Pershing Plaza is a public park in Downtown Los Angeles, California. The plaza is bordered by 5th Street to the north, 6th Street to the south, Hill Street to the east, and Olive Street to the west. There is a large fountain in the southern half of Pershing Square.

In the 1850s, the site was used as a settler camp during the founding of Los Angeles, whose development centered around what is now Placita Olvera. In 1866, the city declared the plot a public plaza, naming it The Lower Plaza. George "Roundhouse" Lehman, a town resident of German origin, planted small cypresses, fruit trees and shrubs in the park until his death in 1882.

In 1867, St. Vincent's College (now Loyola Marymount University) moved across the street, and the square became St. Vincent's Park. In 1870, it was officially named Los Angeles Park. During the 1880s and '90s, it was known as 6th Street Park, and later, Central Park, during which time a pavilion was added for marching bands and speakers.

In 1900, a monument to Californian heroes who died in the Spanish-American War was erected and is believed to be the oldest public monument in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles City Council declared it a historical and cultural monument in 1990.

In 1910 the park was renovated based on a design by John Parkinson, who would later be the designer of the Los Angeles City Hall and Union Station (Los Angeles). Parkison offered a three-level design with a fountain sculpted by Johan Caspar Lachne Gruenfeld.") In November 1918, a week after the end of World War I, the park was renamed Pershing Square, in honor of John J. Pershing; however, there was no honorary plaque in the square until four decades later.

Between 1920 and 1930, tropical plants were added to the park. In 1924, a bronze sculpture of a World War I infantry soldier. Also added in 1935, a sculpture honoring the United States Constitution and another by Ludwig Van Beethoven honoring William Andrews Clark), founder of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. After intensive use during World War II, the park began to decline as suburbanization began to take place in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. The park was excavated in 1952 to construct an underground parking lot.

The park remains neglected, its problems were noted at the 1960 Democratic National Convention; candidate and future president John F. Kennedy stayed at the adjacent Millennium Biltmore Hotel to check out the plaza's problems. For the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the city's mayor spent more than $1 million to fix up the Plaza. In 1992, the park was closed for a renovation by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta and landscape designer Laurie Olin. Today, Pershing Plaza has become a recreation area with concerts in the summer, and an ice rink in the winter.