Multiple forms of traffic fill 7th St looking west from Spring St, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1914

Multiple forms of traffic fill 7th St looking west from Spring St, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1914I love this circa 1914 photo looking west along 7th St from Spring St in downtown Los Angeles because it shows four forms of transport happening on the same block: streetcar, horse-drawn carriage, automobile, and pedestrian. I doubt the horses would be seen on LA’s street much longer, so this image shows the city’s transition from an old form to a new one. Little did these Angelenos suspect how deep the roots of car culture would dig down in the City of Angels.

The vintage photo identified the intersection as 7th and Spring, however in this December 2020 the buildings don’t match, so I’m not 100% sure the location of the vintage photo was correct.

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9 responses to “Multiple forms of traffic fill 7th St looking west from Spring St, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1914”

  1. Todd von says:

    Love these Before/After images – particularly showing the transportation transition periods.
    I think you have the correct locale – the building on the left looks like a perfect match – the one on the right may have been retrofitted.

  2. Paula says:

    Ha! I suspect many Angelenos would not have suspected how much the pedestrian would disappear in the future. ?

  3. Gordon Sims says:

    City of Angels.

  4. Bill Wolfe says:

    I have two questions about the older photo. First, at the base of the tall building on the right, it looks like there’s some sort of enclosed structure resting on two poles on the sidewalk. Unless my eye is being fooled and that’s a large bay window in the building, I can’t imagine what would be the purpose of that cage-like structure. Second, I’d love to know what the full sign on the side of the hotel says. I can see “El Temp,” but that’s all.

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