Broadway Was Always Here: Preservation and Racial Exclusion

The multifaceted history that made the Broadway Theater District’s preservation possible in Los Angeles is easy to overlook. Architectural narratives are typically concerned with physical structures and mainstream activity, ignoring multicultural phenomena. Historical accounts of Broadway typically emphasize white prewar use while only briefly acknowledging the unique and timely preservationist role played by the city’s Latinx (mostly Mexican) population postwar. This article attempts to rectify that omission. This article is a chronological outline that traces the precise blend of cultural, social and economic forces that made the physical preservation of Broadway possible, while aspects of its cultural significance as a Latinx place remain under the threat of ongoing downtown development.