On July 4, 1885, Los Angeles celebrated Independence Day
with a parade that ended at the city hall lot at Second and Spring, where
bleachers had been built for the “literary exercises” (a reading of the
Declaration of Independence, music, singing, poetry, and a speech) that followed. The parade route was lined with as many as
15,000 people. This was probably the
first chance many Angelenos had to see the new city building after it was
completed.
A little over a month later, on August 8, Los Angeles staged
a funeral procession in honor of former President Ulysses S. Grant, who was
buried in New York the same day. A
symbolic casket was taken from the black-draped Second Street City Hall and
placed on a catafalque 18 feet long, 9 feet wide, and 16 feet high (and
bedecked with two cannons and two piles of cannonballs). It was escorted around downtown in a procession
of 1,553 people, said to be the largest in the city’s history up to that time, with
the possible exception of the nation’s centennial.
The procession’s route again ended at the city hall lot for
more literary exercises. The grandstand (seating
about 400, for dignitaries and two bands) was built up against the east and
south sides of the old School No. 1, then in the process of being torn down. The schoolhouse also had its sides draped in
black; though obviously appropriate to the occasion, it was done largely to
hide them. The grandstand itself was
draped with an American flag, apparently the largest in town, borrowed from the
State Normal School.
About 5,000 people squeezed into temporary bleachers 25 rows
high that had been built around the city hall lot and which took up half of
Second Street. The Los Angeles Times noted that the bleachers had been designed to
“easily” seat 4,000 people (with seats just 15 inches wide). Another 1,200 or more took in the scene from seats
between the grandstand and bleachers or some other viewpoint. “The procession,
the grand stand with its great audience, and the catafalque, were all
photographed by enterprising artists,” noted the Los Angeles Times the next day.
Sadly, none of those photos seems to be extant today.
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| This photo looks west on Second from Spring and was almost certainly taken around the fall of 1886. On the right is the Second Street City Hall. This is apparently the best available photo of the building when it was owned by the city. On the left side of the image is the domed, two-story Hollenbeck Block, which was expanded to four stories in the second half of 1887. Behind the Hollenbeck is the steeple of the First Presbyterian Church. At the very top of the steeple, above the ball, is a figure of the angel Gabriel. That figure was removed in January 1887 and later replaced with a cross. The California Bank Building opened in October 1887 on the southwest corner of Second and Fort (renamed Broadway in February 1890), across from the church. We can’t see the building in this photo, but the trees on the corner have been removed, suggesting construction was imminent or just underway. |
