Ok, so it wasn't really a hole. Sitting to the west of the young City of Los Angeles, the community known today as Westlake was relatively vacant in the early 1850s. At this time, the land that would later become Westlake Park (MacArthur Park) served as a basin, catching rainwater to prevent excessive fall and winter flooding. As the City of Los Angeles slowly began to expand, the Westlake area was plotted and broken into tracts in the late 1850s. [1]
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| View of Westlake in the 1880s. Courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library. |
In the 1860s the city began considering what to do with the basin. With rumored plans the city would transform the catch basin into a park, real estate in the Westlake area became a hot commodity.[2] On April 13, 1886, the city officially declared Westlake Park would be a public park and reservoir from this day onward. The park was opened for public enjoyment in 1890.[3]
Transportation to and from downtown became a reality by 1890 when the Pacific Electric Railway Company opened the Westlake Park/Boyle Heights line extension on W. 7th from Alvarado St to Grand Ave.
The future of transportation in all of Los Angeles, was significantly affected when in 1895, Henry Gaylor Wilshire constructed a road through his property, which became the iconic Wilshire Boulevard. This road would eventually allow residents and visitors easy access to the beautiful Westlake/MacArthur Park, impacting both the city and Westlake community permanently.[4]
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| L.A. transit map in 1906. Courtesy of Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California. |
[1] Strawn, James. "Whose Park: An Architectural History of Westlake-MacArthur Park." Page 9. Acessed September 2, 2011. http://search.proquest.com/docview/193342302?accountid=14749.
