Walking Trail That Tells Downtown’s Past Dedicated

In a city where cars rule and “downtown” is a concept that escapes many inhabitants, a walking trail was dedicated Monday with the goal of giving Angelenos a new perspective on their hub’s history.

Envisioned as a Los Angeles equivalent of the well-known Freedom Trail in Boston, Angels Walk is a self-guided tour of historical sites in downtown Los Angeles. The walking tour places Los Angeles among the few cities--such as Boston and New York--with urban trails, said Deanna Spector, executive director of Angels Walk LA, the nonprofit in charge of the project.

Three years in the making, the walking trail was dedicated at the base of the Angels Flight funicular on Hill Street, where city officials unveiled one of 15 “millennium markers.” With a futuristic, streamlined design, the 12-foot-high metallic markers use text and photographs to highlight the significance of locations throughout Los Angeles’ Bunker Hill and Historic Core District between 3rd and 7th streets.

“These markers are designed to become a classroom without walls, educating and celebrating the culture and history of this part of downtown Los Angeles over the past 100 years,” Spector said.

Spector said she hopes the eye-catching markers will introduce more people to the walking tour. Few seem to know about Angels Walk, Spector said, although it was made public almost two years ago through a brochure.

Among those attending the dedication ceremony was Los Angeles Councilman Nick Pacheco, who said Angels Walk will help make downtown a more people-friendly place, one of the city’s goals.

“We have to reemphasize pedestrians and people; that’s one of the things this project is going to do: bring back the idea that you can walk downtown, enjoy downtown,” he said. “Our history is rich and we do want to share it with everyone from around the city and around the world.”

Looking at the markers will be like going through a family album of Los Angeles, said Times writer Patt Morrison, who along with fellow columnist Cecilia Rasmussen wrote the text on each of the millennium landmarks.

“We can now look at our roots. For a city said to have no downtown, there’s a lot of ‘here’ here,” Morrison said during a speech.

Ten of 15 markers punctuating the about 1.5-mile walking tour have been installed in the last two weeks, and the remainder should be up by January, said Spector. The markers will be at such landmarks as the skylight-topped Bradbury Building, the gastronomically rich Grand Central Market and the Los Angeles Central Library.

But plans for a pedestrian-friendly L.A. do not end there. An additional 15 markers to be installed in the year 2000 will comprise the project’s second phase, which should extend the trail into Union Station and El Pueblo de Los Angeles on Olvera Street, said Spector. And a third phase may bring strollers around Staples Center and southern regions of downtown, though funding for this phase is still pending, she said.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency are funding the millennium markers.