The historic Pacific Electric Building (also known as the Huntington Building, after the railway’s founder, Henry Huntington, or simply 6th & Main), opened in 1905 in the core of Los Angeles as the main train station for the

Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

, as well as the company's headquarters; Main Street Station served passengers boarding trains for the south and east of Southern California. The building was designed by architect Thornton Fitzhugh. Though not the tallest in Los Angeles, its ten floors enclosed the greatest number of square feet in any building west of Chicago for many decades. Above the train station, covering the lower floors, were five floors of offices; and in the top three was the

Jonathan Club __NOTOC__ Jonathan Club is a social club with two California locations—one in Downtown Los Angeles and the other abutting the beach in Santa Monica. The club is routinely ranked as one of the top clubs in the world by Platinum Clubs of Americ ...

, one of the city's leading businessmen's clubs introduced by magnates from the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

. After the “Great Merger” of Pacific Electric into

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

in 1911, the PE Building became the home of Southern Pacific in Los Angeles. In 1925, a second electric rail hub, the Subway Terminal, was opened near Pershing Square to serve the north and west.

History

Interurban terminal

The building opened on January 15, 1905 as a terminal for the electric railways being constructed by Henry Huntington. In 1914, a total of 1,626 scheduled Pacific Electric trains entered or left Los Angeles at Main Street Station in 3262 interurban car trips daily. The elevated tracks and passenger concourse on the back of the building were constructed in 1916. With the great rise in the number of automobiles in the 1920s, congestion — from the cars, from sharing streets with the cars, from sharing the streets with

Los Angeles Railway The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent loc ...

’s Yellow Cars — often caused PE trains to run late, especially while traveling north on Main Street towards Glendale, and west to Hollywood and Santa Monica. To relieve such problems, the California Railroad Commission issued Order No. 9928 in 1922, which called for the

Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned Public transport, mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electr ...

to build a subway to leave downtown's busy streets. The

Subway Terminal Building The historic Subway Terminal, now Metro 417, opened in 1925 at 417 South Hill Street near Pershing Square (Los Angeles), Pershing Square, in the Historic Core, Los Angeles, core of Los Angeles as the second, main train station of the Pacific Ele ...

, a second PE terminal, was then built across downtown at the base of Bunker Hill at 4th and Hill Streets by Pershing Square to serve the subway, which opened December 1, 1925, speeding passenger service considerably to Hollywood, Santa Monica, San Fernando, and Glendale. Interurban rail service remained the 6th and Main PE Terminal's sole function until 1942. Trains entered the back (east side) on ground-level track from San Pedro Street, loaded and unloaded passengers inside the building concourse, then exited onto Main Street (west side) and turned north or south. (See the attached photograph accompanying this article.) In 1942, the terminal was converted to accommodate the Pacific Electric's growing fleet of

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

es. Trains continued to enter and use the original concourse on New Year's Day to carry crowds to and from the

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events in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

until 1950 when Northern District (

– Sierra Madre– Monrovia–Glendora) rail service was abandoned. After that, the PE concourse saw no trains and Main Street tracks were no longer used. Remaining service to Glendora, the Harbor, and to Bellflower was provided at the rear of the PE terminal on outdoor passenger loading platforms and stub tracks at the rear (east side) of the PE Terminal. Trains used a ramp up from San Pedro Street that crossed Los Angeles Street to reach the loading platforms. Passengers walked into the terminal concourse via an enclosed bridge. Pacific Electric Building and station

Over the next decade, interurban rail routes to Bellflower, the Watts local, and Long Beach and harbor area were abandoned and replaced by motor coaches. The last active route was the

Long Beach Line The Long Beach Line was a major interurban railway operated by the Pacific Electric Railway between Los Angeles and Long Beach, California via Florence, Watts, and Compton. Service began in 1902 and lasted until 1961, the last line of the s ...

. The final "Blimp" multiple unit interurban train to use the terminal (so named for their unusual plump size and round front windows) to

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

was on April 9, 1961 and was in MTA green livery: no longer painted the famous and classic Pacific Electric red. MTA Bus service continued to operate from Sixth and Main until 1964. The MTA ran "Freeway Flyer" motor coach service to old PE destinations from the basement of the nearby Greyhound Terminal, and this continued during Rapid Transit District (SCRTD) operations.

After rail service

Following the closure of the terminal's main floor depot, the former waiting room and bus concourse were converted to a parking garage. With the commercial and social decline of Main Street and the east side of downtown in general, the rented offices on the upper floors of the building became less desirable and gradually emptied out. The building was largely vacant for many years, though it became a popular location for the movie and television industries. Over 400 location shoots have taken place there, including scenes from ''

Forrest Gump ''Forrest Gump'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis. An adaptation of the Forrest Gump (novel), 1986 novel by Winston Groom, the screenplay of the film is written by Eric Roth. It stars Tom Hanks in the title rol ...

'', '' LA Confidential,'' ''

Jumpin' Jack Flash "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released as a non-album single in 1968. Called "supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London" by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, the song was seen as the band's retu ...

'' and interior shots for the 1970s ''

Streets of San Francisco ''The Streets of San Francisco'' is an American television crime drama filmed on location in San Francisco and produced by Quinn Martin, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros. Television (QM produced the show on its own ...

'' TV series. In 1908,

Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet, also known as Cole's P.E. Buffet, is a restaurant and bar located at 118 East 6th Street in the Historic Core district of downtown Los Angeles, California, the oldest operating in Los Angeles at the same location ...

was opened on the lower floor of the building and is still there today. As such, Cole's claims to be Los Angeles' oldest restaurant and pub that has been in operation in the same place since its founding. It is one of two local establishments which lay claim to having invented the

French dip sandwich A French dip sandwich, also known as a beef dip, is a hot sandwich consisting of thinly sliced roast beef (or, sometimes, other meats) on a "French roll" or baguette. It is usually served plain but a popular variation is to top with Swiss chees ...

. Additionally, the structure held the architectural offices of

Greene and Greene Greene and Greene was an architecture, architectural firm established by brothers Charles Sumner Greene (1868–1957) and Henry Mather Greene (January 23, 1870 – October 2, 1954), influential early 20th century American architects. Active prim ...

circa 1905. In 2005, the building was converted by ICO Group into residential live/work lofts and is occupied by residents. Several commercial tenants have filled the first floor spaces along 6th Street. The original Cole's space was renovated and divided to add another restaurant and bar. The building lobby currently displays a number of artifacts left over from its days as once an exceptionally active interurban rail terminal. "DANGER" warnings are set into the sidewalk at the Main Street location where trains once entered and left the building, remaining as evidence of its original grand purpose.

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

History of PE Building: Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California article
*
History and photos: Los Angeles Conservancy and Los Angeles City and Library article.

Article from 1917 ''Transit Journal'' with original floor planPacific Electric Lofts
''Commercial website of developers for the Pacific Electric Building conversion.'' {{Pacific Electric Railway Pacific Electric stations Office buildings in Los Angeles Buildings and structures in Downtown Los Angeles Headquarters in the United States Residential buildings in Los Angeles Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles Abandoned rapid transit stations Office buildings completed in 1905 1905 establishments in California 1900s architecture in the United States Railway stations in the United States opened in 1905 Main Street (Los Angeles) Repurposed railway stations in the United States Adaptive reuse of industrial structures in Greater Los Angeles Railway stations in the United States closed in 1961