Aside from its lavish decor, the Los Angeles was the most technologically advanced theatre of its day. The lighting was controlled by a special Westinghouse dimming system and each circuit of lights could be preset to five different levels of illumination. The sound system was also&nbsp;state-of-the-art and the theatre also had an extensive public address system with banks of amplifiers in the projection booth powering speakers and microphones throughout the theatre.&nbsp;The projection equipment was also very modern for the time and the movie screen measured 60ft wide by 30ft high, making it one of the largest in the city. The use of neon lighting was another innovation. In 1931 neon lighting was only a few years old and had not yet been used extensively in theatres. LeeThe Los Angeles used neon not only on the exterior vertical marquee but also as aisle lighting in the main auditorium. Although built primarily as a movie&nbsp;house, the Los Angeles had a full stage, orchestra pit and dressing rooms, allowing for live elements of many films.&nbsp;Actual construction of the building took less than six months at a cost of $1.5 million, partly funded by Charlie Chaplin so that it would be open for the premiere of his film City Lights in January 1931. The building itself was constructed off-site and swung in between the existing buildings. It would be the last of such buildings constructed on Broadway as the economy was hit hard by the Great Depression.&nbsp;The Los Angeles closed its doors in 1994, after sitting vacant for many years. It can still be rented out and has been used as a shooting location for various movies such as New York New York, Man on the Moon, Charlie's Angels, and the television series Mad Men.

A shot of the Theatre's interior and stage. 

The Los Angeles Theatre is a 2,000 seat movie palace that was constructed in late 1930 and early 1931. The Theatre was commissioned by H.L. Gumbiner, an independent film exhibitor from Chicago, who also built the Tower Theatre nearby. The building itself was designed by S. Charles Lee and Samuel Tilden Norton and features a French Baroque interior. The interior bleeds opulence with its grand central staircase and gold brocade drapes said to have been modeled after the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles.

Los Angeles Theatre

This walking tour makes a short loop around Pershing Park and includes some of the mos historically significant and iconic buildings in downtown Los Angeles. 

Heart of Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour

The Title Guarantee &amp; Trust Building is a large Art Deco structure that towers over the streets below. It is incredibly detailed and was designed by architects John and Donald Parkinson who took inspiration from the much-publicized 1926 Chicago Tribune Tower. In addition to Gothic touches such as shields and gargoyle-like drain spouts, the building is also topped with a Gothic tower complete with stylized flying buttresses.The building is steel framed and is clad with glazed terra cotta, rising out of its granite base.&nbsp;The recessed windows are surrounded by piers, which accentuate the verticality of the structure and extend above the roofline to create a parapet effect. Everything above the twelfth floor is unoccupied space and was designed purposefully so that the building could be extended above the 150-foot height limit in effect at the time of its construction.In 2012 the building was converted into loft-style apartments and is known as the Title Guarantee Building Lofts.

Built in 1930, the Title Guarantee and Trust Company Building is an Art Deco style high rise building situated on Pershing Square. Designed by The Parkinsons, who were prolific architects and were responsible for many L.A. points of interest, including City Hall and Bullocks Wilshire, it was built on the site of the California Club building. Its original use was as an office building but it was later converted into loft apartments. In 1984, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Title Guarantee & Trust Building

The L.A. downtown subway was constructed in response to the large increase in car traffic volume across the city. Pacific Electric Railway embarked on a project to create a dedicated right of way into downtown L.A. through a subway connected to the existing terminal in the Pacific Electric Building. They were called upon by the California Railroad Commission in 1922 to construct a subway that would bypass downtown's busy streets. It became known as the Hollywood Subway, and plans were drafted in 1924.&nbsp;18 months later and at a cost of $1.25 million the Subway officially opened to the public on December 1, 1925. During its early years,&nbsp;the Subway was a huge&nbsp;success and it emerged as one of Los Angeles's most popular modes of public transit throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Ridership hit an all-time high during the World War II-era when trains carried an estimated 65,000 passengers through the tunnel each day.Ridership began to decline in the 1950s as the state's freeway systems began to emerge, forcing Pacific Electric to close the Subway in 1955. The last train to carry passengers, carrying a banner reading "To Oblivion", was on the morning of June 19, 1955. The trains and tracks were removed and the station was closed. The building itself continued to operate as an office for many years and the tunnel remained intact until it was filled in in 1967.&nbsp;In 2007, the Subway Terminal Building was renovated and reopened as Metro 417, a luxury apartment building owned by Forest City.&nbsp;

Originally known as The Subway Terminal Building, Metro 417, is an Italian Renaissance Revival building designed by architects Schultze and Weaver. It was built in 1925 as the terminal for the Hollywood Subway branch of the Pacific Electric Railway Interurban rail line. After a $60 million redevelopment, today it is a luxury apartment building with 417 loft-style apartments. 

