Edward Fallis Spence (December 22, 1832 – September 19, 1892) was a banker, entrepreneur and property developer who was a member of the California legislature, a Nevada County official and the mayor of Los Angeles from 1884 to 1886.

He was educated there by private tutors, and at the age of 20 he emigrated to America and worked on a farm near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for several months, then shipped to California via the Nicaragua route, arriving in San Francisco in December 1852.

Spence died of heart failure September 19, 1892, in the home of a friend, John A. Fairchild, on Burlington Avenue[2] near Ninth Street, in today's Westlake district, Los Angeles.

"[4] Spence gained his knowledge of business affairs through assisting his father in the management of the family's large farming tracts and herds of cattle in Ireland.

[1] He promised to donate some of his property, "including the lot at the corner of Pearl and Sixth streets (on which the Gates Hotel now stands)" to USC so that it might be sold and the proceeds used to place a telescope on the summit of Mount Wilson.