You’ve seen the postcards. Those hyper-saturated images of palm trees, the Hollywood sign, and the sprawling grid of the 405. But before the smog and the influencers, there was a dusty, violent, and surprisingly small town that looked more like a set from a spaghetti western than a global metropolis. When you start digging into the oldest photos of Los Angeles, you realize the city's "origin story" is a lot grittier than the sunshine-and-oranges myth suggests.
Honestly, the first thing that hits you is the dirt. Everything was just... dirt.
The earliest known photograph of Los Angeles dates back to around 1858 or 1860. It’s a grainy, panoramic view taken from a hill overlooking the Plaza. At the time, LA was barely a decade into its Americanhood, having been ceded by Mexico in 1848. It wasn't a city. It was a "pueblo" with maybe 4,000 people, most of whom were living in single-story adobe homes that looked like they might melt if it ever actually rained.
The 1860s: A Dust Bowl with a Church
Looking at these images, you’ll notice a total lack of trees. We think of Los Angeles as this lush, Mediterranean paradise, but that's a total lie. It’s a desert. Or a semi-arid shrubland, if you want to be technical. The palm trees you see today? Those were mostly imported much later for the 1932 Olympics and real estate branding. In the oldest photos of Los Angeles, the landscape is barren.
The most recognizable landmark in these early shots is the La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles (The Church of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels). It’s still there today near Olvera Street. In the 1860s, it stood as the tallest thing around. In one specific plate from 1862, attributed to a photographer possibly named Carleton Watkins or an anonymous traveler, you can see the church surrounded by flat-roofed adobes. There are no paved roads. Just wagon ruts.
It's wild to think that while New York was building massive brownstones and London was deep into the industrial revolution, LA was basically a collection of mud bricks. Life was cheap then. This was the era of the "Old West" version of LA, where the murder rate was reportedly higher than almost any other American city. The photos don't show the blood, but they show the isolation.
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The Mystery of the First "Real" Street Scene
We have to talk about the 1870s because that’s when things got weirdly modern, fast. There is a famous shot of Main Street from 1870. You can see the Bella Union Hotel. This was the social hub of the city. If you were a gambler, a politician, or a traveler, you ended up at the Bella Union.
What's fascinating about this photo is the horse-drawn carriages. They aren't the fancy ones you see in movies. They are rugged, utilitarian boxes on wheels. The people in these photos are often just blurry shapes because the shutter speeds were so slow. If a dog ran across the street, it became a ghost. This creates a haunting effect in the oldest photos of Los Angeles—the city looks inhabited by phantoms.
By 1875, the iron rails arrived. The Southern Pacific Railroad changed everything. Suddenly, the photos stop being about "survival" and start being about "selling."
Why these images were even taken
Back then, photography wasn't a hobby. It was an ordeal. You had to carry glass plates, a darkroom tent, and volatile chemicals. Most of these early images exist because the city wanted to lure investors from the East Coast. They wanted to prove that Los Angeles wasn't just a lawless outpost.
- Stereographs: These were the "VR" of the 19th century. Two nearly identical photos mounted on cardstock that looked 3D when viewed through a special lens. Many of the best views of early Spring Street come from these.
- Survey Photos: Often taken by government officials or railroad companies to map out where the future would go.
- Real Estate Hype: Even in 1880, LA was a "hype" city. Photographers were paid to make the dusty lots look like gold mines.
The Boom of the 1880s: The City Finally Grows Up
If you compare a photo from 1860 to one from 1888, the difference is jarring. In less than thirty years, the "pueblo" vanished. The adobes were torn down and replaced by Victorian architecture. Intricate wood carvings, multiple stories, and—finally—some greenery.
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There is a panoramic view from 1887 taken from Fort Moore Hill. You can see the Victorian mansions of Bunker Hill starting to rise. This was the original "Beverly Hills." Before it became a place for film noir hotels and eventually skyscrapers, Bunker Hill was where the wealthy built their dream homes. The photos show steep, narrow streets and the beginning of the iconic Angel’s Flight funicular.
Actually, the sheer density of the 1890s photos surprises people. We think of LA as "sprawl," but the original downtown was incredibly tight. People walked. They took cable cars. The oldest photos of Los Angeles from the late 1890s show a city that looks more like San Francisco or even a small Chicago.
The Oil Derricks: A Forest of Steel
One of the most visually insane photos in LA history was taken around 1895 in what is now Echo Park and the Westlake area. Instead of trees, the hills are covered in oil derricks. Thousands of them. It looks like a post-apocalyptic forest.
Edward Doheny (the guy the movie There Will Be Blood is loosely based on) struck oil in 1892 near the intersection of Patton and Colton Streets. Within a few years, everyone was digging in their backyard. The photos from this era are a mess of timber towers and black sludge. It’s a reminder that Los Angeles wasn't built on movies; it was built on oil and real estate.
You can find photos where children are playing in the dirt right next to a gusher. There was no zoning. No safety. Just greed. It's a stark contrast to the manicured parks we see in those locations today.
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Decoding the Visual Evidence
When you look at these old plates, you have to look for the things that aren't there.
- No Hollywood Sign: It didn't exist until 1923 (and it said "Hollywoodland" back then).
- No LA River Concrete: In the oldest shots, the Los Angeles River is a wide, unruly mess of willows and sand, not the concrete ditch you see in Terminator 2.
- Visible Mountains: Without the 20th-century smog, the San Gabriel mountains look like they are sitting right on top of the city. The clarity is staggering.
How to Find These Photos Today
You don't have to be a historian to see these. Most of the heavy lifting has been done by institutions like the Huntington Library and the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL). Their digital archives are a rabbit hole you can fall down for days.
The "Security Pacific National Bank Collection" at the LAPL is basically the holy grail for this stuff. They have thousands of street-level shots that show the transition from horse-power to horsepower. Also, the USC Digital Library houses the "C.C. Pierce Collection." Charles C. Pierce was a photographer who arrived in LA in 1886 and became obsessed with the city's history. He actually went around buying up the plates of photographers who came before him, effectively saving the oldest photos of Los Angeles from being lost to time.
Acknowledging the Gaps
We have to be honest: these photos don't show everyone. The early photographic Record of LA is heavily biased toward the white, American settlers and the business elite. The Chinese community, which was massive and vital to the city’s growth (and suffered through the horrific 1871 massacre), is rarely centered in these images unless they are in the background. The same goes for the Indigenous Tongva people, whose presence was largely erased from the visual "branding" of the new American city.
Actionable Steps for History Buffs
If you want to experience the "old" LA through these photos, don't just look at them on a phone screen.
- Visit the Plaza: Go to the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District. Stand in front of the church. Pull up the 1862 photo on your phone and try to line up the mountains in the background. It’s a trip.
- Search Specific Archives: Use the LAPL "Photo Collection" search engine. Instead of searching "old photos," search for specific street names like "Los Angeles Street 1870" or "Temple Street 1880."
- Check the "Then and Now" Communities: Sites like Old L.A. or the Water and Power Associates archives provide incredible context that links these old photos to modern addresses.
- Look for the "Ghost" Buildings: Many of the Victorian buildings in the 1880s photos were moved, not destroyed. You can find some of them at Heritage Square Museum off the 110 freeway.
The oldest photos of Los Angeles tell a story of a city that was never supposed to be here. It had no natural harbor, no major river, and no local timber. It was built on sheer willpower, a lot of marketing, and a massive amount of oil. Seeing the humble, dusty beginnings makes the modern skyline feel a lot more like a miracle—or at least a very successful sales pitch.