![]() Broadway looking north from 11th Street, 2020 | |
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Maintained by | Local jurisdictions |
---|---|
Length | 17.75 mi (28.57 km) |
Location | Los Angeles County, California, United States |
South end | Main Street in Carson |
Major junctions | |
Northeast end | Mission Road in Lincoln Heights |
Construction | |
Inauguration | 1890 |
Broadway Theater and Commercial District (NRHP) Broadway Theater and Entertainment District (City of Los Angeles) | |
![]() Los Angeles Theatre on Broadway | |
Location | 300—849 S. Broadway Los Angeles, California |
Coordinates | 34°2′48″N118°15′4″W / 34.04667°N 118.25111°W |
Architect | Multiple |
Architectural style | Early Commercial, Classical Revival, Art Deco |
NRHP reference No. | 79000484 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | May 9, 1979 [1] |
Boundary increase | April 12, 2002 [2] |
Broadway is a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles County, California. The portion of Broadway from 3rd to 9th streets was Los Angeles's main commercial area from the 1910s until World War II and in 1979, it was listed as the Broadway Theater and Commercial District in the National Register of Historic Places, [1] the first and largest theater district to be listed. [3] The district was expanded to 2nd and Olympic in 2002. [2]
South Broadway's southern terminus is Main Street just north of the San Diego Freeway (I-405) in Carson. From there it runs 10 miles (16 km) north through Athens and South Los Angeles to Downtown Los Angeles, where it enters downtown's Historic Core and the Broadway Theater and Commercial District. Broadway continues through the Civic Center and across US-101, where signs read "North Broadway" as the street enters Chinatown. Broadway then curves northeast, passing through railyards and then crossing Interstate 5, where it heads due east to its terminus at Mission Road in Lincoln Heights.
Broadway was originally named Ford Street and is one of the oldest streets in Los Angeles. It was laid out by Edward Ord as part of his 1849 plan for the city. The street began at the south side of Fort Moore Hill, one block north of Temple Street, at Sand Street (later California Street). It was named after Fort Moore. [4]
In 1890, the street was renamed Broadway from 1st to 10th Street (now Olympic Boulevard), while the rest of the street was renamed North Broadway. [5] [6] Proposals to connect Broadway to Buena Vista Street (now North Broadway) and also extend Broadway south into what was part of Main Street were made as early as February 1891. [7] The Broadway Tunnel opened in 1901, traveling through Fort Moore Hill and extending North Broadway to Buena Vista Street at Bellevue Avenue (later Sunset Boulevard, now Cesar Chavez Avenue). [8]
In September 1911, a bridge across the Los Angeles River opened, connecting Buena Vista Street to Downey Avenue, both of which were renamed North Broadway [9] [10] [11] despite significant objections from residents and landowners. [12] [13] [14] [15] The bridge was referred to as the Buena Vista Street Bridge even after the streets were renamed. [16]
A section of Broadway in South Los Angeles was named Moneta Avenue until 1923. [8]
Prior to the 20th century, Los Angeles's Central Business District was located along Spring and Main Street between Los Angeles Plaza and 2nd. In 1895, J.W. Robinson's opened a four-story department store at 239 S. Broadway, [17] [18] starting the shift of the main shopping district to Broadway, and numerous historic buildings, including commercial, residential, and office, as well as movie palaces and live theaters, were built along Broadway between 1893 and 1934. [1] [2]
From c. 1905 through the 1950s, Broadway was considered the center of Los Angeles. The square footage of Broadway's four largest department stores alone totaled more than three million square feet, roughly the size of American Dream Meadowlands. These stores were:
Los Angeles's premier theater district shifted to Hollywood in the 1920s, [24] while its commercial center left Broadway in the 1950s, [1] after which Broadway declined significantly.
The Broadway Theater and Commercial District, the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places, [25] was designated in 1979 and expanded in 2002. The district contains twelve theaters and more than fifty additional buildings, [1] [2] several of which were in disuse or disrepair at the time of their designation, many of which have since been repurposed or restored. Additionally, Broadway's department stores closed in the 1970s and 1980s, at which point the area transitioned to a working class Latino shopping destination. [26]
In the 2010s, a sneaker and streetwear retail cluster emerged on Broadway between 4th and 9th streets; it has been named Sneaker Row. [27] Retail at 9th & Broadway has also proliferated during this time, with the opening of Acne Studios, Oak NYC, Aesop, Tanner Goods, BNKR, Austere, A.P.C., and Urban Outfitters. [28] [29]
In 2008, the City of Los Angeles launched a $40-million ($58.4 million in 2024) campaign to revitalize Broadway, known as Bringing Back Broadway, this despite some merchants' concerns that the campaign would spread the gentrification occurring in other parts of downtown to Broadway. [30] The campaign's commission, led by City Councilman Jose Huizar, recommended widening sidewalks, eliminating traffic lanes, constructing new parking structures, and adding streetcar service reminiscent of the street's past. [31]
In 2014, a pedestrian-friendly project widened Broadway's sidewalks and replaced its parking lane with planters, chairs, and cafe tables. Mayor Eric Garcetti said the effort, part of the larger Great Streets Initiative that focused on walkability and transit throughout Los Angeles, represented "a shift from the way that our neighborhoods have been planned." [32]
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This area south to Second Street was Los Angeles's Central Business District during the 1880s and 1890s. It is now the Civic Center.
Cable cars of the Temple Street Cable Railway ran along Temple Street starting in 1886 and were replaced with Pacific Electric streetcars in 1902. [33] [34]
This location was at the time known as Pound Cake Hill. The buildings located here faced New High Street to their east and Broadway to their west. They were as follows: [38]
Currently on the site are:
Adjacent to the south, mid-block, is a portion of Grand Park.
