This is looking SE at the United States Government Building at the SE corner of Main and Winston, between 4th and 5th. It housed Federal courtrooms upstairs and the Post Office downstairs. Some sources, including the caption to this photo, say it opened in June 1893, but other sources say 1890:
LAPL --
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018592.jpg
1894 Sanborn @ LAPL showing intersection of Main (at the top) and Winston (angled)
Looking north up Main Street with the Post Office on the right:
LAPL --
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018797.jpg
The Post Office abandoned that handsome building in March 1901, which by c. 1903 looked like this (across the street, behind the high fence):
USC Digital Library --
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/2245/rec/14
What happened?
Here's a fairly short version:
James Miller Guinn,
A History of California and an Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs, Volume 1, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1915
http://books.google.com/books?id=A2g...office&f=false
You can read the long version -- with photos -- here:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...arRange&page=3
Jan 2 1905 LA Herald @ Library of Congress
P.S. Here's another telling of the story, also from
A History of California: