St. Vincent's Place

This dead-end lane was the front door of a college. St. Vincent's held the block from 1868 to 1887, when Broadway was still called Fort Street, and after the school moved on the Army took the old building. Bullock's opened its department store here in 1907 and kept the alley for deliveries. In 1957 the court was dressed up as a European village lane, cobbles and painted shopfronts, which is also the year Bullock's helped pay for the plaque. The jewelry trade took the complex in 1983.

What the plaque says

This was the site of Saint Vincent's College from 1868 to 1887. The college, now Loyola University, was founded by the Vincentian Fathers in 1865 and was the first institution of higher learning in Southern California.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Street Bridge — 8.6 mi
  Beaux-Arts concrete arches curving 150 feet above the Arroyo Seco, opened in 1913 and later a link in Route 66.
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel — 9.1 mi
  The fourth Alta California mission, built on Tongva land with Tongva labor, rebuilt after arson and now telling that story straight.
• Santa Monica Pier — 14 mi
  Where the Mother Road runs out of continent, and where the End of the Trail sign gives the drive somewhere to finish.

More markers nearby

• The Mirror Building (Site of Butterfield Stage Station) — 0.6 mi
• Site of the Los Angeles Star — 0.9 mi
• Bella Union Hotel Site — 1.0 mi
• Merced Theatre — 1.1 mi