LA’s Hope and 7th Intersection in 1906
Before the construction of the Republic Federal Savings and Loan Building (part of the present-day 655 Building), downtown LA’s 7th and Hope intersection was home to a hotel that carried two names.
The true story of its origins and ownership required some digging but revealed far more than a story about an LA corner. I discovered that at one time the entire block originally contained by 6th, 7th, Hope, and Flower (before Wilshire Boulevard cut it in half) was owned by the Orena family for whom the hotel was originally named.
The Hotel Victoria was first opened in 1906 under its original name the Orena Hotel. The Orena and its sister building, the Acacia Hotel on the southwest corner of 6th and Hope, were the idea of Dario Orena and designed by noted architect John Parkinson They were similar in size and their construction began a multi-year development of the block with new modern structures. That four plus acre city block property was originally acquired in 1880 for ranching by Dario’s father Gaspar Orena, an 1841 Spanish immigrant. This property would join Gaspar’s holdings in San Francisco and Santa Barbara County. The block stood empty for several years, eventually becoming a 6th Street Baseball Park in the later 1880s, and then the City Hay Market in the 1890’s. By 1900, when other blocks were filled with residential structures, the Orena block was mostly undeveloped except for one brick structure at Flower and 7th and some houses. Gaspar’s children would make up for that in the years ahead.
Their push to develop what was called in 1912 “the most valuable piece of city realty that has remained intact from the old days of Mexican dominion” saw five structures rise on the block. The two hotels from 1906 were joined by Orena’s other buildings including a Bankers Club on Hope and the Seminole Apartments on Flower. They also sold the property near Flower and 6th for the Knights of Columbus building. In 1912, Dario on behalf of the family leased the corner of 7th and Flower for 99 years and $2 million dollars (some $57 million today).
Between 1906 and 1920, the Orena’s hotel at Hope and 7th was joined by a new YMCA in 1907 near 7th and Hope and other new buildings on 7th including a new LA Athletic Club building (1912) at Olive, the Brockman Building (1911) at Grand and the J. W. Robinson’s Department Store (1915) opposite the Victoria Hotel. Around the corner at Figueroa was the new Engine Company 28 Fire Station (1911). The single-family home days of the neighborhood were ending, and that phase started with the 1906 hotels built by the Orenas.
With all the construction going on it must have felt very similar to the DTLA of today. The growth during the first two decades of the twentieth century was but a foreshadowing of what would happen in the 1920’s. Stay tuned for some of that story next Tuesday.
Rick Nordin with LA Histories
Citations:
1. Los Angeles Times, Sept 29, 1963, Pg110
2. Los Angeles Times, September 8, 1912, Part V P1
