The Wholesale District or Warehouse District in Downtown Los Angeles, California, has no exact boundaries, but at present it lies along the BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad lines, which run parallel with Alameda Street and the Los Angeles River.2012–2013 Official Visitors Map, Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, 2012 Except for some ancillary commercial uses, its cityscape is mostly occupied by warehouses and refrigerated storage facilities. This area is known as Central City North in the Los Angeles city zoning map. Zimas, the Los Angeles city zoning map
In early days, Los Angeles Street, to the west, was considered the "heart" of the Wholesale District,"Mathews Paint Company and Western Wholesale Drug Company on South Los Angeles Street Almost Completely Gutted by Flames of Unknown Origin," Los Angeles Times, May 18, 1907, page II-2 which over the years expanded southerly along the same thoroughfare, and, to a lesser extent, northward. Warehouse buildings were also constructed on Alameda Street, and plans were made for a new center at First and Alameda, but it was never brought to fruition. Warehouses were built on San Pedro Street and on Central Avenue. Eventually the district spread farther on the east side of Downtown, and by 1990 it was described as being bounded by San Pedro Street, the Los Angeles River, First Street and the Santa Monica Freeway .
The traditional center
1898–1902. The "wholesale business quarter" of Los Angeles was centered on Los Angeles Street around First and Second streets, New buildings were constructed in the existing Wholesale District over the next years, including one at 147-149 North Los Angeles Street for the Davenport Company, dealer in agricultural implements and heavy hardware; the American Notion building at 131–133; the E.P. Bosbyshell building at 125–129, occupied by S.J. Smith and his pumps and pumping machinery; and a building on the west side of the street for two wholesale houses, one of which was to be the Zellerbach & Son paper company. A three-story building was constructed between Second and Third streets for the Standard Woodenware Company and John Wigmore and Sons Company — said to be "one of the best equipped wholesale buildings in Southern California.""In the Wholesale District: Expansion in This Direction Keeps Pace With Improvements in Other Localities," Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1902, page A-1
1910-11. Construction included the six-story W.H. Perry Building on the southeast corner of Second and Los Angeles street and the H.W Hellman building on Second Street in 1910. It was said then that the District would naturally be extended to the east,"New Blocks Significant," Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1910, page VI-1 and indeed in 1911 plans were announced to build a $100,000 building on the northeast corner of East Fourth and Wall streets, strictly for the printing and publishing businesses. In 1911 notice was made of new buildings for the P.H. Mathews Paint Company, the Pioneer Roll Paper Company, the Klein-Norton Company, the Golden State Shoe Company, the Stewart-Dawes Shoe Company, all moving into new buildings of their own, and all on Los Angeles Street."Big Jobbing House Where Publishers Will Get Together:The Modern Trend: Block to House Many Concerns," Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1911, page V-1
Plans were announced in September 1911 for the construction of a five-story building on the northwest corner of Second and Alameda streets, to be occupied by Haas-Baruch and Company in "one of the largest and most modern wholesale grocery companies in the West. Architects were Morgan, Walls & Morgan."Great Block for Old Firm," Los Angeles Times, September 17, 1911, page VI-1
1912. Warehouse District structures had spread farther south on Los Angeles Street. One of the largest leases ever concluded in the District, up to then, was for a fireproof seven-story-plus-basement building on the east side of Los Angeles between Seventh and Eighth streets. The Los Angeles Times opined: "The project marks another link in the chain of modern fireproof buildings erected on Los Angeles Street in the past two years.""Another One: Will Build Large Block," Los Angeles Times, December 22, 1912, page V-1
1913. Landowner David Hewes of Orange, California, announced plans to expand the District to the entire block from Los Angeles Street, where he contracted with the Willard-Slater Company to build twelve stores, to Santee Street between Eighth Street and Ninth Street, where he was planning six more. He said that increased traffic to Los Angeles through the newly opened Panama Canal was one of the reasons he predicted success for his venture. Hr had already placed Hewes Market at Ninth and Los Angeles, where it became one of the busiest corners in the city."Looking Ahead at Ninety-Two: Pioneer Here Still Building for the Future," Los Angeles Times, August 24, 1913, page II-3
It was noted that dozens of auto repair garages and machine shops lined Los Angeles Street between First and Tenth."Garages Do Big Business in Wholesale District," Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1917, page VI-5
1917. Los Angeles Street between Seventh and Eighth streets was regarded as "the center of the wholesale dry goods and apparel business in this city, as well as for light manufacturing of those and kindred lines." At that time it was announced that "The biggest structural enterprise yet launched in the wholesale and jobbing district" would go ahead with two ten-floor fireproof loft buildings to be erected by M.J. Connell at the corner of Seventh and Santee."Big Buildings Going Ahead as War Begins," Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1917, pages V-1 and V-14
1992. The Warehouse District was described as "a realm of cinder block and sheet metal, a bleak landscape" that lay from San Pedro Street on the west to the Los Angeles River on the east and from First Street on the north to the Santa Monica Freeway on the south.
