Romanesque Revival Downtown

Welcome to the starting point of your tour.  Please familarize yourself with its operation. Here is an image of Third and Hill from the late 1950s.  Note the Ferguson, Hulburt, and Elks Lodge buildings ascending the hill up to Olive.  Th... Read more

The Bradbury opens in 1893.  Its architect is Sumner Hunt.

Harris Newmark Block, AKA Music Art Studio, 231-35 S Bway, Abram Edelman, 1899.  The building had a large hall (Blanchard Music Hall) with a seating capacity of 800. It was used for chamber music concerts and other programs. There was anot... Read more

City Hall 226-28 S Broadway Caukin & Haas, 1888 Demolished for parking lot, 1928   Note the Hosfield Bldg, AKA Victor Clothing; it was built as an annex for the City Hall in 1914 (Train & William, archs). ...

Curlett, Eisen & Cuthbertson, 1888, 213-23 S Bway, demolished for parking lot, 1953. Bicknell Block, Mogan & Walls, 1892, 225-29 S Bway, demolished for parking lot, 1958.  

209 S Broadway Enrest A Coxhead, noted church archtiect, 1888 Replaced in 1905 — They apparently decided a great Romanesque pile was too outmoded, because they hired Dennis & Farwell to replace it and who produced one amazing Sullivan... Read more

Newsom Brothers, 1887 Replaced — That's a Paul C. Pape (best known for his luxury apartment hotels) from 1911 built for C. Wesley Roberts. It's later known as the Civic Center Building. Gets a remodel in 1965.

The Times originally had a modest building at Temple & New High Street. First and Broadway, the Times Building of 1887, Caukin & Haas, with an addition in 1903 by John Krempel.  Dynamited by Unionists, 1910.  Redesigned by Walter ... Read more

318 West First.  1896-1955.  Charles L. Strange, arch. 

Curlett, Eisen & Cuthbertson.  The cornerstone was dedicated in April 1888, and it opened in the spring of 1891.  Damaged after the 1933 quake, it was demolished in 1935.

WCTU 301 N Broadway Caukin & Haas, 1889 The Los Angeles HQ for the WCTU . The top two floors are removed soon after the March 1933 quake.  It is demolished in 1955 to make way for the Central Steam & Refrigeration Plant, designed b... Read more

Built in 1902 and designed by Frank Hudson.  It is a casualty of the Spring St realingment. 

218 North Main, Curlett, Eisen & Cuthbertson, 1888

Carroll H Brown, 152-54 North Main, 1892

124-132 North Main, 1892.  Demolished, 1950.

Designed by Joseph Cather Newsom in 1888, located on the northwest corner on 2nd and Spring in Los Angles. From a 1981 reprint of J.C. Newsom's Artistic Buildings and Homes of Los Angeles:   'Bryson-Bonebrake Block, commissioned by John Br... Read more

Burdick Block 127 W 2nd J N Preston, 1888 Top stories, John Parkinson, 1900

226 South Spring, Solomon Irmscher Haas, 1889.   It is demolished in 1941 for a parking lot.

AKA the Orpheum after 1903, and the Lyceum after 1911, 227 South Spring is built by William Hayes Perry in 1888 (and is thus also referred to as the Perry Building).  Its architects are F. J. Capitain and J. Lee Burton. It is demolished fo... Read more

Stimson Block (Carroll H. Brown, 1893), NE corner of Spring and Third.   The Stimson Block was the first six-story building in Los Angeles, the first steel frame building in Los Angeles, and the last major example of commercial Richardsoni... Read more

Third & Spring is particularly interesting because on each corner it featured important buildings of differing styles.  The Ramona Hotel/Callaghan Block, BJ Reeve, 1886; a classic bay-windowed style.  It is replaced in 1912 by the Was... Read more

328 South Spring, Carroll H Brown Willard Stimson was the son of TD Stimson, he of the glorious Romanesque Stimson Block and still-extant Stimson House

Opened: 1894 as as Turn Halle, a German social Hall. By World War I it was changed to the less Germanic sounding Turner Hall. Architect: John Paul Kremple. See "A History of California..." by James Miller Guinn on Google Books for more info... Read more

Al Levy's Café Abram Edelman, arch, 1905, 263-73 S Main. The main dining room had a large art glass dome, an overhanging gallery for musicians, a grand staircase to the mezzanine.  The second floor had sixty-five private dining rooms, als... Read more

Garnier Building (1890 – Abraham Edelman) – Named for Frenchman Phillippe Garnier, who, with his brothers, owned Rancho Los Encinos. This building was constructed for Chinese commercial tenants, housing important Chinese organizations, ... Read more