Update 8/8/2023: On a recent trip to Hill Street, when passing the Subway Terminal Building we were intrigued to see a cherry picker parked under the arch of the long shuttered ticket concourse, with the pendant lamp and mosaic frieze wrapped in protective plastic. Was it possible that this incredible space was finally getting restored?
Since there was nobody on the cherry picker we could ask, we checked LADBS and found that an intriguing building permit was issued in April: REHABILITATION FOR THE (E) GROUND FLOOR OFFICE OF AN (E) HISTORICAL OFFICE & LIVE WORK BUILDING. INCLUDES EXTERIOR & INTERIOR REHABILITATION OF (E) MARBLE FLOORS, TERRA COTTA FINISHES, PLASTER COFFER CEILINGS, GLASS WORK, AND PARTIAL EXTERIOR CLEANING OF (E) GRANITE TILES & CORBELS, PLASTER, GLASS MOSAIC & REMOVE & REPLACE (E) EXTERIOR DOORS & WINDOWS.
Then we asked the Office of Historic Resources, which signs off on work done on historic landmarks like the Subway Terminal Building, for a copy of the plans, and you can see them here, and read about how Bickel Group Architecture’s contractors Kaptive C&P will be following the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties to make chipped, stained and broken columns and finishes beautiful again.
While this will not be the ambitious multi-level food hall and shopping center project that Forest City Realty pitched in 2016, we’re so happy to see the magnificent lobby getting restored, and hope its success as commercial space will inspire the reactivation of the remainder of the surviving subway complex, including the tunnel… eventually!
As this work continues, we’ll be watching with interest. If you’d like to sneak a peek at what the ticket concourse looks like now, and at the interesting spaces not included in this work, start at The Thinker in our subway tunnel tour video.
Original post 6/26/2017: Yesterday’s free (with RSVP) LAVA Sunday Salon and walking tour focused on the holy grail of Los Angeles mass transit history: the sealed-off streetcar station and tunnel located beneath the Subway Terminal Building.
How eager are Angelenos to see this storied space? The waiting list was a thousand names long! For those who couldn’t join us on this time travel trip, below you’ll find some photos (or video) to tell this complex and fascinating tale.
We began our LAVA Sunday Salon program in the basement of Grand Central Market where downtown historian Nathan Marsak (nice tie!) let us know what to look for in the Subway Terminal, and our own Richard Schave explained how the Bonaventure Hotel footings severed the tunnel in 1976. Plus, Bunker Hill native son Gordon Pattison previewed his July 30 Sunday Salon talk about his lost Victorian neighborhood and the short-lived Second Street Cable Car Rail Road.
Then, after strapping on headlamps and double-knotting boots, our well-prepared and somewhat giddy group made the short walk down Hill Street to the Subway Terminal Building for a rare tour of the historic passenger concourse, train platform, offices and yes, that remarkable decommissioned tunnel, complete with a growing collection of stalactites and stalagmites! We’re grateful to our gracious hosts at Metro 417 for welcoming us into the Los Angeles landmark beneath their apartment tower.
Will there be another Subway tunnel tour? Only time, and the LAVA newsletter, will tell.
Happy, dusty explorers emerge into the light – Photo: J. Scott Smith – see more
