Everything You Need to Know About Subtropolis, Hollywood Archives, and Los Angeles Underworlds

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Beneath Downtown Los Angeles lies an authentic, tangible underworld, though its origins are civic rather than conspiratorial. Beginning in the late 19th century and expanding through the 1920s, municipal engineers constructed an intricate network of historic LA pedestrian tunnels to ease surface street congestion.

During Prohibition (1920, 1933), the underground corridors gained practical utility for illicit operations. Bootleggers, corrupt civic officials, and underground tavern operators used service corridors beneath the Hall of Records, County Courthouse, and the historic subterranean transit tunnels beneath Spring Street to ferry alcohol away from the eyes of federal agents. Speakeasies like the King Eddy Saloon maintained basement access points directly into these municipal conduits.

By the late 1930s, shifting traffic patterns, suburbanization, and security concerns led the city to seal the bulk of these passageways. The County of Los Angeles still maintains an active, secured subterranean link connecting the County Hall of Administration, the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, and the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. County workers and transit officials navigate these corridors daily, moving files and detainees beneath Temple Street and Grand Avenue without interacting with street-level traffic.