El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument
Los Angeles Plaza Historic District | |
| File:Laplacitaparish.jpg La Placita Church | |
  | |
| Location | Los Angeles, California |
|---|---|
| Architect | Unknown |
| Architectural style | No Style Listed |
| NRHP reference No. | 72000231 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | November 03, 1972 |
The Los Angeles Plaza Historic District, also known as El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park, is a historic district located at the site where Spanish settlers founded Los Angeles in 1781 as "El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles". The historic district is roughly bounded by Spring, Macy, Alameda and Arcadia Sts., and Old Sunset Blvd. The district is centered around the old town plaza and remained the city's center through most of the 19th Century. The district includes the city's oldest and most historic structures, including Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Angeles Church (1822), Avila Adobe (1818) (the city's oldest surviving residence), the Olvera Street market, Pico House (1870), and the Old Plaza Fire Station (1884). The district was designated as a state monument in 1953,[2] and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
History
Founding of the Pueblo
|thumb|right|200px|Plaza in 1869]]
A plaque across from the Old Plaza commemorates the founding of the city. It states: "On September 4, 1781, eleven families of pobladores (44 persons including children) arrived at this place from the Gulf of California to establish a pueblo which was to become the City of Los Angeles. This colonization ordered by King Carlos III of Spain was carried out under the direction of Governor Felipe de Neve." The small town received the name El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles sobre El Rio Porciuncula, Spanish for The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels on the Porciuncula River. The Church of Our Lady Queen of the Angels would be the heart of the community.
Growth of the Pueblo
During its first 70 years, the Pueblo grew slowly at an average of about 25 persons per year, from 44 in 1781 to 1,615 in 1850. During this period, the Plaza Historic District was was the Pueblo's commercial and social center. In 1850, shortly after California became part of the United States, Los Angeles was incorporated as a city. It experienced a major boom in the 1880s and 1890s, as its population grew from 11,200 (1880) to 50,400 (1890) and 102,500 in 1900. As the City grew, the commercial and cultural center began to move south away from the Plaza, along Spring Street and Main Street. In 1891, the Los Angeles Times reported on the move of the city's center:
"The geographical center of Los Angeles is the old plaza, but that has long since ceased to be the center of population. ... While at one time most of the population was north of the plaza, during the past ten years 90 per cent of the improvements have gone up in the southern half of the city. ... These are solid facts which it is useless to attempt to ignore by playing the ostrich acts and level-headed property holders in the northern part of the city are beginning to ask themselves seriously what is to be done to arrest or at least delay the steady march of the business section from the old to the new plaza on Sixth Street ..."[3]
Major sites
The Plaza
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At the center of the Historic District is the old plaza itself. Built in the 1820s, the plaza was the city's commercial and social center. It remains the site of many festivals and celebrations. The plaza has large statues of three important figures in the city's history: King Carlos III of Spain (the monarch who ordered the founding of the Pueblo de Los Angeles in 1781); Felipe de Neve (the Spanish Governor of the Californias who selected the site of the Pueblo and laid out the town); and Father Juniperro Serra (head of the California missions).
La Placita Church
The parish church in the Plaza Historic District, known as La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles (The Church of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels), was founded in 1814, though the completed structure was not dedicated 1822.[4] The church was one of the first three sites designated as Historic Cultural Monuments by the City of Los Angeles,[5] and has been designated as a California Historical Landmark[6]
Olvera Street
Olvera Street, known for its Mexican marketplace, was originally known as Wine Street. In 1877, it was extended and renamed in honor of Agustin Olvera, a prominent local judge. Many of the Plaza District's Historic Buildings, including the Avila Adobe and Sepulveda House are located on Olvera Street. In 1930, it was converted by local merchants into the colorful marketplace that remains today.
Avila Adobe
The Avila Adobe was built in 1818 and is the oldest surviving residence in Los Angeles. It is located in the paseo of Olvera Street and was built by Don Francisco Avila, a wealthy cattle rancher. Its adobe walls are 2-1/2 to 3 feet thick. U. S. Navy Commodore Robert Stockton took it over as his temporary headquarters when the United States first occupied the city in 1846. The adobe is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is California State Landmark No. 145.
