This is a tale of vanished roadways. We begin in the late 1850s, when Courthouse Street was sandwiched between 1st and Temple to lead to what was then the location of the County Courthouse. That street is long gone, although you can trace its initial route by walking through Music Center Plaza and Grand Park. (The old courthouse stood on that last bit of lawn across from today’s City Hall.) But let’s rewind to 1885, when Court Street – the one that still exists – was introduced by ex-mayor Prudent Beaudry and/or his brother Victor on the Park tract. (The Beaudrys developed so much of this part of town that it’s hard to say which brother was behind what.) Court’s eastern terminus was indeed a court, or more precisely a circular road with twelve wedge-shaped lots in its middle, like a pie. In fact that part was dubbed North and South Court Circle – and although I may be wrong, I believe the Court/Courthouse similarity was merely coincidental. They were not meant to connect. And yet city leaders must have sensed a kinship because in 1897 they changed the name of Courthouse Street to Court Street, even though Fremont and Figueroa separated it from the opposite Court. Anyway, time marched on, the courthouse was rebuilt a block away, and construction of the Harbor Freeway eradicated Court Circle in 1948.
Find it on the map:
