on a grand scale and became known as "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States.^*

Historical Notes

Examiner clipping attached to verso, dated May 4, 1939: "Stirring awake memories that had slumbered for more than a century, railroad officials yesterday staged a colorful pageant of transportation that thrilled thousands of Angelenos for two hours. Gayly costumed ladies of the Gay Nineties -- and the years before -- rode stage coaches and horse cars and stuttering, slow-moving trains of another era. Derby-hatted, mustachioed gentlemen in tight coats pumped high-wheeled bicycles -- 'bone-crushers' they were known as in those days -- all to celebrate formal opening of the new Union Station, pictured in background as oldest Union Pacific train approaches the city's newest in beautiful architecture." ***

Historical Notes

Union Station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It also is listed as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 101.

Click HERE to see more on the Los Angeles Union Station.

Historical Notes

The area in the extreme foreground is now Union Station. The street in front is Alameda Street, and those buildings ahead of Alameda were knocked down and are now landscaping and on ramps to the 101 Hollywood/Santa Ana Freeway. Old Chinatown started being demolished around 1933, and Union Station opened in 1939.^*#

To the right-center of the photo is the Pico House in front of the LA Plaza which is out of view to the right. The old 1877-built Baker Block with it's distinctive three towers can be seen in the center of the photo just below the Federal Courthouse Building. The Baker Block would be demoished in 1942 to make room for the 101 Freeway.

Click HERE to see more on the Baker Block.

Historical Notes

Marchessault Street was located along the north side of the historic Los Angeles Plaza. It was named after Damien Marchessault, a French-born two-time mayor of the city who later died by suicide.

Historical Notes

In 1935, Eddy See opened the Dragon's Den Restaurant in the basement of the F. Suie One Company. On the exposed brick of the basement walls, Benji Okubo, Tyrus Wong and Marian Blanchard painted murals of the Eight Immortals and a dancing dragon. An arty crowd, including Walt Disney and the Marx Brothers, came to see the murals and sample the "authentic fare." In an era when Chinese restaurants were known as chop-suey joints, Dragon's Den served egg foo young, fried shrimp and almond duck. Non-Chinese diners during the Great Depression considered these "exotic" dishes.

Historical Notes

In 1939, the first home of the Department of Water and Power was sold to the City to make way for the Civic Center development planned in connection with the new Union Passenger Depot. Located at the corner of Marchessault and Alameda Streets, directly across from the almost completed railroad station, the property was the main office of the municipal water works when the City bought out the private water companies operating here until 1902.^

Historical Notes

Click HERE to see more in Water Department's Original Office Building.

Historical Notes

Today, Los Angeles Street curves sharply to the right into Alameda Street where Marchessault Street once existed.

Historical Notes

Los Angeles Street now curves sharply to the right into Alameda Street where Marchessault Street once existed.

Historical Notes

The older part of the building is seen here with the three bells; the church was expanded and the plaza was added much later, which includes a hall and rectory. It was dedicated as California Historic Landmark No. 144.

Historical Notes

Union Station opened in May, 1939.

The Hollywood Freeway would not be constructed until 1950.

Historical Notes

Some 450 of these 100-pound iron bells mounted on staff-shaped steel standards 11 feet high once lined El Camino Real from San Diego to Sonoma. The first was installed with great ceremony in the Los Angeles Plaza on Aug. 15, 1906. Spaced approximately a mile apart along the El Camino Real, the bells each had a sign showing the direction and distance to the nearest mission.*^#

Click HERE to see the 1st installation.

Historical Notes

The Hollywood Freeway through Downtown LA opened on December 27, 1950. Construction of the highway spelled the end for several pieces of Downtown history. Compare the above aerial photo with previous photo dated ca. 1940s. Note the number of buildings that are now gone.

The route cut through Fort Moore Hill, site of the Los Angeles High School. The school originally opened at Broadway and Temple in 1873, and was moved to the Fort Moore site.

The Broadway tunnel also found its end come with the construction of the freeway. The razing of Fort Moore Hill and the cut of the freeway brought the new roadway into the path of Broadway. That tunnel, which opened in 1901 (the same year as the Third Street Tunnel) was 760 feet long and 40 feet wide. It was closed on June 2, 1949.**^

Historical Notes

The Biscailuz Building (1925-26) is located on the site of Juan Sepulveda's adobe. It had served as the United Methodist Church Conference headquarters, the Plaza Community Center and the Consulate-General of Mexico. In 1968, it was named after Eugene Biscailuz, a former Los Angeles Sheriff, who had helped Christine Sterling in her struggle to save this historic section of Los Angeles. In 1978, Leo Politi painted a mural on the south and east facades that depicts the Blessing of the Animals, a traditional event held annually in El Pueblo on Easter Saturday. It now houses El Pueblo's administrative offices and the Instituto Cultural Mexicano.**^^

Historical Notes

At 11 Olvera Street, there used to be the Pelanconi Winery that operated from 1874 to 1914. It was remodeled into the Café Caliente by the Peluffo family. In 1953 they sold it and it became the El Paseo Inn. The son of the Peluffo family then opened the Casa Vega restaurant in Sherman Oaks.

Historical Notes

El Paseo Inn Restaurant was established in the 1930’s and was originally located in another portion of Olvera Street, W-23. In 1953, it moved to its current location at E-11 which prior to that time was occupied by Café Caliente. Mrs. Elena Peluffo and Mr. Frank Webb were the first owners of El Paseo Inn at E-11, and Andy M. Camacho, purchased it from them. El Paseo Inn has served many special guests over the years, including civil rights leader Cesar Chavez and Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Historical Notes

Opened in 1930 as the Leo Carillo Theatre at the time Olvera St. was rehabilitate. The theatre was named after the vaudeville actor and film star Leo Carillo and originally featured live shows. By the mid-30s it had become the Olvera St. Theatre featuring puppet shows by Walton & O'Rourke.

Historical Notes

The Machine Shop is a one and a half story building that was built on Main Street around 1910 and extended all the way back to Olvera Street.  The building is located on the site of what is believed to have been the stables of Doria Deighton Jones’ adobe home which was torn down in 1886, and was built by her daughter Constance Jones Simpson.  The first tenants of the building were engaged in light industrial occupations such as tinsmithing, electroplating, metal patterning and machining.  With the advent of the Mexican market place on Olvera Street in 1930, the uses of the Machine Shop were changed and the front doors were opened on Olvera Street, rather than Main Street.  The first tenant was the Leo Carrillo Theatre, followed by the Olvera Street Puppet Theatre.  The proscenium arch and a segment of the stage still survive. ^#^

Historical Notes

In 1926, Christine Sterling began efforts to preserve the buildings on and around Olvera Street (one of the oldest parts of Los Angeles). After several years of struggle and fundraising, Olvera Street was closed to automobile traffic in 1929, and opened as the Paseo de Los Angeles in 1930. The street and its market quickly became popular tourist sites, promoters touting the area as "A Mexican Street of Yesterday in a City of Today."

Historical Notes

The building dates from around 1910 and is known as the Machine Shop.  Apparently the early tenants did metal work and related light industrial tasks. The space ran as a theatre evidently into the 50s. It's now a retail store, Casa California.

Historical Notes

Eloisa Martinez Sepulveda built this Eastlake Victorian style structure for use as stores and as a boarding house (1877). After Olvera Street had been transformed into a Mexican marketplace in 1930, the cellar and first floor of this building were rented to artisans and shopkeepers, while the second floor became a center for artists and craftsmen, and boasted an import shop and the tea room. During the 1930s, the Yale Puppeteers maintained a theater on the first floor, and in World War II it housed a USO canteen. Now it serves as the Park’s Visitors and Orientation Center and has exhibits illustrating life in Los Angeles in the 1890s.^

Historical Notes

The twenty two room building had two large stores fronting on Main Street, and for boarders, fourteen bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor.  Senora Sepúlveda’s private quarters in the rear were separated from the stores by a breezeway.  In 1901 she gave the building to her favorite niece and goddaughter Eloisa Martinez de Gibbs who had married Edward Gibbs, a City councilman.  Several of the Gibbs children were born in the Sepúlveda House.  Senora Sepúlveda died in 1903 and the Gibbs family moved away in 1905, but owned the building until the State of California took it over in 1953.^#*^

Historical Notes

Ezra F. Kysor designed the Italianate theater, built in 1870 by William Abbott and named for his wife. It opened on January 30, 1871 and is the oldest surviving theater in Los Angeles.**

The Merced Theatre was dedicated as California Historical Landmark No. 171.

