Spring Street Financial District, Financial district in Downtown Los Angeles, US

The Spring Street Financial District runs along South Spring Street from just north of Fourth Street to just south of Seventh Street. It holds 23 financial structures and three hotels, including the city's first skyscraper, the Continental Building. At least ten buildings were designed in whole or in part by John Parkinson. The photograph shows a tall reddish-brown brick building with narrow windows and a "HOTEL HAYWARD" sign, next to a cream-colored building with ornamental detailing and an "ALEXANDRIA" sign.

In the early 1900s the city center moved south and banks concentrated along South Spring Street; the Hellman and Continental Buildings led the shift, the Continental being considered the city's first skyscraper. The stretch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, with 23 financial structures and three hotels, at least ten buildings designed in whole or in part by John Parkinson.

The name Spring Street comes from Calle Primavera, renamed in 1849 by surveyor Edward Ord after a woman he courted, whom he called "mi primavera, my springtime". Since the 2000s, galleries have clustered in the old bank buildings, an area now called Gallery Row. Many former bank interiors have been converted into lofts, and long-time artists have protested rising rents.

The district runs along South Spring Street between Fourth and Seventh Streets, within the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Conservancy leads walking tours of the Spring Street Financial District on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10 a.m., lasting about two and a half hours. Ten of the buildings carry city Historic-Cultural Monument designation.

Thomas Edison filmed his 60-second production 'South Spring Street Los Angeles California' here in 1898, making this location the birthplace of early Los Angeles cinematography. The film remains a rare documentation of the street during the city's founding era before it became a banking hub.