Charles’ 
Slide of the Week: February 19th, 2004
Bunker Hill - Los Angeles, California - 1963
It’s spring, 1963 – a time of major transition on Bunker Hill - a once fashionable Victorian-era neighborhood in Los Angeles.
With the erector-set like skeleton of what was to become the most spectacular mid-century building in the city, the Department of Water and Power, as a dramatic backdrop, a woman immortalizes an old Victorian house across the street before the bulldozer arrives. In the meantime her husband tunes up their 1959 Triumph TR3. What a happy couple! They are members of the Long Beach Camera Club on an outing taking pictures on Bunker Hill.
By 1963, Bunker Hill’s old 1880s and 90s homes and hotels had become boarding houses for the not-so-fortunate crowd. Downtown redevelopment agencies saw it as an one big “tear-down” and the prime place to build the “new utopian” downtown Los Angeles. In a period of twenty or so years city leaders managed to virtually erase the cities oldest and most unique neighborhood and replace it with a “TOMORROWLAND” of skyscrapers and elevated sidewalks.
GOD BLESS AMERICANA and DOWNTOWNIANA
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
February 2004
Sets this Slide belongs to:
Los Angeles
6 Comments on “Bunker Hill - Los Angeles, California - 1963”
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May 5th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
A lesson in urban redevelopment==had these old victorian structures been saved this district could have been a tourist attraction instead of giant skyscrapers. (I admit they are really impressive).
August 10th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
What a great picture, Im really interested in the painting that the women is holding, there used to be a old hotel on bunker hill. i lived on bunker hill when I was a child. I lived there with my grand mother and some of my cousins at the top of the steps. We also lived in one of the victorian houses at athe top of the street. Where the culdisac ended.
Great photo, thanks.
Frank Aguilar
original bunker hill resident
November 29th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
I’m lost in wonder at your website. I can’t look away…it’s like watching a pleasant apocylypse
February 25th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
A few of the buildings from Bunker Hill were moved to Heritage Square, a short ride away on the Gold Line train. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. I urge all Angelenos that haven’t been to Heritage Square to check it out.
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Re Scott Mercer’s note: Actually, only two Bunker Hill houses–including the Queen Anne-style Donegan “Castle” at 323 South Bunker Hill Avenue–were carted to Heritage Square, and both were burned to the ground by vandals as soon as they arrived. Re Charles Phoenix’s photo, the couple is sitting on Flower Street near First, at the northwest corner of Bunker Hill.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:41 am
They should have left those homes where they were. The City Officials in those days were complete idiots. Downtown L.A. could have had some charm like San Francisco.