Soto Street

Soto Street is a major north-south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, connecting the southernmost neighborhoods of the Eastside, as well as the southeastern suburbs of Vernon and Huntington Park.

Soto Street
Length8.20 miles
Nearest metro station Soto station
South endSlauson Avenue in Huntington Park
North endHuntington Drive/Mission Road in Los Angeles

It was first designated and paved as an arterial road in 1927. The street has been the focus of several significant ethnic communities over the years.

Geography

Soto Street begins as Miles Avenue in Huntington Park at Florence Avenue.

It becomes Soto after crossing Slauson Avenue, shortly before entering Vernon, where it crosses the Los Angeles River. Soto Street then runs north through the neighborhoods of Boyle Heights, Brooklyn Heights.

In El Sereno, near Lincoln Heights, Soto Street merges with Mission Road to form Huntington Drive.

History

In 1890 Soto Street was "a dirt road lined with pepper trees."[1] By 1927 the city had decided to pave it as an arterial.[2][3][4] The intersection of Soto Street and Brooklyn Avenue (now called Cesar Chavez Avenue) came to be considered the most important intersection in East Los Angeles, both when it was the center of the Los Angeles Jewish community (the largest Jewish community in the western United States) and later when it became the heart of the largest Mexican-American community in the country.[1][5] It is the site of the landmark mural by East Los Streetscapers entitled El Corrido de Boyle Heights, and is the major transportation hub for the region.[1][5] In 2004, a portion of the street in El Sereno known as the Soto Street Bridge, where Soto Street becomes Huntington Drive North, was declared functionally obsolete and scheduled for replacement.[6] The bridge was constructed in 1936 as joint venture between the state, city and Pacific Electric Railway as an overpass of its Red Car system.[7]

Transportation

Metro Local lines 251 and 252 run along Soto Street, in addition to Metro Rapid line 751. The Metro Gold Line operates a light rail underground station at its intersection with 1st Street in Boyle Heights.

Notable Landmarks
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References
  1. Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles's Boyle Heights, (Arcadia Publishing, 2005), ISBN 978-0-7385-3015-4. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  2. "Soto Street to Be Artery", Los Angeles Times, March 20, 1927 (pay site).
  3. "Street Job Aid for Plant Area: Contract Let for Widening Paving of Soto Artery to Open Route From Pasadena to Harbor Starting of Work Set for Within One Week", Los Angeles Times, May 22, 1927 (pay site).
  4. "Soto Street Paving Plans Being Pushed", Los Angeles Times, September 25, 1927 (pay site).
  5. George Ramos, "Heart of the Eastside: Corner of Cesar Chavez and Soto--a Landmark in History of 2 Cultures", Los Angeles Times, July 31, 2000.
  6. "BRIDGE - HUNTINGTON DRIVE". City of Los_Angeles. cityclerk.lacity.org. 2 September 1998. p. 1. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  7. "SOTO STREET BRIDGE OVER MISSION ROAD & HUNTINGTON DRIVE (53C-0013)" (PDF). City of Los_Angeles. eng.lacity.org. 16 April 2004. p. 9. Retrieved 1 September 2010.

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