It also includes the California Highway Patrol station beneath the Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Memorial Interchange northeast of Washington Boulevard.

It was destroyed in 1781 by Spanish settlers as part of the Anza Expedition who issued a claim to the land and water rights from King Carlos III.

[6] The area was part of the early Pueblo de Los Ángeles settlement in Spanish and Mexican California.

Easy access to downtown Los Angeles and the nearby Wilshire District drew large numbers of affluent homeowners.

The loss of residents and business led to high vacancy rates and lower property values in much of the neighborhood by the 1960s.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, the area became a major point of entry for Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants seeking refuge from civil war, according to the Pico Union Self-Guided Walking Tour, published in 2009 by the Los Angeles Conservancy.

El Salvador (44.4%) and Mexico (23.3%) were the most common places of birth for the 64.6% of the residents who were born abroad, a figure that was considered high in comparison with foreign-born in the city as a whole.