Plaza Substation
The Plaza Substation was part of the electric streetcar system operated by the Los Angeles Railway. Completed in 1904, the substation provided electricity to power the yellow streetcars. When the streecar system closed, the building was converted to other uses. The substation is one of the two buildings in the district that is itself separately listed in the National Register of Historic Places. (The Avila Adobe is the other.)
Old Plaza Firehouse
The Old Plaza Firehouse is the oldest firehouse in Los Angeles. Built in 1884, it operated as a firehouse until 1897. The building was thereafter used as a use as a saloon , cigar store, poolroom, "seedy hotel," Chinese market, "flop house," and drugstore.[7] The building was restored in the 1950s and opened as a firefighting museum in 1960.
Pico House
Pico House was a luxury hotel built in 1870 by Pío Pico, a successful businessman who was the last Mexican Governor of Alta California. With indoor plumbing, gas-lit chandeliers, a grand double staircase, lace curtains and a French restaurant, the Italianate three-story, 33-room hotel was the most elegant hotel in Southern California. It had a total of nearly eighty rooms. The Pico House is currently listed as a California Historical Landmark (No. 159).
Merced Theater
The Merced Theater, completed in 1870, was built in an Italiante style and operated as a live theater from 1871-1876. When the Woods Opera House opened nearby in 1876, the Merced ceased being the city's leading theater.[8] Eventually, it gained an "unenviable reputation" because of "the disreputable dances staged there, and was finally closed by the authorities."[9]
Masonic Hall
Masonic Hall was built in 1858 as Lodge 42 of the Free and Accepted Masons. The building was a painted brick structure with a symbolic "Masonic eye" below the parapet. In 1868, the Masons moved to larger quarters further south. Afterward, the building was used for many purposes, includding a pawn shop and boarding house. It is the oldest building in Los Angeles south of the Plaza.
Garnier Building
The Garnier Building was built in 1890 and was part of the city's original Chinatown. The southern portion of the building was demolished in the 1950s to to make way for the Hollywood Freeway. The Chinese American Museum is now located in the Garnier Building.
Sepulveda House
Sepulveda House is a 22-room Victorian house built in 1887 in the Eastlake style. The original structure included two commercial businesses and three residences. It is now the site of the Plaza District's Visitors' Center, which includes an 18-minute video of the Pueblo's early history.
Pelanconi House
Pelanconi House, built in 1857, is the oldest surviving brick house in Los Angeles.[10] In 1930, it was converted into a restaurant called La Golondrina, which is the oldest restaurant on Olvera Street.[11]
Plaza Methodist Church
Built in 1926, the Plaza Methodist Church was built on the site of the adobe once owned by Agustín Olvera, the man for whom Olvera Street was named.
See also
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15.
- ^ Ray Hebert (1970-06-08). "Plan to Commercialize Old Plaza Causes Rift: El Pueblo Park Agency Split on Lease Proposal". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "The City's Growth: Marching from the Old Toward the New Plaza; The Business Section Being Forced to the Southwest". Los Angeles Times. 1891-12-13.
- ^ Ruscin, p. 49
- ^ Los Angeles Department of City Planning (September 7, 2007), Historic - Cultural Monuments (HCM) Listing: City Declared Monuments (PDF), City of Los Angeles, retrieved 2008-05-29
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ #144
- ^ Judson Grenier. "Plaza Firehouse Centennial" (PDF). Los Angeles Public Library.
- ^ Lois Ann Woodward (1936). "Merced Theater" (PDF). State of California, Department of Natural Resources.
- ^ Rose L. Ellerbe (1925-10-25). "City's Progress Threatens Ancient Landmarks: Structures Once City's Pride Now Hidden in Squalor". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Restoration of Pelanconi Houe" (PDF). Los Angeles Public Library.
- ^ "La Golondrina" (PDF). Los Angeles Downtown News. 1995-11-13.
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