October 30, 2017
The Plaza was the center of Los Angeles in it’s first 100 years, bounded by Los Angeles Street to the east, Main Street(Calle Principal) to the west with the Pico House and the fire station on the south and Olvera Street(Wine Street) on the north. But this is not the original Plaza, there were at least two previous ones; one closer to the Los Angeles River, and one to the northwest of the current Plaza. Before the Spanish arrived, Los Angeles was a Tongva village known as Yangna that was close to very large sycamore tree. When the Spanish decided to send a settlers from Mission San Gabriel, they located the original plaza by the tree they called el Aliso*. The first Plaza was lost to the LA River flooding, so they moved to higher ground. I’ve not seen anything as to why the Plaza was moved from the second location, slightly southeast to it’s current location. The area east of the Plaza was the original Chinatown and a small alley off Los Angeles Street was known as Calle de los Negros(the American settlers called it something much more distasteful). The construction of Union Station in the mid to late 1930’s displaced Chinatown and it moved north of the Plaza. In the next 20 years due to freeway construction and stupidity(clearing areas for parking lots) many of the older buildings from the mid to late 1800’s were torn down. Los Angeles could have had a nice “Old Town” that would rival other cities, but “hey, we got parking”.
*When the Spanish first arrived in Los Angeles, or Yangna, el Aliso was thought to be about 300 years old. After the Plaza moved to the east, the area around el Aliso first became vineyards and later an industrial area with a brewery located next to the tree. The brewery(folk who lived or visited LA prior to the mid-80’s might remember the “Brew 102” sign over the brewery) was quite successful and continued to expand around the tree(and the tree was trimmed back to accommodate the brewery buildings). The brewery was a partnership of two German immigrants, one loved the tree and the other hated the tree. One day, while the guy who liked the tree was away, a branch fell on one of the beer trucks and the owner that was present ordered el Aliso cut down. When his partner returned, he was so incensed by this that he dissolved the partnership and started his own brewery a mile or so to the east. The location of el Aliso is now marked by a historical marker in the island of a freeway on/off ramp.
Sunset Hotel.
I’ve added this building to this set, even though it’s not on the Plaza(it’s a few blocks to the north), because it illustrates something about a good number of older buildings in downtown Los Angeles. This building is in Chinatown at the corner of Spring Street and Ord Street. This used to be the Sunset Hotel and was 5 stories high and had turrets. The turrets seem to have disappeared in the early 1930’s, probably due to the Long Beach earthquake of 1933. I’m not sure when the building lost it 4 top floors, but it seems to have occurred in the 1950’s(I did check the building records).
The Sunset Hotel really stood out in old pictures of this area(called Senoratown when it was built in 1887). I had assumed it had been torn down until I found out where it was located. I knew that this was the first floor of the 1887 building due to the arched windows and doors, the detailing, but most of all are the square pieces of metal on the roofline. Those are anchor bolts that were put into masonry buildings after the 1933 earthquake.
