Downtown

#242: King Edward Hotel (Skid Row)

#242: King Edward Hotel (Skid Row)

December 8, 2024
Architecture
The King Edward Hotel was one of four hotels designed by John Parkinson along a three-block stretch of 5th Street in the early decades of the 1900s. It's home to the infamous dive bar the King Eddy Saloon, and housed a subterranean speakeasy during Prohibition – still intact, a century later.
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#232: Fire Station No. 30 (Downtown)

#232: Fire Station No. 30 (Downtown)

September 1, 2024
Social History
Fire Station No. 30 once housed one of LA's two all-Black units during an era when Black and White firefighters were segregated. After a restoration in the 1990s, the old station building was reopened as the African-American Firefighter Museum, dedicated to preserving and retelling the story of Black firefighters in LA and beyond.
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#152: Commercial Club (Downtown)

#152: Commercial Club (Downtown)

May 20, 2023
Architecture
The Commercial Club building was the headquarters of a short-lived social club from the 1920s and early '30s. It was designed by the venerable Curlett & Beelman, whose expertise in handsome high-rises helped define the downtown skyline. After a decade of disuse, it was transformed into the swanky Proper Hotel, while retaining many of its historic quirks.
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#120-122: Garment District High-Rises (Downtown)

#120-122: Garment District High-Rises (Downtown)

October 10, 2022
Architecture
The 1920s-era Garment Capitol Building, Textile Center Building and Maxfield Lofts each have their own thing going for them aesthetically. And they each capture a unique period in the economic and architectural development of the Garment District in downtown LA, which remains one of the city's economic engines to this day.
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#45: Union Station (Downtown)

#45: Union Station (Downtown)

November 24, 2021
Architecture
A beloved landmark for travelers, architecture aficionados and culture vultures since it opened in 1939 Added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 13, 1980 I took these[…]
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