Historical Notes

The Plaza Substation was an electrical substation that formed a part of the "Yellow Car" streetcar system operated by the Los Angeles Railway from the early 1900s until 1963. After being threatened with demolition in the 1970s, the Plaza Substation was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.^*

Historical Notes

After being threatened with demolition in the 1970s, the Plaza Substation was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Plans now call for the building to become a museum on Los Angeles trolley cars.++

Click HERE to see more on the Plaza Substation.

Historical Notes

The County of Los Angeles purchased the Vickrey-Brunswig Building and the adjacent Plaza House in 1948 and renovated them for use by the Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission, County Superior Courts, Police Crime Laboratories and the County Sherriff’s offices through the mid-1970s. *

Historical Notes

After enduring three decades of vacancy and deterioration, the County rehabilitated both buildings to house LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, a Mexican and Mexican-American cultural center which opened in 2011.*

Historical Notes

The State of California purchased the Church, Community Center and Headquarters in 1956 under the threat of eminent domain to create the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District.  The Church signed a 50-year lease to continue operations that was successfully renegotiated in 2011 with the City of Los Angeles.  Located next to the church in the Biscailuz Building is the Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, which is the premier venue for the expression of traditional and contemporary art and culture from the Mexican, Mexican American and Chicano perspective.

Historical Notes

The Churrigeresque-style Methodist Church was designed by architects Train and Williams and built in 1926 on the site of the old Olvera Adobe (demolished in 1917).

Historical Notes

The building to the right of the Plaza Methodist Church is the Biscailuz Building, built 1925-1926. Located on the site of the Juan Sepulveda adobe, it was designed as the Untied Methodist Church Conference Headquarters and the Plaza Community Center.  In 1968, the building was re-named after Eugene Biscailuz, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff, who had helped Christine Sterling in her struggle to save this historic section of Los Angeles.  In 1979, Leo Politi painted a mural on the south and east facades that depicts the Blessing of the Animals, a traditional event held in the Park every year on Easter Sunday.*#^ 

Historical Notes

Today, the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument Administrative Offices are located in the Biscailuz Building, to the east of the Plaza Methodist Church.

Historical Notes

The most common of the incandescent multiple globe electroliers of the early 1900s were those manufactured by the Llewellyn Iron Works of Los Angeles.  The firm became so identified with this style of street light that any multiple globe electrolier became commonly known as a Llewellyn.  The Llewellyn Iron Works, founded in 1889‐1890, was one of the largest metal working facilities in Los Angeles.  It manufactured structural steel – including that for the Bradbury Building (1893).

Historical Notes

Click HERE to see more in Early Views of the L.A. Streetlights.

Historical Notes

The Old Plaza Firehouse is the oldest firehouse in Los Angeles. Built in 1884, it operated as a firehouse until 1897. The building was thereafter used as a saloon, cigar store, poolroom, "seedy hotel", Chinese market, "flop house", and drugstore. The building was restored in the 1950s and opened as a firefighting museum in 1960.

Click HERE to see more Early Views of the Old Plaza Firehouse.

Historical Notes

Tom Bradley, born in 1917 to Texas sharecroppers, became the first African American mayor of Los Angeles, serving an unprecedented five terms from 1973 to 1993. After excelling at UCLA, joining the LAPD, and becoming an attorney, he entered politics in the 1960s, winning the mayoral election in 1973. Over his tenure, Bradley transformed Los Angeles into a diverse, international city, revitalized downtown, hosted the 1984 Olympics, and enacted key reforms. Despite challenges like the 1992 riots, his legacy includes advancing diversity, economic growth, and environmental policy, leaving a lasting impact before his passing in 1998.

Historical Notes

The 1869 photo shows the first gas streetlights used in the City of Los Angeles. Click HERE to see more in Early LA Streetlights.

Final Note

A plaque across from the Old Plaza commemorates the founding of the city. It states: "On September 4, 1781, eleven families of pobladores (44 persons including children) arrived at this place from the Gulf of California to establish a pueblo which was to become the City of Los Angeles. This colonization ordered by King Carlos III was carried out under the direction of Governor Felipe de Neve." The small town received the name El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles sobre El Rio Porciuncula, Spanish for The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels on the Porciuncula River. The original pueblo was built to the southeast of the current plaza along the Los Angeles River. In 1815, a flood washed away the original pueblo, and it was rebuilt farther from the river at the location of the current plaza.^*