Expansion
First and Alameda
1898–99. In 1898 an entrepreneur named A.E. Weeks had gathered enough properties from some thirty to forty owners to announce his plans to build a new wholesale center of four blocks on the west side of Alameda Street and the west side of Vine Street between First and Jackson streets and on the north and south sides of Jackson between Alameda and Wilmington streets. The purchase price was "well up toward a million dollars," and the sale was made to P.M. Daniel of the Pacific Crockery and Tinware Company, president of the Los Angeles Board of Trade, who was presumed to be representing other investors as well as himself. Buildings on the site were to be leveled, and "fine business blocks adapted to the need of wholesale houses" would be constructed in such a way that the Southern Pacific Railroad would have access to the Alameda frontage for easy loading and unloading of goods. The idea for such a district was taken from a similar project in St. Louis, Missouri, and its backers stressed the advantage for Los Angeles merchants in competing with San Francisco in Northern California."Trade Militant, Los Angeles-Wholesale Men Make a Great Deal: Will Spend Millions to Save Expense of Loading and Unloading Cars," Los Angeles Times, December 29, 1898, page 10 It was said also that the new center would "enable the Southern Pacific Railroad to place its cars at the very doors of the various wholesale houses, and the saving to the trade of this city will run into hundreds of thousands of dollars per year as a result of dispensing with drayage." The destruction of some sixty cottages and tenement houses was envisioned."House and Lot: The Large Wholesale Rebuilding Deal," Los Angeles Times, December 30, 1898, page 11 A lumber yard had to be removed from First and Alameda to a new location near the La Grande depot"The Wholesale District: Who Buys Mount Lowe?" Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1899, page 10
A Los Angeles Times opinion article on January 6, 1899, however, argued against completion of the project, which would redound to the advantage of the Southern Pacific as opposed to its rival Santa Fe Railroad. The Times stated that the "proper place" for a new wholesale district would be between the Southern Pacific's Arcade Depot and the Santa Fe depot in the Palmetto Street-Santa Fe Avenue area because "The tracks of the two companies are only about 1700 feet apart there, so that switches could easily be made into warehouses.""House and Lot: Rain Stiffens the Backbones of Investors," Los Angeles Times, January 6, 1899, page 14
The plan envisioned freight cars being brought from the Southern Pacific line on Alameda Street into the new center, where "a force of clerks" would work in a station office named Daniel, in honor of P.M. Daniel, the author of the enterprise."Wholesale District: Plans Matured for the New Blocks and Depot," Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1899, page B-10 This center was to be shared by both the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe railroads."Wholesale District Depot," Los Angeles Times, July 10, 1899, page 12 Nevertheless, the plan unraveled, and by July 1899 the scheme had apparently been abandoned because Daniel "found it impossible to capitalize the project.""End of a Scheme," Los Angeles Times, July 10, 1899, page 12
1905. An increase in the cost of Los Angeles Street property was said to be the impetus for the expansion of the Wholesale District in 1905 along East First and Alameda streets, helped by a decision of the Santa Fe Company to build a switch track on Banning Street."New Wholesale District Along East First Street," Los Angeles Herald, July 16, 1905, page III-2
San Pedro Street
1904. The "congested condition of traffic on Los Angeles street, in the wholesale districts, and the fact that this class of business cannot well move westward on Main street" impelled the City Council in December 1904, by a vote of 4 to 3, to order the reconstruction, straightening and widening of San Pedro Street (a portion of which had historically been known as Wilmington Street) to eighty feet across in order to provide new opportunities for business growth. The job also provided for an entirely new "highway" from Fifth Street to Aliso Street.
The plan was opposed by some longtime property owners, in part because two landmarks were marked for destruction — a two-story residence owned by Mrs. M.A. Woodworth on San Pedro "where for more than a quarter century the hospitality of old Spanish families has been dispensed, and which for many years was the center of much of the social activity of the city." A contemporary account noted that "Around the Woodworth home there are beautiful grounds, and a really refreshing oasis in the desert of brick walls, dingy store fronts and shabby buildings in the neighborhood. One of the most prized features of the grounds is a noble magnolia tree, notable for the profusion of its waxy flowers, and flanked to the eastward with a row of stately fan palms. These all must go down before the march of commercial supremacy." Also to be sacrificed was a 100-year-old adobe house that had been occupied by the Spanish and Mexican pioneer Lugo family, which for three generations had been maintained as a "typical Spanish-American home." It had been built by Mrs. Woodworth's grandfather, Don Antonio Manuel Lugo.<ref name=WarAgainst>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/164279422/ "War Against Newest Mart: An Excited Woman Talks of Resort to Violence," Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1904, page A-1]</ref>
1925. San Pedro Street was noted as the "principal north and south artery" of the wholesale district when a six-story building was completed at East Sixth Street for the City Towel Supply Corporation, with a portion to be leased to wholesale and manufacturing companies."City Towel Building Is Completed," Los Angeles Times, December 20, 1925, page E-8
Central Avenue