@etandoesla: National Register visit 258: Higgins Building 📍108 West 2nd Street, Downtown At the time of its construction in 1910, the Higgins Building was one of the only tall structures in LA made completely out of reinforced concrete. The stuff had only gained currency a few years earlier, when architects and city planners realized that most of the buildings that survived the Great San Francisco Earthquake intact were made out of cement, poured around coils of rebar. This method was so new and untested that architect Arthur L. Haley had to petition the LA City Council to change the height limits for reinforced concrete structures! Not impressed? Maybe you’ll respond better to some of the Higgins Building’s tenants over the years: 1) The famous trial lawyer Clarence Darrow, who argued the pro-evolution position in the Scopes Monkey Trial. He was in town while defending the McNamara brothers, accused of bombing the Los Angeles Times in 1910. 2) Job Harriman, a socialist activist who was nearly Mayor of Los Angeles, twice, and founded a utopian socialist colony called Llano del Rio out in the Antelope Valley (He was also part of the McNamara defense team) 3) The chancery office of the Catholic Diocese of LA and Monterey 4) AC Martin, one of LA’s great architecture/engineering firms (Martin, Sr. worked on AND IN the Higgins) 5) The General Petroleum Co., a precursor to Mobil 6) The LA County Bureau of Engineering 7) The Edison, a swanky steampunk-themed nightclub that incorporated the building’s subterranean power plant into its decor 8) A great Indian restaurant called Badmaash Whether you’re here for the architecture history, the social history or the palak paneer, the Higgins Building has it all. Get the full story at EtanDoesLA.com. Photo credits: 📷1: perspective drawing, 1909 (@The Los Angeles Times) 📷2: Higgins Building, 1941 (Herald Examiner Collection / @Los Angeles Public Library ) 📷3: Clarence Darrow, etc. 1911 (Security Pacific National Bank / LA Public Library) 📷4: Job Harriman, ca. 1910 (@California State Library ) 📷5: Higgins Building w/ Mobiloil sign, 1939 (USC Libraries) #downtownla #historiccore #architecture #officebuilding #beauxarts @National Park Service @BADMAASH @Happeningindtla @historiccore

Etan Does LA

Open In TikTok:

Region: US

Monday 02 June 2025 19:55:14 GMT