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| DOWNTOWN More than just bums, drug dealers and a bus station that'll give you cold sweats, downtown Los Angeles is an archipelago of historic and colorful neighborhoods. The heart of old LA is Olvera Street. Both touristy and quaint it boasts LA's oldest residence, the Avila Adobe, built in 1818 by a Spanish rancher. Today the house is the centerpiece of the Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, with historic buildings from the 19th and early 20th century. Across Alameda Street is Union Station, built in 1939, and designed in classic Spanish Revival style by John and Donald Parkinson, the same father-and-son team, who created City Hall, which is plays the part of the Daily Planet headquarters in the "Adventures of Superman" TV show from the 1950s. Just one block north of the station is Philippe's, 1001 North Alameda, the luncheonette where the French dip sandwich was invented in 1918. The building of Union Station led to the destruction of LA's original Chinatown, which was relocated just north of the Pueblo historic district. In Chinatown you can eat Chinese strawberry whipped cream cakes at Phoenix Bakery, 969 N. Broadway, or get energized at the Wing Hop Fung Ginseng and China Products Center, 727 N. Broadway. Also downtown you can see the Morrison Hotel, 1246 South Hope St., made famous by Jim Morrison and the Doors when they used the building for the cover shot of the 1970 album of the same name as the building. Beginning summer 2007, the Angels Flight Railway, a funicular that climbs Bunker Hill, will re-open after being closed for six years due to a fatal accident. Further south is the the downtown arts district centered around Groundwork Coffee Company, 811 Traction Avenue, and Bloom's General Store, 716 Traction Ave., an old-style general store with nearly everything including milk, tools, cigars and video rental. One of the country's largest arts communities lives just north of downtown in the Brewery, 2020 N. Main St., a 23-acre complex with a restaurant, Barbara's Bistro, in the center. |
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