Metro 417 (The Subway Terminal Building)

The building was redeveloped in the 1980s and became known as One Bunker Hill. Recently it has been rebranded again and gone back to its roots. &nbsp;The current name,&nbsp;CalEdison, is a tribute to the building’s history as the former headquarters of the Southern California Edison Company which was completed in 1931. It was among the first buildings in the Western US to include all-electric heating and cooling.&nbsp; &nbsp; In 2015 it was purchased in a joint venture by partners Lionstone Investments, a privately owned, US-based real estate investment company, and Hermes Investment management, the £28.6 billion manager focused on delivering superior, sustainable, risk-adjusted returns to its clients. Rising Realty Partners, a full-service real estate platform based in Downtown Los Angeles, oversaw the redevelopment, while Industry Partners, with its focus on high-quality creative office product, is the leasing brokerage. &nbsp; Improvements in the common areas, designed by Rios Clemente Hale Studios, include adding new tables and seating areas and a full-service barista bar serving gourmet coffee drinks. Other building enhancements include new upper floor lobbies, restrooms, lighting, and wayfinding crafted by Omngivning architects; renovations to the valet waiting area; and new management offices. Additionally, The CalEdison’s architectural details and characteristics—such as decorative marble cladding, coffered ceilings, sculptured metal details, and an original mural by Hugo Ballin—have been preserved. &nbsp;

The building was originally known as the Southern California Edison Company Building and was owned and occupied by a utility company. It was one of the first all-electrically heated and cooled buildings constructed in the western United States. Standing fourteen-stories high, the steel-framed building follows a classically inspired Art Deco design. The lower three stories are of solid limestone, while the upper stories and central tower are faced with buff-colored terra cotta. On the façade, the spandrels contain a cubic Art Deco pattern, repeated in the central tower, lobby floor and elevator ceilings. The exterior greenhouse-like structures were added in the 1980s and the street-level shopping corridor in 1993.

CalEdison Building 

The building was originally built as part of a $1 billion redevelopment by Los Angeles Central Library and was thus known as the Library Tower. The library had suffered two devastating fires in 1986 at its previous location, just across the street. In order to help cover the construction costs, the land's air rights were sold off to the developers of the tower. In March 2003, the building was leased to U.S. Bancorp and was renamed U.S. Bank Tower.&nbsp;At night time the tower's large glass crown lights up the night sky in a&nbsp;luminous white light. The crown also adopts other colours at various times of the year such as red and green at Christmas and orange for Halloween. In 2004, two U.S. Bank logo signs were installed on the crown, although there was much controversy over the effect they would have on the building's appearance.&nbsp;The Tower was sold to the Overseas Union Enterprise Ltd (OUE) in 2013. OUE is a hotel and property group which is owned and controlled by Lippo Group, from Indonesia. The Tower was acquired for $367.5 million. The following year they announced the construction of a new observation deck and restaurant. These new additions opened on June 24, 2016, at a cost of around $31 million, and also included a redesigned ground floor lobby and the addition of a&nbsp;second-floor entrance for tourists.As an iconic structure, the Tower has made an appearance in many movies such as:<ul><li>Terminator 2&nbsp;</li><li>Predator 2</li><li>Independence Day</li><li>Disney's The Kid</li><li>Swordfish</li><li>The Day After Tomorrow</li><li>Dragon Wars</li><li>Southland Tales</li><li>2012</li><li>San Andreas</li></ul>

Completed in 1989, after construction began in 1987, the U.S. Bank Tower stands at a monumental 1,018-feet (310.3 m), making it the second tallest building in the city and the third tallest in the state behind Wilshire Grand Center and Salesforce Tower. It is also the fifteenth tallest in the United States and the 92nd tallest building in the world. It stands 73 stories above ground level and has two parking levels below ground. It was designed by Henry N. Cobb of the architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and cost about $350 million to build. 

U.S. Bank Tower

In the early 1920s, hotelier John McEntee Bowman partnered with the architectural firm Schultze &amp; Weaver to create the grandest hotel in the Western part of the United States, the Biltmore Hotel. With assistance from Italian artist Giovanni Smeraldi, the Beaux Arts-style hotel was completed in 18 months and its grand opening was held in the fall of 1923. On the night of the opening, the main ballroom was filled with more than 3,000 guests, who enjoyed a seven-course meal and were entertained by seven orchestras flanked by caged canaries. Hollywood legends such as Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford were amongst the partygoers, but designer and fashion artist Peggy Hamilton stole the show in the unique gown she called “The Biltmore.” The ornamental dress replicated Smeraldi’s extravagant ceiling in the Crystal Ballroom, and it earned Hamilton the nickname "the original Biltmore girl.” The Biltmore gown that Hamilton wore in 1923 can now be viewed in a glass case across the hall from the Crystal Ballroom.In total, the hotel cost $10 million to build, and the architect designed a place reminiscent of European palaces. At eleven stories high, the Biltmore had more than 1600 rooms and covered more than half a city block. The interior was Smeraldi’s true masterpiece, with crystal, marble, gold, bronze, and elaborate tapestries enhancing the palatial feel. After its opening, the Biltmore quickly became known as “The Host of the Coast,” and during Prohibition, the Gold Room became one of the most famous nightclubs in Los Angeles. The room was equipped with a secret door that led to Olive Street to help partygoers escape police. The Presidential Suite has hosted six presidents, members of royalty, and even gangsters like Al Capone. The suite still holds a spot that was used by guests to store liquor. From the time it opened, the Biltmore became a favorite filming location, and it can be seen in such movies as Cecil B. DeMille’s Triumph (1924), Ocean’s 11 (1960), Ghost Busters (1984), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), and television shows like Mad Men.The Biltmore was also a place for renowned celebrations, and when Grauman’s Chinese Theatre was dedicated in 1927, the opening party was held at the hotel. That year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was created during a meeting held in the Crystal Ballroom. Later, the Academy Awards ceremonies were held in the Biltmore Bowl, a basement ballroom added in 1928 that could host 1,000 guests. Stars who won Academy Awards at the Biltmore include Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Bette Davis, and Ginger Rogers. After the outbreak of World War II, the Biltmore opened its doors to house servicemen. The Biltmore has a haunting connection to Elizabeth Short, more commonly known as the Black Dahlia. It has been reported that the Biltmore Hotel was the last place Short was seen before her murdered body was discovered on January 15, 1947.During the presidential campaign of 1960, the Biltmore served as the base for the Democratic National Convention and John F. Kennedy’s campaign. By the end of the 1970s, downtown Los Angeles and the Biltmore experienced a decline, leading to the hotel’s doors being closed. In the 1980s, it was purchased for $75 million, and the new owners spent $135 million restoring the historic hotel. Millennium Hotels purchased the Biltmore in 2000 and continues preserving the grandest hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

