Broadway Theatre and Commercial District (Boundary Increase)

This update expands a historic commercial and theater district along South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. The original district, listed in 1979, covers seven blocks developed between 1894 and 1931 with office buildings, department stores and theaters. The expansion adds 3.03 acres and eight buildings at the north and south ends, six of them contributing. They include the five-story Victor Clothing Company building of 1914, designed by Train & Williams, the Classical Revival Irvine-Byrne Building, a Gothic Revival seven-story commercial building, a thirteen-story theater and office building with Gothic-inspired terra cotta, and an eleven-story Renaissance Revival building. The update also removes six buildings from the contributing count. One was demolished in the 1980s, and five were altered too much to retain integrity. The district is significant for its role as the main shopping and entertainment center of a growing city and for its concentration of Beaux-Arts and revival-style commercial architecture. Its buildings share a common setback, similar cladding such as glazed terra cotta and brick, and street-level storefronts.