History of retail in Palm Springs

Last updated

This article covers the history of department stores and retail in Palm Springs, California, particularly in that city's downtown.

Contents

Palm Springs Plaza

Palm Springs Plaza, as it was then called, now La Plaza, opened November 1, 1936, one of the first shopping centers in Southern California with a single developer, owner and a uniform appearance, after Westwood Village (1929). It contained a parking garage on three levels with parking for 141 cars, the largest garage in Riverside County. Desmond's (department store) was an original anchor [1] [2] [3] [4] and continued to operate until 2005. [5]

Resort stores

Bullock's, a large upscale department store on Broadway in Los Angeles, opened a Spanish Colonial-style "resort store" in the Desert Inn complex in 1930. I. Magnin followed, opening a resort store in the El Mirador resort on December 1, 1933, [6] closing when that resort was turned into a military hospital in 1942. [7] When Bullock's opened a full department store at 151 Palm Canyon Drive in 1947, J. W. Robinson's, another large L.A. store, took the former Bullock's location and opened its own resort store there. [8]

Full-line and specialty department stores

After La Plaza was built, additional junior and full-line department stores started to be established on Palm Canyon Drive immediately adjacent to La Plaza. Bullock's/Bullocks Wilshire (#151, 1947–1990), J. W. Robinson's (#333, 1958–1987), [9] [10] [11] and Saks Fifth Avenue (opened October 16, 1959 at No. 490), [12] forming a large shopping district. In 1967 the Desert Fashion Plaza mall was built, I. Magnin opened there (closed 1992) [13] and Saks closed its previous location and moved into a new larger store in the mall. Joseph Magnin Co. opened a 26,000 square foot department store in the mall in 1969, [14] meaning that together with a Sears at 611 Palm Canyon Dr., for two decades, downtown boasted seven department stores, plus the Palm Springs Mall 1.5 miles to the east operating from 1959 to 2005.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Coast Plaza</span> Shopping mall in Costa Mesa, California, United States

South Coast Plaza is a regional shopping mall in Costa Mesa, California. The largest shopping center on the West Coast of the United States, its pre-COVID sales of over $1.5 billion annually were the highest in the United States. Its 275 retailers represent the highest concentration of design fashion retail in the U.S., with the second highest sales-volume in California at $800 per square foot ($8,600/m2)—second only to Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose-Santa Clara, at $809 per square foot ($8,710/m2). The national average is $411 per square foot ($4,420/m2). The mall is anchored by three Macy's stores, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, and Saks Fifth Avenue. The South Coast Plaza is the largest shopping mall in California and the 4th largest in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanford Shopping Center</span> Shopping mall in Palo Alto, California, U.S.

Stanford Shopping Center is an upscale open air shopping mall located on Route 82 at Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto, California. It is on the campus of Stanford University although the university only owns the land and not the actual buildings or stores. Also, unlike the main academic campus, the shopping center and the neighboring Stanford University Medical Center are part of the city of Palo Alto, not the census-designated place (CDP) of Stanford, California. The shopping center buildings are 94.4% owned by Simon Property Group, which manages the property and leases the land from the university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Del Amo Fashion Center</span> Large shopping mall in Southern California

Del Amo Fashion Center is a three-level regional shopping mall in Torrance, California, United States. It is currently managed and co-owned by Simon Property Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullocks Wilshire</span> United States historic place

Bullocks Wilshire, located at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, is a 230,000-square-foot (21,000 m2) Art Deco building. The building opened in September 1929 as a luxury department store for owner John G. Bullock. Bullocks Wilshire was also the name of the department store chain of which the Los Angeles store was the flagship; it had seven stores total; Macy's incorporated them into and rebranded them as I. Magnin in 1989, before closing I. Magnin entirely in 1994. The building is currently owned by Southwestern Law School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. W. Robinson's</span> Defunct department store chain

J. W. Robinson Co., Robinson's, was a chain of department stores operating in the Southern California and Arizona area, previously with headquarters in Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullock's</span>

Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialty department stores across Southern California. Many former Bullock's locations continue to operate today as Macy's.

I. Magnin & Company was a San Francisco, California-based high fashion and specialty goods luxury department store. Over the course of its existence, it expanded across the West into Southern California and the adjoining states of Arizona, Oregon, and Washington. In the 1970s, under Federated Department Stores ownership, the chain entered the Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas. Mary Ann Magnin founded the company in 1876 and named the chain after her husband Isaac.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MainPlace Mall</span> Shopping mall in California, United States

MainPlace Mall is a shopping mall at the north edge of Santa Ana, California, adjacent to the City of Orange and the Orange Crush interchange of the Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange freeways. The anchor stores are JCPenney, 24 Hour Fitness, Ashley HomeStore, Round 1 Entertainment, DXL Mens Apparel, and Macy's. There is 1 vacant anchor store that was once Nordstrom.