Arguably the most historic hotel in downtown LA, the Biltmore Los Angeles opened in October 1923, and at that time, it was the largest hotel west of Chicago. In 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded at a luncheon held in the hotel's extravagant Crystal Ballroom. The Biltmore Bowl, located in the hotel's basement, was the world's largest nightclub, and eight Academy Award ceremonies were hosted there. In addition to hosting Hollywood's elite, six U.S. presidents and The Beatles have all stayed at the hotel. The Biltmore was designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1969. Reflecting the rise, decline, and rebirth of many downtowns, the hotel experienced a decline in the 1970s and even closed for closed for a time in the early 1980s. However, the hotel was restored to its former glory the following decade and has been managed by Millennium Hotels since 2000.

The Biltmore Los Angeles 

The Bunker Hill Steps became a necessity after the destruction of the area in the 1950s and 1960s.&nbsp;In 1955, Los Angeles city planners decided that Bunker Hill required a massive slum clearance&nbsp;project and proceeded to clear its houses and then flattened as the first stage of the Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project to populate Bunker Hill with modern plazas and buildings. When the height limit of buildings in Los Angeles was finally raised, developers built some of the tallest skyscrapers in the region to take advantage of the area's existing dense zoning. The project is the longest redevelopment project in Los Angeles history. The majority of the skyscrapers on Bunker Hill were built in the 1980s, with a new skyscraper or two being finished nearly every year. However, the momentum died down in the 1990s, shortly after the fifty-two story Two California Plaza&nbsp;was finished.&nbsp;Prior to this, Bunker Hill used to slope gently down to about Sixth St. The impressive State Normal School, which would later evolve into UCLA, was built in 1881 where the LA Central Library sits today. &nbsp;In 1926, after the school had been demolished, the Central Library was constructed. In 1931, The Southern California Edison Building, which is now One Bunker Hill, was built on the NW corner of Grand Avenue and Hope Place, directly to the east of the Engstrom Apartments.The original Bunker Steps were constructed at around the same time as Central Library, as they formed part of the retaining wall necessary to keep Bunker Hill in place after the southern slope was cut away. The steps also maintained Bunker Hill residents' access to the business district. Originally there was also a plan to build a pedestrian bridge from an upper part of Central Library to Bunker Hill, but this was never realized.&nbsp;The site of the old Bunker Hill steps disappeared in 1989 underneath the giant 73-story Library Tower (now U.S. Bank Tower), the tallest building in California. A sliver of land was left open between the back of the 444 South Flower Building and the west side of Library Tower to accommodate the new Bunker Hill Steps which were completed in 1987 by architects I.M. Pei &amp; Partners and developer Robert Maguire.&nbsp;The grand stairway and water garden was designed by Halprin to link downtown Los Angeles to the newly developed Bunker Hill section of the city. Postmodern in style and reminiscent of Rome’s Spanish Steps, the steps are choreographed as an urban experience similar to a city street, complete with terraced landings, retail shops, and outdoor cafes with a range of activities for relaxing, dining, or shopping.&nbsp;

The Bunker Hill Steps were designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and completed in 1990. This huge concrete staircase provides a pedestrian route from Bunker Hill to the Los Angeles Central Library. The stairway is divided in two by a simulated mountain stream of rock-like concrete formations with water originating in a round fountain in at the top and ending in a small basin at the bottom. Robert Graham's 1992 sculpture of a woman offering the bounty of water stands in the middle of the fountain. Flowering trees and other vegetation lines the stairway's edges, which artwork and a wall of sculptured grottoes and fountains. As a monumental landscape feature linking two spheres together, the Bunker Hill Steps have proven to be a successful and visually striking path for people to move between old and new Los Angeles.

Bunker Hill Steps

The history of the library in the Los Angeles area dates back to 1844 when in a town supporting less than 1,500 people, residents started a collection of donated books and newspapers. The collection was kept in various places, including donated quarters above a saloon, City Hall, and a department store.At a time when few women were permitted to hold public positions, librarians were often staffed by women and led by boards appointed by city leaders that often had women at the helm. The boards and early library staff took charge of establishing, developing, and growing the city's library. From 1880 to 1905, a series of independent-minded women served as city librarians. In an era when few women held government careers, librarianship provided a way for women to demonstrate executive abilities. Under the women's leadership, Los Angeles' library system gained credibility. Mary Emily Foy served as the city library's first innovator when the library was in the upstairs quarters of a saloon. Foy took the position after the dismissal of her two predecessors: one for smoking foul-smelling jimsonweed to ward off asthma attacks and the other for alcohol (whiskey) abuse. Foy, an outspoken feminist, not only served as a referee during chess matches and bets made between saloon patrons, but she also set up a Dewey Decimal card-catalog system and hosted the Ladies Reading Room. Meanwhile, another of the library's women leaders, Tessa Kelso, smoked cigarettes in public, wore her hair short, and beat back a clergyman’s attempts to remove a risque French novel from the shelves. As a librarian, she increased the library collection sevenfold during her leadership from 1889 to 1895. Under Kelso's direction, library card ownership rose from 132 to more than 20,000, largely due to her abolishing fees and making book-borrowing free.  Despite the accomplishments of the women who built the library, the story of Mary Jones speaks to the uphill battle women faced, even in the library system. Jones, in 1905 was ousted from her position to make way for Theodore Roosevelt's former Harvard Classmate, Charles Fletcher Lummis. Jones sued, but the city attorney upheld Lummis' appointment. In 1910, Charles Lummis took over as chief librarian and expanded the library while also serving as a strong advocate for Native American rights and preserving their history. Despite the controversial removal of Jones, Lummis did put his stamp on the L.A. library system and is now part of the California Library Hall of Fame; he also gained fame for his social-justice activism.The one-time reporter for the Los Angeles Times, he passionately promoted Southwestern U.S. culture, actively preserved Spanish missions, founded the Southwest Museum, wrote for and published magazines, and authored books. Furthermore, he was a crusader for civil rights for minorities, notably American Indians, with whom he lived for numerous years. Indeed, Lummis was one of the first recognizable white Americans to speak out against unjust policies toward Native Americans and he served as an advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt on matters of Native Americans and civil rights.Although he only served briefly as the chief librarian (The city fired Lummis in 1910 because he had locked the library into an expensive lease, and he gave himself a raise and a pension), Lummis expanded and diversified library services, professionalized the library’s staff, developed a system to prevent book losses, and profoundly increased the library’s historical holdings. He created a branding iron that read "LA PUB LIBRARY," which he marked on the top leaves of the books to help prevent the stealing of library books. He also despised books that romanticized certain aspects of history, so he inserted a “poison” label in any book he deemed to contain dubious narratives. By 1921, the passage of a special bond issue cleared the way for the city to build a permanent home for its library, considered by many as a show of the city's maturation. The city acquired land for only $1 on the former site of the State Normal School, which became the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, who designed such buildings as the Nebraska State Capitol and Throop Polytechnic Institute in Pasadena (now Caltech), served as the architect for the Central Library. Goodhue chose to design the building using a mix of influences from Spanish, Roman, and Egyptian styles. While aesthetically pleasing, its function soon proved inadequate. Designed to hold one million books, the shelving accommodations quickly grew insufficient, and its electrical capacity, among many other modern needs, was markedly inadequate; plugging in simple coffeepots blew circuits. The city debated how to expand or change the library for decades, and then two arson fires in 1986 created further challenges. The first fire, in spring, destroyed 400,000 books and documents; another fire in fall did less damage. The fires helped galvanize the library supporters into raising money and volunteering to help the library. Then in 1987, the city sold the air rights of the library property for $214 million, which funded a six-year renovation project that modernized and expanded Central Library.

This historic library building opened in 1926, and its construction symbolized the final step in the growth of Los Angeles' library system which began in 1844 with a collection of books located in a room above a saloon. The city's library grew during the late nineteenth century, thanks largely to the leadership of boards and libraries that were led by women, and this building's opening served as a culmination of those early efforts. By the 1920s, the library's place within L.A. society had grown so vital that officials funded the building of an elaborate library building in downtown Los Angeles. The building survives today despite early overcrowding issues and two arson fires; a massive renovation project in the 1990s modernized and expand the library.

 Los Angeles Central Library (Richard J. Riordan Central Library)

The California Club was established in 1888. Prior to this, their first organizational meeting was held on September 24, 1887, in the Court Room of Justice Austen. In this meeting, the club's constitution and by-laws were determined by all of the gentlemen in attendance. The name of the club was also discussed, with the men eventually agreeing on the California Club.&nbsp;The club's first location was in the second-floor rooms over the Tally-Ho Stables on the north-west corner of First and Fort (Broadway) streets, where the Los Angeles County Law Library now stands. It moved to the Wilcox Building on the south-east corner of Second and Spring streets in 1895, occupying the two top floors, the fourth and fifth, where it stayed for another ten years.In 1904, the club's headquarters were moved to a new five-story building with a basement and a roof garden on the northwest corner of Fifth and Hill streets. But by the late 1920s, a purchase of land at 538 South Flower Street was negotiated, and in 1929 construction on their present building began. The building was formally completed on August 25, 1930.&nbsp;According to the National Park Service:<blockquote>"The structure is considered one of the most important buildings of the architect Robert D. Farquhar. Built in 1930, The Italian Renaissance Revival style building, with its setbacks and tower, was among the largest buildings in the immediate area when the site was chosen. Elements like the private forecourt, which partially shields the front entrance and first floor, provides the club with a sense of privacy and understated design."</blockquote>The California Club building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2010.&nbsp;

Established in 1888, the California Club is a members-only private social club and is the second-oldest club of its kind in Southern California. This building, designed by Robert D. Farquhar, was erected in 1930. Membership to this prestigious club is by invitation only and new members must be invited by at least six existing members of the Club, and pass series of interviews by the Club's Membership Committee. The membership is somewhat elite and mainly consists of leaders in business, industry, government, and professions. The club was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

California Club

<div>The entire area of the PacMutual Building takes up around 460,000 square feet. The three interconnected buildings each have their own name: Clock Building (1908), Sentry Building (1921), and Carriage House (1926). Today, PacMutual is a recognized local landmark and was designated as a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1982.The Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company was established in 1868&nbsp;by former California Governor Leland Stanford in Sacremento. The company consolidated with Conservative Life, a fledgeling L.A. insurance company on March 12, 1906, at a time when they were based in San Francisco. With a strange&nbsp;prescience, additional fire insurance was placed on the Pacific Mutual home office, additional vaults were constructed, and older vaults were reinforced. These actions were completed by early April, just weeks before the Great Earthquake.Their website says:</div><div>“On April 18, a 48-second earthquake rocked San Francisco leveling hundreds of city blocks. Although our seven-story home office building survived the initial earthquake, our home office was sacrificed as a firebreak to prevent further damage to the city. At the time of the earthquake, a Pacific Mutual employee named Richard Mier, Chief Clerk and Office Manager, realized that valuable bonds were in a safe that was not fireproof.“Quick thinking Mier courageously removed the bonds, along with several stock ledgers and ran down five flights of shaking stairs. He wrapped the bonds to protect them and climbed to the top of Sacramento Street where he then buried the important documents in the basement of his home where they would be safe until needed – a couple days later.“On May 18th, the Board of Directors met for the first time since the catastrophe. There amongst the rubble, they formally voted to establish a new home office in Los Angeles. The staff was sent ahead, and a new chapter in our history would begin.”Fear of fire and loss resulted in a building that “is absolutely fire and earthquake proof, as it is to be finished of steel, hard burned hollow tile, concrete and white glazed terra cotta.”In 2012 the PacMutual building was sold to&nbsp;Rising Realty Partners renovated it from a lower-rent office space for conventional white-collar firms into a preferred address for businesses in creative fields such as technology and entertainment. They acquired the property for $60 million in 2012.&nbsp;They sold the building to&nbsp;Ivanhoe Cambridge, a Canadian real estate investment company,&nbsp;for $200 million in 2015, who continue to manage the tech-friendly office space.&nbsp;</div>

The PacMutual, despite its name, is actually made up of three interconnected structures that were built consecutively over two decades. The first to be constructed was in 1908. It was a six-story Beaux Arts building clad in white terra cotta with four-story Corinthian columnns. In 1921, a twelve-story Beaux Arts building was added. It was much larger than the 1908 building and featured a grand lobby with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and sweeping staircases in Italian Tavernelle marble. The third structure was finished in 1926 and is a two-story parking garage with offices and meeting rooms on the top floor. Today, the PacMutual Building houses a range of tenants such as attorneys and architects as well as the fashion firm Nasty Gal and Los Angeles Conservancy.

PacMutual Building

Stretching from Third to Ninth Street along South Broadway, the district had the highest concentration of cinemas in the world and seated more than 15,000 patrons during its heyday from 1931 to the late 50s. Though none of the theaters still regularly show movies, they do host special events from time to time. The district has benefited from a number of restoration and preservation campaigns over the years. One of these, “Last Remaining Seats,” has some of the movie palaces showing classic Hollywood movies each summer. This effort has been met with rave reviews with Dan Turner of the Los Angeles Times writing, "The other night I went to the movies and was transported to a world of powdered wigs and hoop skirts, a rococo fantasy of gilded cherubs and crystal chandeliers. And then the film started." &nbsp;Although the district continues to be a tourist draw, some of the movie palaces have been converted into churches, flea markets, and into spots of other non-theater uses. Despite these changes, the district is still worth a visit as evidenced by Turner when he wrote, “Of all of L.A.'s many hidden gems, maybe none is as sparkling nor as hidden as the Broadway theater district downtown… L.A. gave birth to the movies. To lose the astonishing nurseries where the medium grew up would be tragic." &nbsp;The twelve theaters in the Broadway District are the Million Dollar Theater (1918), the Roxie Theater (1932), the Cameo Theater (1910), the Arcade Theater (1910), the Los Angeles Theater (1931), the Palace Theater (1911) which is the oldest Orpheum theater in the U.S., the Loew’s State Theater (1921), the Globe Theater (1913) which was initially a full-scale live dramatic theater, the Tower Theater (1927), the Rialto Theater (1917), the United Artists Theater (1927), and the Orpheum Theater (1926) which was featured in the Guns N’ Roses music video “November Rain” and in Jewel’s “You Were Meant for Me” and was where the film Dream Girls was shot along with the televisions series So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.

