The only portion of this segment of Figueroa Street that lies outside Los Angeles city limits is in the city of Carson. Between Olympic Boulevard and 3rd Street in downtown Los Angeles, Figueroa Street forms a one-way pair with Flower Street, with northbound traffic staying on Figueroa and southbound traffic diverting to Flower.
An early routing of Figueroa Street in this area was originally part of U. Early maps produced by the Automobile Club of Southern California measured distances to Los Angeles from the club's headquarters at the intersection of Figueroa Street with Adams Boulevard.
Figueroa Street was originally called Calle de los Chapules , which translates to "Street of the Grasshoppers". Chapules is the plural of "chapul" , which is not the standard Spanish word for grasshopper that being "saltamonte" , but rather a word from the Nahuatl of Durango and Nayarit also known as Mexicanero.
Later in the s it became known as "Pearl Street". Figueroa Street originally was a few blocks west of Pearl but joined Pearl Street further south. Pearl Street was changed to Figueroa and the northern portion of the old Figueroa Street was renamed Boylston.
Until , the Guinness Book of Records deemed Figueroa to be the longest street in the world. The Los Angeles Lakers , the Los Angeles Kings and Los Angeles Rams have used Figueroa as the parade route for their respective championships in , , , and for the Lakers, and for the Kings and in for the Rams.
