# wholesale district los angeles 28 - 36 minutes 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. 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 in early days los angeles street to the west was considered the "heart" of the wholesale district 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' this six-story building for the publishing industry was planned for the heart of the district at east fourth and wall streets in 1911 ![[newspaper_clipping_showing_proposed_new_building_in_los_ange.png]] 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" 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 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 david hewes american property developer ![[david_hewes,_american_entrepreneur_and_property_developer_of.png]] 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 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" 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 it was noted that dozens of auto repair garages and machine shops lined los angeles street between first and tenth 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 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 map of proposed warehouse center in la ![[map_of_proposed_warehouse_center_in_los_angeles,_california,.png]] 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. 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. a lumber yard had to be removed from first and alameda to a new location near the la grande depot 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" 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. this center was to be shared by both the southern pacific and the santa fe railroads. nevertheless the plan unraveled and by july 1899 the scheme had apparently been abandoned because daniel "found it impossible to capitalize the project" 1889 - 1902. the area was categorized as a "sink of iniquity" because of asserted prostitution as well as the existence of "dives which are allowed to flourish in the center of the wholesale district on los angeles street" > the manhattan club just across the way from the republican club is the same sort of dive with the exception that it is given to the cultivation of pugilism rather than politics.. both places are provided with bars for which they pay no taxes to the city. both are sinks of iniquity where the dregs of society of both sexes and all colors congregate nightly to indulge in unbridled vice. occasionally the police arrest some of the women who frequent these dives but no serious effort has ever been made to prevent the orgies which are of nightly occurrence the manhattan club was described as a place where "negroes tough whites white and colored prostitutes assembled caroused drank gambled and worse until even the merchants on that street who are never there at night demanded that it be closed and it was closed.. a uniformed officer was stationed at the door and no matter who entered his or her name was taken. tough as were the patrons of the place they did not like the idea of the police keeping tab on them and the result was that" the business was ruined and the club was closed 1992: in november 1992 the los angeles times published a lengthy article whose headline described the warehouse district as "the underbelly" of los angeles a "concrete jungle" that was "rife with transients who pillage businesses on eerie nighttime raids." reporter david farrell wrote that "burglars clamber from one building to the next in search of air vents attic doors any place they can break in. there are petty bonanzas to reap: stereos shoes tomatoes and oranges by the crate - anything they can sell for crack cocaine." he called the district a "realm of cinder block and sheet metal a landscape hard by the concrete shore of the los angeles river." prostitution was rampant both male and female and residents lived through theft and by doing odd jobs for little pay. business owners reported spending thousands of dollars for protection like security guards video cameras iron fences and concertina wire only to have them soon circumvented by thieves who quickly offered stolen goods for sale on the sidewalks or elsewhere in the district the history of the wholesale district was marked by a number of notable fires particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries // republic of bob