The Mirror Building (Site of Butterfield Stage Station)

Five things happened on this block and the plaque lists them without comment. The first brick schoolhouse in Los Angeles went up here in 1854. The Butterfield Overland Mail kept its office and corral here from 1858 until the war cut the line in 1861, and the army took the yard that same year — a quartermaster's office, and a corral for the camels brought down from Fort Tejon. City Hall was built on the block in 1884.

What the plaque says

This block is the site of: First brick school house in Los Angeles known as School No. 1, built 1854-1855; Butterfield Overland Mail Company office and corral, 1858-1861; Office of U.S. Quartermaster, 1861; Corral for camels from Fort Tejon, 1861; and Los Angeles City Hall, built 1884.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Street Bridge — 8.0 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 — 8.5 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 — 15 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

• Site of the Los Angeles Star — 0.3 mi
• Bella Union Hotel Site — 0.3 mi
• Merced Theatre — 0.4 mi
• Pico House (Hotel) — 0.5 mi