Olvera Street 2
The oldest part of Los Angeles, Olvera Street was first established in the 1800s. El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles was founded by Spanish settlers from Mission San Gabriel who moved near this spot on the Los Angeles River in 1780 to erect the Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles Asistencia for the mission. Eventually the pueblo moved to the present El Pueblo area in the 1800s after flooding forced the abandonment of the original site.
After the area became part of Mexico in 1820, the area began to see its first adobe buildings and streets, centering around the Plaza. This remained the case after the area became part of the United States. One of the side alleys surrounding the plaza was Wine Street, which was renamed Olvera Street in 1877 to honor Agustin Olvera, the first Superior Court Judge of Los Angeles County. By the 1880s, the area was heavily immigrant, becoming a part of Little Italy.
By the 1920s the area was clearly in decline. In 1928 the Avila Adobe, the oldest surviving building in Los Angeles, was slated for demolition. A recent English transplant, Christine Sterling, quickly raced to preserve the building, enlisting the aid of Harry Chandler of the Los Angeles Times to generate a campaign to preserve the structure. Support soon began to flow in from all over the city, including Blue Diamond Cement and the Simmons Brick Company, and even the Los Angeles Police Chief James Davis, who donated prison labor (an except from her diary read: : "One of the prisoners is a good carpenter, another an electrician. Each night I pray they will arrest a bricklayer and a plumber.") Through those efforts, the building was preserved.
Encouraged by the efforts, Sterling pushed for the preservation of Wine Street, which was closed to traffic a year later and became "Paseo de Los Angeles". Touted as "A Mexican Street of Yesterday in a City of Today", Olvera Street soon became a popular tourist attraction. The area is filled with Mexican-themed restaurants, museums, and vendors. Roving mariachi bands add a certain flair to the area. In 2015 the American Planning Association named it one of the top five "Great Streets" in the United States. While there is some criticism from historians and Hispanic activists over the "appropriation" of Latino culture, they also acknowledge that without it the whole area would have been destroyed in the 1920s. Sterling was not as kind to the immediately adjacent Old Chinatown, supporting the destruction of most of the buildings that survived demolition for Union Station.
El Pueblo de Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Olvera Street 2
The oldest part of Los Angeles, Olvera Street was first established in the 1800s. El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles was founded by Spanish settlers from Mission San Gabriel who moved near this spot on the Los Angeles River in 1780 to erect the Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles Asistencia for the mission. Eventually the pueblo moved to the present El Pueblo area in the 1800s after flooding forced the abandonment of the original site.
After the area became part of Mexico in 1820, the area began to see its first adobe buildings and streets, centering around the Plaza. This remained the case after the area became part of the United States. One of the side alleys surrounding the plaza was Wine Street, which was renamed Olvera Street in 1877 to honor Agustin Olvera, the first Superior Court Judge of Los Angeles County. By the 1880s, the area was heavily immigrant, becoming a part of Little Italy.
By the 1920s the area was clearly in decline. In 1928 the Avila Adobe, the oldest surviving building in Los Angeles, was slated for demolition. A recent English transplant, Christine Sterling, quickly raced to preserve the building, enlisting the aid of Harry Chandler of the Los Angeles Times to generate a campaign to preserve the structure. Support soon began to flow in from all over the city, including Blue Diamond Cement and the Simmons Brick Company, and even the Los Angeles Police Chief James Davis, who donated prison labor (an except from her diary read: : "One of the prisoners is a good carpenter, another an electrician. Each night I pray they will arrest a bricklayer and a plumber.") Through those efforts, the building was preserved.
Encouraged by the efforts, Sterling pushed for the preservation of Wine Street, which was closed to traffic a year later and became "Paseo de Los Angeles". Touted as "A Mexican Street of Yesterday in a City of Today", Olvera Street soon became a popular tourist attraction. The area is filled with Mexican-themed restaurants, museums, and vendors. Roving mariachi bands add a certain flair to the area. In 2015 the American Planning Association named it one of the top five "Great Streets" in the United States. While there is some criticism from historians and Hispanic activists over the "appropriation" of Latino culture, they also acknowledge that without it the whole area would have been destroyed in the 1920s. Sterling was not as kind to the immediately adjacent Old Chinatown, supporting the destruction of most of the buildings that survived demolition for Union Station.
El Pueblo de Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California