Reinventing Broadway Street

"Reinventing Broadway Street: Los Angeles' Architectural Reincarnation" is Marques Vickers' second celebratory pictorial edition recounting the evolution and transformation of one of downtown Los Angeles' primary boulevards. The edition features over 200 exterior photographs of the structures with their architectural details that line the blocks of North and South Broadway Street in the center of downtown Los Angeles. The book traces colorful legends, anecdotes and landmarks that preceded current standing constructions.

Drawing from varied archival documentation and narratives, Vickers traces the evolutionary stages of Broadway Street into the city's commercial and entertainment center. Broadway's reputation extended throughout the first half of the twentieth century but was followed by a prolonged period of four-decade stagnation. The most current reinvention has introduced retail, office and residential mixed-use developments. This synergy of change, however, has been slowed by existing retail lease commitments contracted during the street's lean years of decline.

"Reinventing Broadway Street" documents numerous colorful and influential contributors to the local history along with the historical background of prominent landmarks, theatres, monuments and buildings.

Broadway Street was originally identified as Fort Street in the initial 1849 city tract created by U.S. Army map surveyor Lieutenant Edward Ord. The Fort referenced Fort Moore Hill, a prominent and strategic incline that overlooked the early settlement. The Fort Moore district served as one of the city's first burial grounds and was later leveled to construct the Hollywood Freeway. In 1890, Broadway Street was permanently renamed.

"Reinventing Broadway Street" takes the reader on a stroll through the history, present and progressive future envisioned and being created simultaneously.