Built from 1910 to 1931, the first and largest historic theater district in the United States, the Broadway Theater District, consists of a dozen movie palaces and tens of major retail and clothing stores sitting along a six-block span of Broadway. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the district in downtown Los Angeles contains the sole remaining large concentration of movie palaces in America.

Broadway Theater District (Los Angeles)

The James Oviatt Building, or Oviatt Building, gets its name from its original owner, James Zera Oviatt. In 1909, Oviatt moved to Los Angeles from Salt Lake City, where he was born in 1888. His first job involved working as a department store window dresser. But, in 1912, Mr. Oviatt partnered with a hat salesman, Frank Baird Alexander, and an architect Frank Shaver Allen (who acted as a silent partner due to a sex scandal), in launching a men's clothing business: Alexander &amp; Oviatt haberdashery in downtown Los Angeles. Oviatt regularly traveled to Europe where he discovered stylish clothing and trends, which he brought back to his Los Angeles haberdashery. The store's success eventually led to the decision to build the now-historic structure. In designing the historic Mr. Oviatt sought to create a building that celebrated Art Deco, which had grown popular in France and the U.S. during the 1920s. The Oviatt Building opened in 1928 with luxurious furnishings, including a twelve-ton illuminated glass cornice and glass arcade ceiling. Oviatt also had a lavish, ten-room penthouse designed for his personal use in the new structure. The building embodied the Art Deco style and the enthusiasm associated with the "Roaring '20s." However, while Oviatt gained notoriety for his store and Art Deco building, he was also a member and ardent supporter of the far-right John Birch Society and enjoyed strong ties to Rev. Wesley A. Swift, whose speeches and sermons included antisemitic ideology. Swift was also a prominent figure in the California Ku Klux Klan. Meanwhile, Oviatt provided his customers copies of antisemitic and racist publications such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Common Sense. Oviatt and Swift also enjoyed a friendly relationship with Gerald L.K. Smith, a minister, white supremacist, and American nationalist. Smith created the Christian Nationalist Party and Christian Defense League, which Swift managed for a time in offices within the Oviatt building. Today, most of what is remembered regarding the Oviatt building is its Art Deco style and its association with 1920s culture, as noted by a 2008 documentary on the building directed by Seth Shulman and written/produced by Marc Chevalier in 2008. Today, the historic building is home to the Cicada Restaurant, which proudly notes its association with the landmark Art Deco building; the restaurant operates as a 1920s-themed lounge. Indeed, the building has been designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument because of its style and the era with which it's associated.

Completed in 1928, this building acted as the headquarters of one of the most prestigious and expensive haberdasheries of the time, Alexander &amp; Oviatt. The building housed their shop, which is now Cicada restaurant, rentable office space, and a penthouse suite for owner James Oviatt to live in. The building was designed in the Italian Romanesque style after Oviatt attended the 1925 Paris Exposition and was inspired by the architecture there. When the building was completed, the sheltered lobby forecourt contained over thirty tons of glass by designer Rene Lalique, and a few original panels remain to this day. The ten-room penthouse was originally decorated by the Parisian design firm of Saddler et fils and featured burled mahogany furniture and cabinets, parquet wood floors in geometric patterns, carved woodwork, imported fabrics and Lalique glass throughout. Oviatt enjoyed strong ties to people and groups that preached antisemitic and racist ideologies; the building eventually housed the Christian Defense League, which publicly promoted antisemitism and "America First" philosophies. Oviatt handed out materials to customers that promoted antisemitic beliefs, as well.

Oviatt Building

The&nbsp;Los Angeles Jewelry Center sits at the heart of what is now the Jewelry District of Downtown L.A. According to the L.A. Convention Center, it is the largest district dedicated to jewellery in the United States, with annual reported sales from the area at around $3 billion. It is made up of nearly 5,000 businesses, with vendors on Hill Street, Olive Street, and Broadway. Shoppers can find kinds of related products such as designer jewellery, precious stones, gold, and silver.&nbsp;The Jewelry District is predominantly made up of early twentieth-century buildings. The median year in which the buildings in the area were built is 1923. The oldest building to remain in the district is located on 543 South Broadway Avenue - a three story, 32,600 square foot commercial space that is now occupied by Teresa’s Bridals.&nbsp;Two of the earliest jewellers to establish stores in 1932 were the Laykin Diamond Company (Laykin et Cie) and Harry Winston &amp; Co.&nbsp;Almost all of the buildings within the Jewelry District were designed for general office use with retail spaces on the street level. The Downtown areas rapidly developed in the first half of the 20th century, but it did not feature skyscrapers like in Chicago and New York because State Law limited them to 150ft. The influx of jewelry stores in the area did not come about until after the 1960s when gold came to be seen as a safer investment than U.S. dollars.

On February 2, 1930 it was announced that the soon-to-be constructed Sun Realty Building would continue the trend of local architecture by designing an exterior of colored terra cotta. In this case, the fluted terra cotta provided a beautiful blue-green finish, rising continuously for fourteen stories to the roofline before tapering to a crown of bronze at the top. It was designed by architect Claud Beelman, who is responsible for designing many buildings throughout the city including the Garfield Building, the Ninth and Broadway Building, and the Eastern Columbia Building. At the time of its construction, the lobby was outfitted with a marble floor and decorative plaster ceiling. The building was redesigned in the 1970s, but a few original fittings remain such as the original Art Deco elevator doors. The building is now known as the Los Angeles Jewelry Center.

Los Angeles Jewelry Center

Major General Walter Perry Story was an incredibly interesting man who led a varied life. Although he was not actually a native of California, he nevertheless devoted the greater part of his life to the state. The Story family's history dates back to 1640 in Massachusetts. Walter Perry Story was born in Bozeman, Montana, on December 18, 1882, the son of Nelson and Ellen Story. His father was a native of Ohio, born in 1838. They were pioneer settlers of Montana, migrating there in the 1860s, where his father, Nelson Story, was involved in mining, banking, milling, as well as the cattle business. His father was credited with one of the largest individual fortunes in that state. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1894 to establish a winter home, and Nelson invested heavily in real estate, forming the basis of the family's interests in Southern California. Nelson Story died on February 9, 1924.&nbsp;Walter was the youngest of the family with two older brothers and a sister.&nbsp;Walter received his early education in the public schools of Bozeman, later attending both public and private schools in Los Angeles. At sixteen years old he entered Shattuck Military Academy at Faribault, Minnesota. He was there until 1902, and graduated from the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York in 1903. He returned to Bozeman where got involved with the Commercial National Bank as a bookkeeper and teller for two years, before returning to Los Angeles in 1905. In 1907 he got involved in the real estate business himself with Arthur E. Tandy under the name of Tandy &amp; Story.&nbsp; The piece of land that Story built the Walter S. Story Building on was purchased by his father in 1895 for $50,000. When Walter was fourteen years old his father presented him with the lot. Walter began the erection of the million dollar building in April 1908 and the building was completed on April 1, 1910. Standing twelve stories high, and with a frontage of 120 feet on Broadway and 150 feet on Sixth Street, it was one of the most modern for its day.&nbsp;After the success and profitability of this venture, Story soon developed a reputation as one of the young financiers of Los Angeles. One other such construction was the multi-million dollar building of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange Building on South Spring Street, completed in 1921. His military career became equally as impressive as his business career. He began by enlisting in the army as a private. He created what was then Battery A of the California Field Artillery and raised funds to build an armory and stables in Los Angeles.&nbsp;After being discharged from World War I service, in December 1920, Walter was commissioned as Captain of the California National Guard and began devoting his energies toward reorganizing the National Guard in Southern California. In 1921 he was promoted to Major and organized his own military company.&nbsp; In 1933 he graduated from the U.S. Army War College and was later promoted to the rank of Major General in July 1937. After he completed the General Officers Course in 1940 he assumed command of the 9th Army Corps, Fort Lewis, and entered Federal Service in March 1941, where he assumed command of the 40th Infantry Division, which now composed of the National Guard elements from California, Arizona and Utah.&nbsp;Having served through the ranks from private to Major General, he understood his men well and his division was known for its high morale. He was relieved from command due to protracted illness in September 1941, and retired from active list in July 1942. Among his citations and decorations include Victory Medal (World War I), Service Medal (25 Years), Medal of Merit, American Defense Service Ribbon, and the Order Crown of Italy. Until his death in 1957, he maintained his office in the Walter P. Story Building and resided at 3405 Laurel Canyon Blvd., North Hollywood.&nbsp;Today, housed in the California State Military Museum is the Walter P. Story Memorial Library and Research Center. This library possesses one of the finest collections of military history writings in the western United States. With over 10,000 volumes and growing rapidly, the library is one of the state's hidden educational and historical treasures.&nbsp;

Constructed in 1909, the Walter P. Story Building was designed in the Beaux Arts style by Major General of the California National Guard Walter Perry Story on a lot purchased by his father in 1895. His father was a successful cattle rancher from Montana and was the first person to drive cattle along the Bozeman Trail from Texas to Montana. The first three stories and the basement of the building were initially designed for retail, and the upscale clothier Mullen and Bluett occupied the space from 1910 through the 1960s. Walter P. Story and his wife lived in the penthouse. Today, the building is home to offices and businesses.

