If this image looking south on Spring Street on this 1907 postcard looks unfamiliar, there’s a reason. Most of the buildings are gone and Spring Street was straightened out to make way for City Hall. The postcard is listed on EBay for $5.
SPRING STREET REVISITED – a series of posts I wrote when the blog was at latimes.com
So you can get your bearings, the large building on the right, the Hotel Nadeau, was at 1st Street and Spring and was demolished to make way for The Times Building.
Notice the horse-drawn vehicles, the streetcars and the streetlights. It’s a bit hard to tell, but it looks like Spring at this point was paved with brick.
Also notice that there are no traffic controls: No stop lights, no traffic officers. No crosswalks. Nothing. People are crossing the street at random. This was an interesting time for transportation in Los Angeles. Ever wonder what happened when a streetcar hit a horse? That’s a story for another day.
