Downtown with Huell Howser

In the premiere episode of this new series on Downtown LA, Huell finds a wonderful French restaurant off an alley on 7th Street and also visits the newly restored Cole's - the other home of the French Dip!

Huell checks out the exploding art scene in downtown LA as he visits several galleries during the monthly downtown “art walk.”

As the new Downtown series continues, Huell visits the Evans Community Adult School and meets students eager to learn.

Huell visits the National Biscuit Company Factory Building, which was carefully renovated to preserve it's unique history and architecture.

The Los Angeles State Historic Park, most recently known as the Cornfield or Chinatown Yard property, is a 32-acre site linked to the long and varied history of the city and its diverse people. The site has historical significance and associations at many levels to the Los Angeles story, including its very existence as a State Park, due to the efforts of one of the most diverse coalitions of local citizens, activists, and environmental justice advocates ever assembled. The story of this community effort to protect the land from industrial development and save it as a public park reflects not only the statewide significance of the site, but its opportunity to become a venue for study, celebration, civic engagement, and recreation for the residents and guests of the City of Los Angeles. The Park is located within half a mile from El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, on what has been recorded as communal agricultural land during the pueblo’s early years. At its northern end, the site is about 150 feet from the Los Angeles River. Within one mile of this once fertile property is the last recorded location of Yang-na, one of the largest Tongva villages in the area. Surrounding the Park are the historic and ethnically diverse communities of Lincoln Heights, Elysian Park, Solano Canyon, Chinatown, Chavez Ravine, and William Mead Homes. The City of Los Angeles long ago recognized the local significance of the site and dedicated it as Cultural Monument #82 for its role as the Southern Pacific’s River Station railroad yard. Yet the cultural significance of the property and adjacent area is much more than the site’s use as a railroad yard. The Park provides a place where people can come together to understand and learn from the broader story and innumerable viewpoints of the fascinating, influential, and sometimes painful history of Los Angeles.

Huell walks the streets of Downtown Los Angeles with a veteran LAPD officer to talk about safety.

Located at 849 S. Broadway in the Broadway Theater District of downtown Los Angeles. It is considered by many to be the most beautiful of Los Angeles' historic buildings, as well as its finest surviving example of Art Deco. In this adventure Huell tours the magnificently restored Eastern Columbia Building to discover it’s great history and its new life.

Huell visits the set of CSI New York which is actually shot in downtown Los Angeles. New York, eat your heart out!

If you visit the high rise at 550 South Hope Street in downtown Los Angeles, you might not know the rich history of that address or why there is a small memorial to the Church of the Open Door in the entrance to the building. Members of the church come back to share with Huell the seventy year history of that spot and explain the memorial. We’ll also visit the fabled “Jesus Saves” sign that once graced the roof of the original church in it’s new location and go to the site of the new Church of the Open Door in Glendora.

Most people don’t don’t seem to know that tours of the Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall are available to visitors daily as performance schedules permit. Also, some of the most beautiful gardens in Los Angeles are nestled around this stunning building. Huell takes a wonderful tour of the grounds and learns about all the hidden gems at this L.A. icon.

Huell visits Los Angeles Trade Tech College, where students learn to become mechanics, beauticians and even chefs.

Huell visits several buildings in the old bank district, including the beautifully restored St. Vibiana's Church, which will have a new life as a performing arts and community center thanks to developer Tom Gilmore.

Huell visits the Christian Science Reading Room, followed by a tour of the garden that surrounds Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

Huell spends an afternoon in downtown L.A. at Bottega Louie’s, a new hot spot in the old Brooks Brothers building. Then at La Cita, he visits a true downtown fixture with its authentic ranchera music and dance.