Walter P. Story Building

Located at 618 Spring Street, the building was designed to tower over the surrounding area with its imposing 53 feet granite facade and the largest bronze doors in the area. The interior of the building housed three bas-reliefs, designed by Salvatore Cartaino Scarpitta, entitled, Research and Discovery, Production, and Finance.&nbsp;The aim of the works was to highlight the stock exchange business' societal benefit through the use of symbols like the bear and the bull, reflecting rise and fall of the markets.The rest of the interior was designed by Julian Ellsworth Garnsey in a Native American and Near Eastern style. The trading floor&nbsp;held 64 booths and had a balcony under a 40 feet ceiling&nbsp;decorated with sculptured figures. Each of the sculptures represents something different, such as equality, permanence, speed, and accuracy. It was built with an auditorium, lecture room, and statistics department, as well as offices a library, a club, a billiard room, reading rooms, and a card room.The Exchange building opened in 1931 but merged into the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange in 1956, becoming the largest&nbsp;regional stock exchange west of the Mississippi. The Exchange moved to a different building in 1986, and in 1988, the Stock Exchange building was sold to the Empire Group for $2 million to be turned into a nightclub. By&nbsp;2006, PAX America had bought the building and renovated it for about $5 million, creating the nightclub ExchangeLA, which opened in 2010. Sadly, PAX America defaulted on settlements to reimburse ExchangeLA for the cost of mandated improvements, forcing to the company to file for bankruptcy in 2013.

Constructed in 1929 and opened in 1931, the Los Angeles Stock Exchange Building also called the Pacific Stock Exchange Building, is located in the city's Financial District. The eleven-story building was designed by Samuel Lunden in the Moderne style. From its opening until 1986, the building acted as the headquarters for the Los Angeles Stock Exchange before becoming the location of two nightclubs. The building became an LA landmark in 1979 and its façade is protected by the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Los Angeles Stock Exchange Building

This piece of land was used as a school until 1904 when the school board decided to lease it out. This was the beginning of Mercantile place, a development decised by C. Westley Roberts, who secured a ten-year lease from the Los Angeles School Board and bought the material from the old brick school building, which was to be demolished. It opened in 1905 and developed quickly over the following years with the addition of the Woodmen of the World lodge hall, the Curtis-Newhall newspaper advertising business, and MacDonald's hairdressing and beauty.After the ten-year lease was up, the school board realized that the property's value had risen from $400,000 to $1 million, meaning that the previous lease was massively undervalued. Rather than renew the lease on different terms, the board decided to sell the building but allowed it to be leased until a buyer could be found.&nbsp;In 1919 they sold the property to President of Hippodrome Theater Company Adolph Ramish for $1.15 million, who then sold it on for somewhere between $1.5 and $2.5 million. The new owners were a business group led by A.C. Blumenthal who held an architectural design competition for their new purchase. It was won by Kenneth MacDonald and Maurice CouchotBusinesses began moving in by January, 1925. The Arcade was described by some as a "City Within a City." The U.S. Post Office rented space in the arcade for $1 a year, but after 15 years the rate was increased to $1,500 a year. By 1946 it was $6,000 a year, and the Post Office had to be abandoned. Other improvements included twelve bowling lanes in 1940 and there was even a proposal to install an underground garage.&nbsp;

Opened in 1924, the Broadway Arcade, also known as the Spring Street Arcade, incorporates three historic buildings that once formed one of the premiere shopping areas of the country. The Broadway Arcade incorporated the existing structures and businesses of Mercantile Place, constructed at on land that once held one of the community's first schools. The Arcade was designed by architects Kenneth McDonald and Maurice Couchot with the intent of maintaining the Mercantile alley’s storefronts and ambiance. The glass-roofed skylight dome was fashioned after the grand 19th-century shopping arcades of Paris and London. 

Broadway Arcade, Los Angeles

After its construction, the Alexandria was one of the most luxurious hotels in the whole city. In 1923 the Biltmore Hotel was opened up three blocks away and was direct competition. This led to the hotel being sold in 1927 and then again in 1930, before eventually going bankrupt and closing down in 1932. Much of the hotel's interior, including the gold leaf ceilings, furniture, and chandeliers were sold off in 1934 in an attempt to pay off its debts.The hotel was sold yet again in 1937 to film&nbsp;producer Phil Goldstone who decided to renovate the building and reopen it. Part of the renovation involved splitting the lobby in two and creating a ballroom. The hotel changed hand again after World War II before being acquired by property developer S. Jon Kreedman in 1961.The building was declared as a historic-cultural landmark in 1971, but after this period began to see a gradual decline. This was in part due to the westward movement of the downtown business area. The proximity to Skid Row saw overnight guests decline and led the hotel to be changed into a single room occupancy hotel for low-income individuals. During this period the building became notorious for drug crime and its generally dangerous character.In 2005, the new owners converted the hotel into apartments, remodeling gradually as tenants were moved out. Today the building is a mix of regular and subsidized housing. Its ballrooms still remain and are used for various events, movie shooting, and weddings.&nbsp;

Designed by architect John B. Parkinson of the firm of Parkinson & Bergstrom and constructed by developers Albert C. Bilicke and Robert A. Rowan, the Hotel Alexandria opened on February 12, 1906. The 8-story luxury hotel stands on the southwest corner of Spring and 5th Streets and was so popular that Parkinson & Bergstrom designed a twelve-story addition, which was built behind the original building in 1911. 

Heart of Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour

Los Angeles Theatre

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources