Wilshire Blvd has long been an important east-west cross-town thoroughfare for Los Angeles, and in places quite scenic, like this stretch, for instance. In this photo, we’re looking west along Wilshire from Alvarado St just outside of downtown. All those trees in the distance are clustered around MacArthur Park. This photo was taken in 1940 and wouldn’t be renamed MacArthur Park (after General Douglas MacArthur) until 1942, when the US was embroiled in WWII and MacArthur was leading the battle against the Japanese in the Philippines. On the right we can see a sign for a Sontag drug store, which we don’t see any more but back then was a common sight around L.A.

Roughly the same view in January 2022: