Announcing the only Downtown history tour that visits the legendary tiled Dutch Chocolate Shop, an Arts & Crafts landmark closed to the public for many years… and so much more lost lore.

ABOUT THIS TOUR:
As the historic heart of Los Angeles, Downtown is a complex and confusing ecosystem, where the old town and the new city collide and the past is always present.

Join Esotouric for an immersive time travel trip that aims to give you the tools you need to actually understand how Downtown got this way and anticipate where it might go next, as you explore Victorian time capsule interiors, Prohibition-era speakeasy tunnels, and modernist redevelopment towers, ride a funicular and explore the ruins of an elevated people mover system that never was, all on a three hour tour like no other.

Starting from Grand Central Market, a culinary destination for more than a century, we’ll set out to explore the original Jewelry District, seek out remnants of the streetcar system, admire prominent Broadway Theater District and fashion industry landmarks, make a rare interior visit to Arts & Crafts tile master Ernest Batchelder’s Dutch Chocolate Shop and pay tribute to architect John Parkinson in his namesake square and at the hardscape Pershing Square where his beloved 1910 park design is still all anyone wants to talk about.

Then it’s all aboard Angels Flight Railway to ascend to the new Bunker Hill, where native son Gordon Pattison will be our guide hunting for the ghosts of the lost Victorian neighborhood hiding among the shining modern towers. You’ll track the ragged path of the Bunker Hill Redevelopment Plan, see hidden gardens, art installations and landscaped public plazas, and learn about the Angelenos who were displaced and the planners and builders who sealed their doom.

This walking tour draws on original research to tell the real stories of Downtown Los Angeles and is illustrated with rare photos you can view on your smartphone.