First, here is the Spring Street diagonal looking north from First Street circa 1883:
![](https://otters.net/img/lapast/CHS-6332_crop.jpg)
Photo courtesy U.S.C. Digital Archive.
And here is the same view, only 45 years later:
![](https://otters.net/img/lapast/00018117-1.jpg)
Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library.
See? There's the southern section of the diagonal alignment, still intact, with the completed City Hall in the background!
Then I found this photo of a Spring Street in transition taken around the same time from atop the new City Hall:
![](https://otters.net/img/lapast/00014203-1.jpg)
Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library.
Isn't that neat? I was especially surprised to see that the intersection of Spring and Franklin (foreground) still existed as late as 1928.
Finally, here's a view from the north side of the new City Hall. That trapezoidal building at center is the ancient Temple Block – once the center of civic life in 19th century Los Angeles – also still standing much later than I imagined.
![](https://otters.net/img/lapast/00014188-1.jpg)
Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library.
And, from this old post, here's the Temple Block and City Hall as viewed from Temple Square:
![](https://otters.net/img/lapast/templesquare1927_lap.jpg)
Photo from La Reina - Los Angeles in Three Centuries, Published by Security Trust & Savings Bank, Los Angeles, 1929.
I love discovering new stuff like this. It really brings the old city alive for me! :-)
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