Pico-Union is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. The name "Pico-Union" refers to the neighborhood that surrounds the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue. Located immediately west of Downtown Los Angeles, it is home to over 40,000 residents. The neighborhood contains two historic districts, both listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It has five public schools as well as a public library. Geography Google Maps Google Maps draws the following boundaries for Pico-Union: Olympic Boulevard on the north, the Harbor Freeway on the east, the Santa Monica Freeway on the south and Hoover St. on the west. Mapping L.A. Project According to the Los Angeles Times' Mapping L.A. project, Pico-Union is bounded by Olympic Boulevard on the north, the Harbor Freeway on the east, the Santa Monica Freeway on the south and Normandie Avenue on the west. It also includes the California Highway Patrol station beneath the Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Memorial Interchange northeast of Washington Boulevard. Pico-Union is flanked by Koreatown and Westlake to the north and northeast, Downtown to the east, Adams-Normandie, University Park and Exposition Park to the south and Harvard Heights to the west. History The Tongva village of Geveronga was located at the present-site of Pico-Union. It was destroyed in 1781 by Spanish settlers as part of the Anza Expedition who issued a claim to the land and water rights from King Carlos III. The area was part of the early Pueblo de Los Ángeles settlement in Spanish and Mexican California. The area encompassed by Pico-Union was developed as a middle and upper middle class residential district beginning in the 1910s. Easy access to downtown Los Angeles and the nearby Wilshire District drew large numbers of affluent homeowners. Following the Second World War, the Pico-Union area, like many inner city neighborhoods, experienced an outflux of residents to the suburbs. The loss of residents and business led to high vacancy rates and lower property values in much of the neighborhood by the 1960s. In the late 1970s and 1980s, the area became a major point of entry for Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants seeking refuge from civil war, according to the Pico Union Self-Guided Walking Tour, published in 2009 by the Los Angeles Conservancy. Pico-Union became the city's 19th Historic Preservation Overlay Zone on August 10, 2004. It contains two historic districts listed in the National Register of Historic Places: South Bonnie Brae