La Grande Station

2nd Street and Santa Fe Avenue

The Arts District was once the home of the city of Los Angeles’s first train depot, the La Grande Station, which was located on the corner of 2nd Street and Santa Fe Avenue. 

The La Grande Station was built to serve the growing city of Los Angeles, California. Built in Moorish architectural style on July 29, 1893, the station served the city as its primary transportation hub until 1933, when the Long Beach earthquake, which prompted the building’s demolition, damaged it. Union Station was built to replace it in 1939. 

The Atchison and Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad had a significant impact in the immediate growth of the City of Los Angeles. It all started in 1885, when the Santa Fe railroad opened a second line linking Los Angeles to the East Coast. In response to this, the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Santa Fe Railroad began a fierce competition for customers that resulted in prices being substantially lowered and this made it possible for thousands of people to come to Los Angeles. By 1886, the price of a train ticket between Kansas City and Los Angeles fell to one dollar, prompting a population boom. By 1890, the Los Angeles population hit 50,000 (a new record in the history of L.A.). In response to the population boom, in 1893 the city built La Grande Station to accommodate the thousands of people who were coming to Los Angeles thanks to affordable ticket prices. 

Major advertising campaigns by the Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and other major carriers of the day not only helped transform southern California into a major tourist attraction but generated intense interest in exploiting the area's agricultural potential. Word of the abundant work opportunities, high wages, and the temperate and healthful California climate spread throughout the Midwestern United States, and led to an exodus from such states as Iowa, Indiana, and Kansas. Although the real estate bubble "burst" in 1889, and most investors lost a lot, the Southern California landscape was forever transformed by the many towns, farms, and citrus groves left in the wake of this event. 

Today, the corner of 2nd and Santa Fe Avenue is a mixed-use area with artist lofts and businesses in what used to be railroad buildings and warehouses. 

For More Information

Rawls, James, J., and Walton Bean. California: An Interpretive History. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Duke, Donald. Santa Fe: The Railroad Gateway to the American West, Volume One and Two. San Marino, CA: Golden West Books, 1995.