Angelenos could finally see what shape their new City Hall would take when its steel frame neared completion as it had in this 1927 photo. I wonder if they knew it would become an icon of the city. That building in the front was called the Temple Block, which was a popular office building home to all sorts of professionals: lawyers, bankers, photographers, hatters. Around since the 1860s, it fell victim to the march of progress when it was decided that LA needed a new City Hall, which opened the following year, on April 26, 1928.
The steel frame of the new Los Angeles City Hall nears completion in downtown Los Angeles, 1927
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I think Temple Block was where City Hall East is now. I’m not certain, but I think that’s right.
When City Hall was closed for earthquake retrofitting and general restoration in the late 1990s, our office moved from the 18th floor to the old Title Insurance Company building at 4th and Spring. When the work on City Hall was nearing completion, my boss and I got to ride the elevator that was attached to the building’s exterior. It was remarkable to look out from the 18th floor through the exposed I-beams at the city below. I’ll always treasure a view of City Hall that not very many people have had a chance to see.