page_title: Spring Street Financial District
section_title: Beaux Arts architecture as the district's enduring strength
hierarchical_section_title: Spring Street Financial District / History / Beaux Arts architecture as the district's enduring strength
caption_attribution_description: English: Title Insurance Building — 433 S. Spring St., Downtown Los Angeles, California. Historic district contributing property of the Spring Street Financial District, a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles.
context_page_description: The Spring Street Financial District, referred to as the Wall Street of the West, is a historic district in Downtown Los Angeles. The historic district includes 23 financial structures, including the city's first skyscraper, and three hotels all located along a stretch of South Spring Street from just north of Fourth Street to just south of Seventh Street. In the first half of the 20th Century, this stretch of Spring Street was the financial center of Los Angeles, with the important banks and financial institutions being concentrated there. At least ten of the buildings in the district were designed in whole or in part by John Parkinson, who designed many of the city's landmark buildings in the early 20th century, including the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles City Hall, Bullocks Wilshire, and Union Station. Ten of the buildings in the district have been designated as Historic-Cultural Monuments by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission.
context_section_description: The strength of the district remains its period architecture.  Many of the Beaux Arts facades along Spring Street remain virtually intact, making the district a popular shooting location for motion picture and television productions seeking authentic period cityscapes.  In 1985, noted Los Angeles Times columnist Jack Smith pointed to the Spring Street Financial District as proof that "Los Angeles was never the cultural wasteland it was alleged to be."  He hailed the district's "financial palaces" as "a solid architectural achievement" which give the street "beauty, strength, unity and dignity."
caption: Moderne exterior of the Title Insurance Building
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