The southwest corner, during Victorian times the site of unremarkable retail and office buildings, was from 1958 the location of the State Office Building, (1958-60, architect Anson C. Boyd, razed 2006). It was named the Junipero Serra State Office Building, and this moniker would be transferred to the former Broadway Department Store building at 4th and Broadway when it was opened to replace this building in 1998. [45] It is now the location of the New U.S. Courthouse built in 2016, taking up the entire block between Broadway, Hill, First and Second. [46]
Just south of the southwest corner was the Mason Theatre , 127 S. Broadway. Opened in 1903 as the Mason Opera House, 1,600 seats. Benjamin Marshall of the Chicago firm Marshall & Wilson designed the building in association with John Parkinson. Marshall is known for designing the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago. Remodeled in 1924 by Meyer & Holler. Later, as the Mason Theatre, it showed Spanish-language films. Demolished 1955. [47]
145 S. Broadway, [48] site of the C. H. Frost Building, later known as the Haig M. Prince Building. Built 1898, architect John Parkinson, [49] Now the location of the new United States Courthouse built in 2016, taking up the entire block between Broadway, Hill, First and Second. [46]
One of several Hellman Buildings across Downtown L.A. — not to be confused with the still-existing Hellman Building at Fourth and Spring — was located here (#138) from 1897 to 1959. [50] The site is now a parking structure, part of the Times Mirror Square complex.
The west side of the 200 block of South Broadway had a key place in the retail history of Los Angeles from the 1893 through 1917, as it was home to several prominent early department stores such as the Ville de Paris, Coulter's department store from 1905–1917, and J. W. Robinson's "Boston Dry Goods" store from 1895–1915. All three stores would move to Seventh Street when it became the upscale shopping street between 1915 and 1917.
Further south on the west side of Broadway, was 207–211, location of the:
The YMCA Building was demolished to make way for the:
The adjacent Potomac Block and Bicknell Block originally housed prominent retailers of the day, then were joined together in 1906 by Coulter's department store to form a complex, opening it as a new, 157,000 sq ft (14,600 m2) store in June, 1905. [54] [55] [56]
The Potomac Block, 213–223 S. Broadway, was from 1905 to 1917 known as the B. F. Coulter Building. It was originally developed by lumberyard and mill owner J. M. Griffith. It was designed in 1888 by Block, Curlett and Eisen in Romanesque architectural style [57] and opened on July 17, 1890. [58]
Tenants included:
It was the first time major retail stores opened on South Broadway, in what would be a shift of the upmarket shopping district from 1890 to 1905 from around First and Spring to South Broadway. In 1904, Coulter's bought the Potomac Block, and combined it with the Bicknell block to create its new store that opened in 1905.
After Coulter's moved:
The building was demolished in 1953 and is still the site of a parking lot. [59]
The Bicknell Block (or Bicknell Building) at 225–229 S. Broadway, with back entrances at 224–228 S. Hill Street. was part of Coulter's from 1905 from 1917. After Coulter's moved in 1917, it housed the Western Shoe Co. (through 1922), later known as the Western Department Store (1922–1928). Lettering covered the face of the building from top to bottom through the end of the 1950s: "THE LARGEST SHOE DEPT. IN THE WEST". [60]
The southeast corner of 2nd and Broadway was the site of:
Mid-block were:
The corner is home to one of the oldest buildings outside the Plaza area, the 1895 Irvine-Byrne Building or Irvine Block or Byrne Building; now called the Pan American Lofts. The architect was Sumner Hunt. It was built in a hybrid Spanish Colonial Revival/Beaux-Arts style.
The building was home to the renowned I. Magnin clothing store that opened here on January 2, 1899; [71] on June 19, 1904, I. Magnin announced that the Los Angeles store would henceforth be known as Myer Siegel. [64] After a fire at the Irvine Byrne Building destroyed its store on February 16, 1911, Myer Siegel moved further south on Broadway.
It was modernized and converted to lofts in 2007 and given its present name. The halls and staircase have appeared in many films and television commercials. [72]
From Third Street south to Olympic Blvd. (originally Tenth St.), and from Hill Street east to Los Angeles Street, including Broadway, is the Historic Core district, the city's main commercial and entertainment area in the first half of the 20th century.
On this corner: [73]
The Los Angeles Metro Rail's Historic Broadway station is an underground light rail station near the intersection of 2nd and Broadway, [130] [131] which is served by the E Line east to East Los Angeles and west to Santa Monica, and on the A Line northeast to Union Station, Pasadena, and Azusa and south to Long Beach. [132]
Metro J Line bus rapid transit (BRT) has 5 stations adjacent to Broadway in South Los Angeles: 37th Street/USC, Slauson, Manchester/I-110, Harbor Freeway, and Rosecrans. These stations are along the Harbor Transitway, a dedicated busway between Downtown L.A. (Adams Blvd.) and the Harbor Gateway, near Carson, in the median of the Harbor Freeway (I-110), just west of Broadway. J Line BRT runs as far south as San Pedro and as far northeast as El Monte.
Metro Local bus line 45 serves most of the length of Broadway, between Lincoln Heights through Downtown to the Harbor Freeway Station. Local routes 4, 30, and 40 serve portions of Broadway downtown.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Among the building permits issued by the Building Superintendent yesterday was one taken out by T. D. Stimson for a two-story building on the southwest corner of Broadway and Third street. The building is to be in size 120x120 feet. The estimated cost of the structure is $26,000.
Architect John Parkinson