The Hotel Figueroa, and Figueroa Street Name Origins

The Hotel Figueroa

At the completion of a Saturday morning breakfast at The Pantry at 877 South Figueroa, the walk southward brought me past the 1926-era Hotel Figueroa.  The mid-1920s building boom in L.A. included many structures along Figueroa, including the hotel, the Friday Morning Club across the street, and the Automobile Club of Southern California further down on the Figueroa Corridor.  The Pantry Restaurant was established at this location in 1924.

Located at 939 South Figueroa, Hotel Figueroa opened August 15, 1926.  It was promoted as "the largest project of its kind to be built, financed, owned and operated by women."  The project was backed by the Y.W.C.A. and cost $1,250,000.  At first the hotel was intended for female business travelers, but soon men were welcomed with their families.  The 13-story building was designated with Spanish names in its public spaces, like sala de recepcion, and its "el corredor" led to Spanish decor design elements.

Less than two years later, the hotel was in financial trouble.  A fundraising campaign ensued, and the hotel managed to pull out of its hole.

1950s postcard

Ad from the Hotel & Motel Red Book, 1965

Northward on Figueroa, bypassing the main downtown business district, The Orsini at 606 North Figueroa, is a contemporary development and one of the last multi-residential structures located at the northern edge of downtown before Figueroa Street is interrupted by the Pasadena Freeway.  The handsome and imposing buildings on all sides of Sunset Boulevard could have been named "The Orsini at 606 Pearl" if "Figueroa" not replaced the former street name of "Pearl."

Origins of Figueroa Street

Since the signing of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the U.S. War with Mexico and transferring California to the U.S., Los Angeles instituted the land survey tradition to clarify its boundaries.  In 1853, city fathers sought to increase the size of the city and did so on its maps, even though the real authority, the U.S. Land Commission, wouldn't even confirm its original Spanish tradition "four square leagues" until 1856 (correction:  the city lands were confirmed in 1856, but the final surveyed patent was issued in 1866 by the U.S. General Land Office .  Confusingly, a new patent was issued in 1875 after the 1866 patent was deemed invalid due to a technicality; BUT in 1881 the original 1866 patent was upheld as valid.)

Early Los Angeles maps show municipal intent to expand in all four directions, with the main north and south arteries being named for the Mexican governors of Alta California:  Manuel Micheltorena, Juan Bautista Alvarado, Jose Figueroa, and Jose Maria de Echeandia.  East/west roads running south of 12th Street were named Pico Street (for Pio de Jesus Pico, the final Mexican governor of Alta California), followed by U.S. Presidents in their order of succession:  Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Jackson streets.

Maps prior to 1870 showed an earlier Figueroa Street running further west than the present day Figueroa Street.  And later 19th century maps showed both Figueroa Street and Pearl Street.

The earlier road called Figueroa Street extended from about where Boylston Street is north of Sunset Boulevard, down to Washington Boulevard.  Surveyor George Hansen likely designated the early Figueroa Street, naming it after the Alta California Governor, Jose Figueroa.  Coincidentally, a Mexican-era home, the Ramon Figueroa adobe, sat at Jefferson and Figueroa, until the mid-1950s.  Ramon was not related to Governor Figueroa, though numerous books cite that as a fact.  Ramon’s parents Manuel Figueroa and Gertrudis Silva appear on an 1804 census.  Ramon and his bride, Guadalupe Reyes y Botiller, resided at the adobe.  Though the date the adobe was built is not known for certain, some sources state 1846-47, although some sources also state that the couple vacated the adobe when, the war during those same years, caused them to leave.  Today the adobe at 3404 South Figueroa is gone.  In its place is the USC Galen Center, across the street from the iconic Felix Chevrolet dealership.

The original western border of the city, Calle de Las Chapules, later Anglo-sized to Grasshopper Street, changed to Pearl Street, and finally what we know it today, Figueroa Street.

