Exposition Park was previously Agriculture Park (established in 1872 by the Southern District Agricultural Society).
http://www.lapl.org/
...but the fairground could not turn a profit and was foreclosed in 1879.
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And now for something you probably didn't know:
The park's new owners took advantage of the fact that the park lay just outside the southwestern corner of Los Angeles' original four-square-league royal land grant. With gambling, prostitution, and related activities banned inside the city limits, these vices migrated across the boundary into Agricultural Park.
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_fo...tion-park.html
I pictured Agricultural Park as a bucolic place with cake walks and ice cream socials.
Well it might have been like that for the park's first 5 years, but the next 20 years the park was more like sodom and gomorrah.
I've even heard the 'busy hotel' described as the fairground brothel.
Finally, in 1899 (with help from some big-wigs at USC) the park was annexed by the city to rid the area of the sordid crowds and their lascivious vices and unsavory activities.
Link:
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_fo...tion-park.html
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