34°03′41″N118°14′07″W / 34.061353°N 118.235282°W /34.061353; -118.235282
Naud Junction was an area in northernDowntown Los Angeles,California. It was located at the junction ofMain Street andAlameda Street, whereSouthern Pacific Railroad trains veered off Alameda to tracks along Alhambra Avenue and theLos Angeles River.
It is named for French-American warehouseman Edouard Naud, who built a warehouse at the junction in 1878.[1] Naud Junction was marked by a signal tower built at Alameda and Ord streets in 1898. This was torn down in 1940, afterUnion Station was built.[2]
From 1905 to 1913, Naud Junction was the location of the city of Los Angeles' primary boxing pavilion, which was built by promoterThomas McCarey.[3] The pavilion paid host to both the world middleweight championship between Hugo Kelly andTommy Burns, a heavyweight championship bout between Burns andMarvin Hart, and a featherweight championship bout betweenAbe Attell and Frankie Nell.[4] McCarey said the greatest fight he ever witnessed was a match at Naud Junction between "two Negro fighters,"Jack Johnson andDenver Ed Martin. McCarey told a reporter, "Neither of them made a mistake for twelve rounds, and Denver Ed finally thought he had fooled Johnson, and we saw one of the greatest exhibitions in ring history from then on. Johnson finally won a decision that time and later stopped Denver Ed. I believe either one could have whipped any man that ever lived at that time."[5]
Naud Junction was also witness to aBilly Sunday crusade in 1909.[6]
The Naud Junction boxing arena burned down on September 22, 1915.[3]