See updated map below

Update 1.27.2019:  a new blog post on The Tale of the Two Figueroa's and community organizer Darryl Holter.

Update 11.1/2020:  Nearly five years after this posting, Nathan Master's fine KCET article from 2015 "The Lost Plan to Honor L.A.'s Mexican and American Past Within Its Street Grid" revealed an 1857 map from the Los Angeles City Archives showing the intent for a lengthy Figueroa Street.  This finding coupled with additional research prompted this blogger to modify her own map.  Importantly the 1857 map suggests that Figueroa Street to extend beyond Washington (Boulevard) Street, probably to the southern boundary which was at today's Exposition Boulevard.

A Boxing Idol in Cypress Park

Sports fame in L.A. at the turn of the last century was attained with boxing gloves. Jim Jeffries, an Ohio-born son of an Evangelist minister Alexis C. Jeffries, sparred his way to notoriety beginning in 1896.  By 1899 he appeared in a Coney Island fight against Bob Fitzsimmons, and Jeffries won the heavyweight championship by knock out.  He retired undefeated in 1905.

Jeffries appeared in celebrity endorsements ads.  He opened a downtown bar at 326 So. Spring Street (proprietors being J&J, perhaps with a brother Jonathan.)  Jeffries came out of retirement in 1910, but lost to African American fighter Jack Johnson.

Jim Jeffries' Gentlemen's Club at Spring Street

The Jeffries family settled in Cypress Park around 1882.  The family included mother Rebecca Boyer, three other sons Charles, Jonathan and Calvin; daughters Lydia, Alameda Almeda and Lillian.  Their home was situated on  their property bordered by Jeffries Avenue, Isabel Street, Figueroa Street, and Cypress Avenue.  Located here were two of their houses at 535 and 545 Cypress Avenue, which sat within the present-day footprint of Florence Nightingale Middle School . 

By 1905 this region underwent residential development.  Son Jonathan was a real estate developer. Charles was living at 571 Cypress in a house built in 1911.  Two residential tracts were attributed to the Jeffries family:  the earlier Jeffries Avenue Tract, circa 1905, that subdivided south of Cypress Avenue, and the later Jeffries Highland View Tract, that spanned north of Cypress Avenue.

[Update 11-10-16]  Jim Jeffries' home was 545 Cypress Avenue.  Illustrated in the 1940 book Nuestro Pueblo, Los Angeles, City of Romance, by Charles H. Owens and Joseph F. Seewerker, and shown below, the book states "the old house was torn down to make way for a school, but the Champion's house remains and, for all that Jim Jeffries no longer lives there, it is not just a house.  Too many middle-aged men in Los Angeles remember the early days of the century when as small boys they watched the Champ come out." 

From page 87, Nuestro Pueblo, Los Angeles, City of Romance

Jim Jeffries later moved to Burbank, and he died in 1953.  His Spring Street saloon was demolished in 1960.  [Update 9-16-2017:  Thanks to a gentleman named Dave for informing that "Apparently half of Jeffries bar survives as a local sports bar in Boulder City Nevada. It is a local hangout called the Backstop. A friendly place with reasonably priced libations and oodles of character. The old ornate bar is still there in its former glory. I googled your blog while sitting on the bar stool there."]

Burbank Historical Society's Gordon R. Howard Museum is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Jeffries-Johnson fight.  The exhibit includes photos and a pair of boxing gloves.

Jeffries Avenue ends at Avenue 26.  It forms a T intersection, and the former Lawry's California Center restaurant compound was at this intersection.  Its beautiful grounds have found new life as the Los Angeles River Center.

Lawry's, with its 8-acre garden, courtyard, outdoor dining, exhibition space, gift shop, manufacturing plant and administrative offices, was dedicated in 1971.  Downtown workers could swiftly drive up the Harbor Freeway and lunch in beautiful surroundings.  Closed in 1992, the grounds sat in neglect until the River Center opened in 2000.

Flags above the entrance way