Walking down New High Street, you may ask yourself, “So where’s Old High Street?” That one’s easy: It doesn’t exist. The original High Street, named in 1849, was changed to Walters Street in 1886 and then, four years later, to Ord Street – the name it holds to this day. As for New High Street, it actually predated the death of High Street by three decades: I found it mentioned in the January 19th, 1856 issue of the Los Angeles Star, the city’s first English language newspaper, and on that exact same date in El Clamor Publico, L.A.’s first Spanish language newspaper, as la Nueva Calle Alta. So we may guess at its birthdate. New High was carved out between Main and Eternity Street (today’s Broadway) to create more real estate in the densifying town. It used to be several blocks longer than it is now, terminating in Temple Square (today’s Grand Park). When Temple Square was torn down in 1926 to make way for L.A.’s iconic Art Deco city hall, New High was pruned back by Spring Street‘s messy realignment.
Find it on the map:
