Downtown Buildings in the 1920s

1922 was a BIG year in downtown Los Angeles' architectural history. According to the website You-Are-Here.com, that was the year we got:

• the Biltmore Hotel
• an addition and new facade to St. Vibiana's Cathedral
• the Roosevelt Office Building (727. W. 7th St.) (now lofts)
• The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Building (now lofts)
• the Great Western Savings/Sun Drug Building at 7th and Hill (photo)
• the Ritz Hotel (now the Milner) on Flower St. (at right)
• the Astor Hotel (now the Kawada)
• the Japanese Union Church which is now the Union Center for the Arts in Little Tokyo
• the big gray Hall of Justice on Temple

and many, many others.

The You-Are-Here site sorts out the buildings still standing in many historic areas, arranging them by year, with links to photos of the buildings now.

The Los Angeles Library has this wonderful picture of our downtown on June 13, 1924, with Pershing Square in the center and the Biltmore on the left. Hotel Savoy is in the lower left, 6th and Grand, where the Wilshire Grand is now. "Spence Air Photos"--which I think means Robert E. Spence--took the picture. Don't know much about him but would love to learn more. Urban aerial photography in the 1920s . . . what an adventure.