Exposition Park is known today for football games, dinosaur exhibits, and its sunken rose garden. But as its original name—Agricultural Park—suggests, the park's history reveals a time when farming in Los Angeles was not limited to rooftop skid row gardens and relicts like Compton's Richland Farms.
Agricultural Park was born in 1872, when the Southern District Agricultural Society purchased a 160-acre tract near present-day Figueroa Street and Exposition Boulevard. They meant the land to serve as a sort of farmers' fairground.
As home to an agricultural fair, the park's location—surrounded today by the sprawl of South Los Angeles—may seem a puzzling choice. But in its historical context, the area made a logical setting for local farmers to showcase their prize livestock and produce.