DTLA: THE GREATEST COMEBACK KID THERE EVER WAS

By: Historic Core BID 2021 1894 drawing by Bruce Wellington Pierce: portion from Third Street (bottom left) to Plaza (top right). The Red Sandstone Courthouse with its clocktower is prominent at center. At upper right is Los Angeles High School on Fort Moore Hill.

The “center” of Los Angeles was El Pueblo until the late 1890s when the street car, electricity, & rails connecting LA to the E. Coast moved everyone to today’s Civic Center.

However, when the Alexandria opened in 1906, everything changed and the Historic Core became the new city center. 1908- Cole’s opens. 1910- Population: 319,198 1915- 55,00 cars drive in LA. 1917- Grand Central Market opens. 1917- Million Dollar Theater opens, Sid Grauman’s first project. 1919- United Artists group founded by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Girffith. 1920- 80% of films in the world shot in CA. 1922- Radio stations go live in LA. 1923- Millennium Biltmore and Rosslyn Hotels open. 1924- Population reaches 1M. 1925- LA Center Public Library opens. 1927- United Artists Building opens. 1928- City Hall opens.

Downtown’s Golden Age:

By the year 1920, the city's private and municipal rail lines were the most extended and most comprehensive in the world in mileage. They were better than NYC’s according to historians.

By this time, a steady influx of residents and aggressive land developers had transformed the city into a large metropolitan area, with the Historic Core at its center.

The Historic Core was made up of 23 financial structures, including the city's first skyscraper, and three luxury hotels: The Alexandria, the Rosslyn, and the Biltmore.

Banks started establishing Wall St. of the West along the Spring St. corridor. Spring Financial District

Bank of America, Farmers and Merchants Bank, the Crocker National Bank, California Bank & Trust, and International Savings & Exchange Bank all held HQ’s on Spring St.

The Los Angeles Stock Exchange was also located on the corridor from 1929 until 1986.

Filming also began to take place in the area, the HC provided Hollywood with the cityscape the movies loved. Broadway in the roaring 20s

With commercial & residential growth came entertainment for the growing population of Los Angeles. Broadway became the nightlife, shopping and entertainment district of the city, with over a dozen theater and movie palaces built before 1932.

Even early jewelers such as the Laykin Diamond Company and Harry Winston & Co., both of which found their beginnings in the Hotel Alexandria at Fifth and Spring streets.

The Spring arcade was modeled after London’s famed Burlington Arcade. The exterior featured granite and terracotta finishes, while the interior included hardwood floors, ornamental iron, and high-speed elevators. It’s opening on February 14, 1924, was a major event. Some 4,000 people attended, including acting mayor Boyle Workman and Charlie Chaplin. 1930- LAX opens. 1930- Olvera Street opens. 1932- Olympics hosted. 1939- Union Station opens. 1940- The 110 connects DTLA to Pasadena becoming nation’s first controlled limited access highway (aka a freeway). 1942- LA gives the world the first ever parking meter. 1945- WW2 ends. 1950- Population reaches 1,970,358. 1960- Democratic convention nominates JFK at Millenium Biltmore. 1962- Last Red Car ceases operations. 1964- Dorothy Chandler Pavilion opens. Suburbs Take Over - 1950s - 1970s Latino Center 1950s-1990s

Community Redevelopment Agency undertook the Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project in 1955, a massive clearance project that leveled homes and cleared land for future commercial skyscraper development.

Successfully completed in 1964, the Music Center did attract patrons of the theater and symphony to venture Downtown, but this population of attendees was decidedly too small in number and infrequent in visitation to inject sustained after-hours vitality to DTLA. And as soon as the curtains closed, these patrons of the arts promptly returned to their cars and drove decidedly away.

Left Broadway and Spring to Spanish culture and theater. Which showed successes such as the Oscar win of Anthony Quinn, AKA the Pope of Broadway.

1973- Tom Bradley becomes mayor. 1980- Population reaches 3M. 1984- Los Angeles becomes the only U.S. city to host the Summer Olympic Games twice. 1986- MOCA opens. 1990- Nelson Mandela visits & stays at The Millenium Biltmore. 1990- US Bank Tower opens. At 73 stories, it would be the tallest building West of the Mississippi. 1990- Blue line connects DTLA to LBC. 1992- Rodney King riots. 1999- Staples Center opens. 1999- Adaptive Reuse Passed by City Hall. 2004- Downtown LA Art Walk debuts. The Downtown Art Walk was begun by gallery-owner Bert Green & others, a month in advance of the opening of his gallery at 5th and Main.

2007- The number of participating galleries reached 30, and in 2010, about 40. In 2007, DLANC sponsored the Art Walk shuttle though the area was sparsely populated after dark, the numbers of visitors grew substantially from only about 75 in September 2004 to more than 15,000 by 2010.

2003- Walt Disney Concert Hall opens. 2005- Antonio Villaraigosa becomes mayor of Los Angeles, the city’s first mayor of Hispanic descent since 1872. 2006- City population is 3,976,071. Los Angeles County population is 10,245,572 - it's by far the nation’s largest county. 2008- L.A. Live & Grammy Museum open. 2009- Bottega Louie opens. 2013- Eric Garcetti becomes mayor. 2013- Robert Vargas paints, “Our Lady DTLA.” 2014- Ace Hotel opens. 2014- The Broad opens. 2016- Expo line connects Santa Monica to Downtown LA. 2019- Night On Broadway reaches 250,000 attendees. In 2009, 14,561 residential units were created under the adaptive reuse ordinance, leading to an increase in the residential population. 28,878 residents in 2006, 39,537 in 2008, and over 60,000 in 2017. In 2012 the ordinance added commercial space & retail space. Downtown Los Angeles is still seeing new life and investment.

Broadway remained the center of the entertainment of DTLA with the birth of events such as DTLA Proud, Night On Broadway, and the Women’s March. Spring, Main, 5th & 7th streets became the home for local bars.

While 6th & Spring became a boutique retail corridor & the densest residential intersection in SoCal. DTLA was rocked by the COVID19 pandemic, the BLM movement, & the 2020 Presidential Elections.

Much like in our past, we have thrived, good things have happened amongst the bad.

We will continue to get back up, stronger than the last time, each time. Photo Credits Photo Credits

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