The growing Santa Fe Freight Depot and warehouses created to serve the citrus industry's shipping needs determined the area's economic character for most of the next century and were responsible for the architectural flavor of the district's structures that have survived earthquakes, floods, and fires. The single-room hotels for rail workers to the northwest, and the growth of Little Tokyo to the west and Chinatown to the north, created a mix of working-class and cosmopolitan.
