Main Street is a major north–south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California.

It continues through the Civic Center area, which is built on top of the site of the buildings — nearly all demolished — that in the 1880s through 1900s formed the city's Central Business District.

With indoor plumbing, gas-lit chandeliers, a grand double staircase, lace curtains, and a French restaurant, the Italianate three-story, 33-room hotel was the most elegant hotel in Southern California.

The building was a painted brick structure with a symbolic "Masonic eye" below the parapet.

Afterward, the building was used for many purposes, including a pawn shop and boarding house.

The Merced Theater, completed in 1870, was built in an Italianate style and operated as a live theatre from 1871 to 1876.

When the Woods Opera House opened nearby in 1876, the Merced ceased being the city's leading theatre.

[3] Eventually, it gained an "unenviable reputation" because of "the disreputable dances staged there, and was finally closed by the authorities.

Commissioned in 1883 by Philippe Garnier, once housed the "La Esperanza" bakery.

It was built in 1888 and combines Italianate and Victorian architecture; the architect was Robert Brown Young.

The Sentous Block or Sentous Building (19th c., demolished late 1950s) was located at 615-9 N Main St., with a back entrance on 616-620 North Spring St. (previously called Upper Main St., then San Fernando St.).

Louis Sentous was a French pioneer in the early days of Los Angeles.

This block is part of the site of the current Spring Street Courthouse.

On this corner stood four buildings in succession, the first two of which had a key role in the history of retail in Southern California, as it was home to a number of upscale retailers who would later grow to be big names in the city, and some, regional chains.

South of the Baker Block stood buildings that are now the site of the northwestern-most part of the Los Angeles Mall:

The Los Angeles Mall replaced these blocks; it is a small shopping center at the Los Angeles Civic Center, between Main and Los Angeles Streets on the north and south sides of Temple Street, connected by both a pedestrian bridge and a tunnel.

It features Joseph Young's sculpture Triforium, with 1,500 blown-glass prisms synchronized to an electronic glass bell carillon.

The mall opened in 1974 and includes a four-level parking garage with 2,400 spaces.

Sources include the Clason map of Downtown Los Angeles:[40] On the west side of Main St. south of 3rd Street were: On the east side of Main St. south of 3rd Street were:

While the Broadway Theater and Commercial District several blocks west is famous enough to warrant constituting a National Register-listed historic district, Main Street was home to dozens of theatres and early cinemas as well.

The peak era was the early 1910s, before the more upscale cinema market migrated west to Broadway.

[54][55] Landmarks are shown on the following street grid of the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles.

301–9 Schwartz Block 1888⁠-⁠d⁠[69] Hotel Jackson 1890s Citizens Nat'l Bank/Cotton Exch Bldg 1906-?d[70]⁠[66]⁠[67]⁠HA

1906–pres RBY Blackstone DS 1906-17 The Fair Cozy Theater 1930s-50s[74] 324-6  Shannon B.

355–363 1898/1902 JP Grant Bldg jewelers Montgomery Bros. shoes W. E. Cummings 340  Trustee B.

332–346 Hotel Westminster1888⁠–⁠1960d RBY now Medallion Apts⁠🏠 335–399 Germaine[80]Bldg d [72]Edison H. now retail, 🅿️

1915: 401–23 B'way, 414–34 Hill were joined as the: Broadway Dept Store Bldg 1915 P&B 1999 renamed Junípero Serra B.

1914⁠–⁠34 Owl Drugs 1913⁠–⁠26 Public Library Foreman& Clarkds c.⁠1915⁠–⁠28 1916⁠–⁠28 Janss land dev.

Fallas Paredesds 1996⁠-⁠2022 Now small/vacant retail,Downtown Metro Lofts Chester Williams B.

Broadway Arcade) 543 Desmond's ds 1915–24 514 Security T&SB 1916 JP BA now L.A. Theater Center 545