Tag Archives: Pershing Square
Biltmore Hotel, from the corner of 5th and Olive Streets, downtown Los Angeles, 1943
This grand building is the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The photographer was standing on the corner of 5th and Olive in 1943, when the world was fighting WWII. This was a time when Los Angeles was flooded with … Continue reading
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Tagged Downtown Los Angeles, Hotels, Los Angeles, Pershing Square, Restaurants, WWII
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Birdseye view of Pershing Square looking southeast from the corner of 5th Street and Olive Street, Los Angeles, circa 1926
This photo gives us a bird’s-eye view of Pershing Square in 1926, back when it was a leafy green space giving Angelenos respite from the relentless Californian summer sun and the unremitting hustle and bustle of downtown Los Angeles. Back … Continue reading
Looking west from the corner of 5th and Hill Streets, downtown Los Angeles, 1905
This part of downtown Los Angeles looks so different in this 1905 photo that it’s hard to even recognize it. The photographer was standing at the corner of 5th and Hill Streets. Those trees on the left line the perimeter … Continue reading
Clune’s Auditorium at 5th and Olive Streets, downtown Los Angeles, 1910
Here we have a photo from 1910 showing a Melrose-Ave-bound streetcar passing by Clune’s Auditorium across from Pershing Square (known as Central Park at the time) in downtown LA. The theater opened on November 7, 1906, amid much fanfare because … Continue reading
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Tagged Downtown Los Angeles, Pershing Square, Streetcars, Theaters
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Angelenos look on as Pershing Square is demolished for an underground parking structure, 1952
Like most Angelenos, I lament the loss of Pershing Square as a leafy, shady greenspace amid a bustling downtown Los Angeles. But progress cannot be ignored and more parking was needed in the heart of the city and putting five … Continue reading
The Biltmore Hotel under construction and Pershing Square, downtown Los Angeles, 1922
In this rare panorama taken in 1922, we can see the Beaux Art architecture of Biltmore Hotel taken shape across a leafy Pershing Square with a huge fountain in the middle. When the Biltmore opened in October 1923, it was … Continue reading
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Tagged Biltmore Hotel, Downtown Los Angeles, Hotels, Pershing Square
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Postcard showing fountain in Pershing Square, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1920s
I don’t have a specific date for this charming postcard showing us the fountain in Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles, but going by the fashions of the female passers-by, it looks circa 1920s. What a shame that lovely fountain … Continue reading
A jitney bus parked out front of Central Park (now Pershing Square), downtown Los Angeles, circa mid-1910s
This photo dates back to circa mid-1910s when downtown Los Angeles’s Pershing Square was still called Central Park. That large white vehicle parked in front is a jitney bus, which was a small public bus service. ‘Jitney’ was slang for … Continue reading
Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles from the top of a double-decker bus in the 1930s
In this “slice of Angeleno life” photo we have a shot in the 1930s of three people wearing hats and furs (which we no longer wear) taking a ride on an open-air double decker bus (which we no longer have) … Continue reading
Central Park, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1917 sometime before it was renamed Pershing Square in 1918
Before Pershing Square became Pershing Square (named after the WWI US Army general), it was called Central Park. It’s a generic name but more appropriate seeing as how it was in the center of downtown Los Angeles and it was … Continue reading