Abril has always been interested in historic buildings and has often depicted them as contrasting with the newer structures in his native city. This painting was completed after he had finished a series of thirty-six paintings of the old buildings in the Bunker Hill area of downtown, 1959-63 (LACMNH).
The Old Hall of Records was demolished in 1973 in the course of an urban renewal project. Designed by the firm of Hudson and Munsel, the building was erected in 1909 on Pound Cake Hill at Temple and Broadway streets. It remained in use until after the new Hall of Records was built across the street. In 1966, as part of his preparation for this painting, Abril photographed and drew sketches of the old building from the fifteenth floor of the recently completed Hall of Records. Such a close, yet high vantage point enabled him to delineate the massive, turreted old hall in all its dignity. Abril painted the canvas in his characteristically bright, contemporary version of the impressionist style.
