History

36 Years Ago: Broadway Moves to 7th Street

By Eric Richardson — Tuesday — 5 Comments

Macy's Plaza Eric Richardson

|Photo Gallery| On November 17, 1973, Broadway department store opened the doors of the chain's new flagship, centerpiece of the massive, mixed-use Broadway Plaza. Described by its architect as a "totally integrated environment," the complex really did have a little something for everyone.

36 years and a name change later, Macy's Plaza is better known as a dated brick fortress. Perhaps, though, the structure isn't quite the tear-down many Downtowners would like to make it. — Continued Inside...


85 Years Ago: Razor Magnate Pays $1.5 Million for Corner of 6th and Olive

By Eric Richardson — November 10, 2009
10 Comments

85 Years Ago: Razor Magnate Pays $1.5 Million for Corner of 6th and Olive

|Photo Gallery| On November 10, 1924, safety razor magnate King C. Gillette wrote a check for $1.475 million to purchase the southeast corner of 6th and Olive from the estate of the late Mrs. Mary H. Spires. The purchase, which the Los Angeles Times called "one of the biggest spot-cash realty deals in the history of the city," looks to have been a bust for Gillette. His widow...


Screening Kicks Off Month of Events Leading Up to LAvender Los Angeles

By Eric Richardson — October 05, 2009
2 Comments

Men in Drag - 1949

Tomorrow holds the first of two film screenings leading up to LAvender Los Angeles, a two-week event centered around the history of LGBT Los Angeles. The event, to be held November 7 - 20, is organized by Downtown-based advocacy group Roots of Equality.


Official City Seal Marks L.A.'s Past

By Ed Fuentes — September 09, 2009 — 5 Comments

Seal Olympic Ed Fuentes

|Photo Gallery| Though it can be found all around us, especially here in Downtown, few probably pay attention to the official seal of the City of Los Angeles.

The 104-year-old mark can be found carved into buildings and historic bridges, emblazoned in color on street signs and vehicles and stamped in gold foil on official City stationary. Remarkably, the seal has seen little change since its creation in 1905. — Continued Inside...


A Look at L.A's Seedy Political History

By Eric Richardson — September 04, 2009

Mickey Cohen Crossing Spring Street

Those with a taste for L.A. history may want to plan to be near their radios on Tuesday afternoon. L.A. Observed's Kevin Roderick will use his time as host of KCRW's “The Politics of Culture” to interview authors Richard Rayner and John Buntin, both of whom have written about the city's often-seedy past.


Downtown's History Light on Big Fires

By Eric Richardson — September 02, 2009 — 7 Comments

First Interstate Bank Fire -- May 4, 1988 Los Angeles Times / UCLA Library

With the attention of Los Angeles still focused on the Station Fire, which has now consumed more than 140,000 acres in the Angeles National Forest, it seems appropriate to take a search through the archives for major fires in Downtown's past.

Perhaps surprisingly, Downtown does not seem to have any comparison to the major blazes one thinks of with Chicago and San Francisco. While the neighborhood has had its share of building blazes, Downtown has a much stronger history of floods than fires.

Two events did stand out, though: the 1988 high-rise blaze in the First Interstate Bank tower and a 1942 fire that put a damper on Christmas spirits. — Continued Inside...


37 Years Ago: Second Fire in Six Months Breaks Out in Barclay Hotel

By Eric Richardson — August 21, 2009

Firefighters at the Barclay Hotel

Around 2am on August 21, 1972, guest Harry Roche smelled smoke from his bed in room 532 of the Barclay Hotel at 4th and Main. Finding his room phone dead, he ran downstairs to alert the hotel manager. No one was killed or seriously injured in the blaze that night, but just over five months earlier a similar fire had left three guests dead and seven others injured...


Downtown's Death Leaps

By Eric Richardson — August 11, 2009 — 15 Comments

1957 Roosevelt Building Leaper Illustration Los Angeles Times

|Photo Gallery| The Downtown News this week writes about the six suicide jumps that have taken place thus far in 2009, asking whether there might be an underlying cause for the seemingly high number of cases.

Jumpers, though, are nothing new to Downtown. The archives of the L.A. Times are littered with stories about the cases, which the paper often referred to as "death leaps."

The stories are all tragic, with attempts to explain the situations often trending toward money or relationship issues. Most Downtown structures of ten stories or more have had a leap at some point in their history. — Continued Inside...


57 Years Ago: Hotel Statler Opens at Figueroa and Wilshire

By Eric Richardson — August 06, 2009
5 Comments

Statler Hotel

On August 6, 1952, the Hotel Statler welcomed its first paying guest, William H. Thomas of Cleveland and Washington, D.C. The 1275-room hotel cost $25,000,000 to build and took six years to go from announcement to completion. The structure might not live to see 60. In April, the Korean company that owns the hotel announced plans to tear it down and build two...


73 Years Ago: Gas Company Purchases Site at 8th & Flower, Home to Historic Church

By Eric Richardson — July 29, 2009 — 3 Comments

First English Lutheran Church, 8th and Flower. Circa 1900-1910 USC Digital Archives / California Historical Society

On July 29, 1936, the Southern California Gas Company confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that it had bought the southeast corner of 8th and Flower for $125,000.

For the last 50 years, the site had been home to the First English Lutheran Church, but the corner the historic structure occupied was far different than the one it had been built on in the late 1880s. — Continued Inside...