Plaza West Covina is a large regional shopping mall in West Covina, California, owned by the Starwood Capital Group. Its anchor stores are Macy's, JCPenney, XXI Forever, Nordstrom Rack, Best Buy, and Gold's Gym with one vacant space last occupied by Sears. Westfield America, Inc., a precursor to Westfield Group, acquired the shopping center in 1998 and renamed it "Westfield Shoppingtown West Covina", dropping the "Shoppingtown" name in June 2005. In October 2013, the Westfield Group sold the mall to Starwood Capital Group and the mall is now managed by Pacific Retail Capital Partners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palm Springs, California</span> City in Riverside County

Palm Springs is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately 94 square miles (240 km2), making it the largest city in Riverside County by land area. With multiple plots in checkerboard pattern, more than 10% of the city is part of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians reservation land and is the administrative capital of the most populated reservation in California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fashion Valley Mall</span> Shopping mall in California, United States

Fashion Valley is an upscale, open-air shopping mall in Mission Valley in San Diego, California. The shopping center has 1,720,533 sq ft (159,842.7 m2) of leasable floor area, making it the largest mall in San Diego and one of the largest in California. It is managed by the 50% owner Simon Property Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Magnin</span> High-end department store

The Joseph Magnin Company was a high-end specialty department store founded in San Francisco, California, by Joseph Magnin, 4th son of Isaac Magnin founder of the I. Magnin department store. Joseph Magnin Co. and I. Magnin Co. were rivals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadway Plaza (Walnut Creek)</span> Shopping mall in California, United States

Broadway Plaza is an outdoor shopping mall located in downtown Walnut Creek. The shopping center opened on October 11, 1951 and is owned and operated by Macerich. The mall is anchored by Nordstrom and Macy's, and features nearly 80 stores including Crate & Barrel, flagship H&M and ZARA stores, a standalone Apple store with an adjoining outdoor plaza, an Industrious co-working space, a planned Pinstripes entertainment center and restaurant, and a planned Life Time Fitness sports club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desert Fashion Plaza</span> Former shopping mall in Palm Springs, California

Desert Fashion Plaza, formerly known as Desert Inn Fashion Plaza, was an enclosed shopping mall located in Palm Springs, California. The mall was originally developed by Home Savings and Loan Association, which sold the shopping center to Desert Plaza Partnership. In the early 1980s, Desert Plaza Partnership sold the property to DeBartolo Corporation which expanded and revamped the mall to accommodate more shops. Subsequently, sales declined prompting major retailers to close down business at the Desert Fashion Plaza. In 2002, John Wessman of Wessman Development bought the property and proposed a significant redevelopment on the whole site. Demolition began to take place in 2013, and shops, restaurants, and a six-story hotel have opened on part of the site with more planned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Shops at Palm Desert</span> Shopping mall in Palm Desert, California

The Shops at Palm Desert is a shopping mall located in Palm Desert, California which serves the Coachella Valley. In August 2021, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield announced plans to sell the mall, but has yet to find a buyer. The mall has been in a receivership, since this time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desmond's (department store)</span> Los Angeles department store

Desmond's was a Los Angeles-based department store, during its existence second only to Harris & Frank as the oldest Los Angeles retail chain, founded in 1862 as a hat shop by Daniel Desmond near the Los Angeles Plaza. The chain as a whole went out of business in 1981 but Desmond's, Inc. continued as a company that went in to other chains to liquidate them. Desmond's stores in Northridge and West Covina were liquidated only in 1986 and survived in Palm Springs into the first years of the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">7th Street (Los Angeles)</span> Department stores list in Los Angeles

7th Street is a street in Los Angeles, California running from S. Norton Ave in Mid-Wilshire through Downtown Los Angeles. It goes all the way to the eastern city limits at Indiana Ave., and the border between Boyle Heights, Los Angeles and East Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of retail in Southern California</span> Department stores list in Los Angeles

Retail in Southern California dates back to its first dry goods store that Jonathan Temple opened in 1827 on Calle Principal, when Los Angeles was still a Mexican village. After the American conquest, as the pueblo grew into a small town surpassing 4,000 population in 1860, dry goods stores continued to open, including the forerunners of what would be local chains. Larger retailers moved progressively further south to the 1880s-1890s Central Business District, which was later razed to become the Civic Center. Starting in the mid-1890s, major stores moved ever southward, first onto Broadway around 3rd, then starting in 1905 to Broadway between 4th and 9th, then starting in 1915 westward onto West Seventh Street up to Figueroa. For half a century Broadway and Seventh streets together formed one of America's largest and busiest downtown shopping districts.

Carmel Plaza is a 111,980 sq ft (10,403 m2) self-described "upscale, outdoor lifestyle shopping center" in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in the block bounded by Ocean, Junipero, Mission and 7th streets. It is currently anchored by Sur la Table, and Anthropologie and is home to luxury goods retailers such as Tiffany. Three stories of shops surround an open-air courtyard.

References

  1. ↑ "Plaza Opens with Ceremonies Sunday". Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA). October 30, 1936.
  2. ↑ "Palm Springs Plaza under construction". Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA). February 14, 1936.
  3. ↑ "Begin Monday on 36 shops in Plaza Project". Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA). July 10, 1936.
  4. ↑ "Power Company Publicizes Village". Desert Sun (Pam Springs, CA). December 11, 1936.
  5. ↑ Hirsh, Lou (February 6, 2005). "Desmond's to Close?". Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA).
  6. ↑ "I. Magnin & Co. to Open Twelfth Branch". San Francisco Examiner. November 8, 1933. p. 25.
  7. ↑ Brown, Renee (September 25, 2015). "History: Torney general hospital's contribution in WWII". The Desert Sun . Palm Springs.
  8. ↑ "Bullock's New Palm Springs Shop Cheerful", Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov 1930, p. 40 (part II, p. 20)
  9. ↑ Murphy, Gavin (October 28, 1988). "World Market Plan Dies". