Exposition Park | Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

Exposition Park: A Cultural Center for the City

Each of Exposition Park’s attractions has its own story, but the whole of the park plays an interesting part in local history. In the last decades of the 19th century, this 160-acre was a privately owned racetrack and fairgrounds. The park was jointly purchased in 1889 by the State of California, and the County and City of Los Angeles, and  by  1909, a Beaux-Arts site plan emerged. The area, known then as Agricultural Park, was destined to become a new cultural center for the young city.

The County funded a museum and art gallery (which became the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County); the State funded an exposition building (now the north facade of the California Science Center) and an armory building; and the City pledged to maintain the grounds of the park, including the proposed sunken rose garden. In December 1910, the site’s name changed to Exposition Park, and later that month, cornerstones were laid for both the County museum building and the State exposition building. November 6, 1913, marked the beginning of a two-week, city-wide celebration that opened Exposition Park and its facilities, and the first day the new Museum opened to the public. The tripartite ownership and operation of the park and its structures, forged almost 100 years ago, is still in place today.

Exposition Park is bounded by Figueroa Street to the east, Martin Luther King Boulevard to the south, Vermont Avenue to the west, and Exposition Boulevard to the north.