May Company building at 8th and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, circa 1940.

Part of the Dick Whittington Photography Collection in the USC Digital Library.

The Bella Union was Los Angeles’ first hotel when it opened in 1849 on Main Street. In its early years the hotel, pictured here in 1871, was the center of civic life, doubling as the county courthouse.

Its saloon — the scene of occasional gunfights — earned a reputation for its rowdy crowd. The patrons were “the most bandit, cut-throat looking set that the writer ever sat his youthful eyes upon,” one observer wrote. “The grim, desperado looking bartender…looked as though he hadn’t smiled since his father was hung.”

After decades of decline, the hotel was demolished in 1940 to make way for a parking lot.

Discover more of the Bella Union’s history in L.A. as Subject’s latest KCET.org contribution.

1915 or 1951? Antique horseless carriages parade through downtown L.A. at 8th and Flower on May 4, 1951.

Part of the Los Angeles Examiner Collection in the USC Digital Library.

Circa 1953 aerial view of the Los Angeles Civic Center and 101 freeway. Part of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce Collection in the USC Digital Library.

The Rambler bicycle and automobile shop in downtown L.A. at Fifth and Spring streets, circa 1902. Part of the Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection in the USC Digital Library.

1970 aerial view of downtown Los Angeles, showing the interchange of the Santa Monica and Harbor Freeways, the future site of the Los Angeles Convention Center and Farmers Field, and a mid-redevelopment Bunker Hill.

Part of the Dick Whittington Photograph Collection in the USC Digital Library.

Circa 1903 view of Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles, looking south from Third.

Part of the Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection in the USC Digital Library.

Circa 1937 view of the Third Street Tunnel’s west portal between Hope and Flower streets, with the residential community of Bunker Hill perched above. As Eric Richardson notes in blogdowntown’s primer on the tunnel’s history, the tunnel was in 1967 extended 110 feet west of the portal seen here as part of the Bunker Hill redevelopment plan.

Part of the TICOR/Pierce Collection in the USC Digital Library.

Birdseye view of First Street circa 1884, looking east from Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Part of the TICOR/Pierce Collection in the USC Digital Library.

Circa 1927 view of the Los Angeles Civic Center from Hill Street, showing City Hall under construction, as well as the Hall of Records, Hall of Justice, and County Courthouse.