Form the 1870s, until after the turn of the twentieth century, downtown’s Bunker Hill, then covered in glorious mansions, was one of the most beautiful residential areas in town. By the 1940s, most of the middle- and upper-class dwellers had floated westward into the more prestigious suburbs, leaving the once stately gingerbread Victorians to crumble.

The neighbourhood took on a sleazy ambience until around 1960, when the Community Redevelopment Agency decided to plow down the houses, lop the top off Bunker Hill, and turn it into the new financial district.

The new and improved Bunker Hill has far less character than its predecessor, but it did bring an influx of money.  With Flower Street as its nucleus, Los Angeles’ financial centre includes several of the largest banks in the country, rendering it the US capital of the Pacific Rim money machine.