A visitor to Los Angeles in November 1926 who asked how to get to City Hall would have been directed not to the beautiful Art Deco City Hall we know today, but the 200 block of Broadway.

For 40 years, from 1888 to 1928, City Hall was this red sandstone Romanesque Revival building, located at 226-228 S. Broadway.

The 1888 City Hall in 1925. LAPL collection.

Visitors would have seen the skeleton of its replacement, rising rapidly on Main and Spring, Temple and First streets.

LAPL collection

By the end of 1926 it was reported, the “last white-hot rivet has been driven home in the structural steel work and now the giant skeleton raises itself against the skyline…”

The new City Hall, designed by John Parkinson, John C. Austin and Albert C. Martin was dedicated April 26, 1928.

The Lindbergh Beacon in the tower was intended as a guide to pilots but aviators (including Lindy) found it confusing as the airport was nowhere near.

LAPL collection

The old City Hall was demolished in early 1929. The site became… a parking lot.