Los Angeles Plaza Historic District

Downtown Los Angeles grew from a small pueblo founded in 1781, and its original core survives as a 42-acre historic district around the Plaza. The area holds buildings from several eras: the Avila Adobe of 1818, the Plaza Church of 1822, the Pelanconi House from the 1850s, the Masonic Hall of 1858, and the Pico House and Merced Theatre of about 1870. Later Victorian additions include the Sepulveda Building and the Garnier Building, built in 1890 for Chinese tenants. Olvera Street, a brick-paved market lane, adds a Mexican character. The district declined into a semi-slum around 1900 before cleanup efforts led by Christine Sterling revived Olvera Street. The State, City and County acquired the area in 1953 as a state historic park, and restoration continued into the 1970s. The nomination presents the district as the living record of the city's growth through Spanish, Mexican and American periods, and as the only pueblo of its kind to survive in California.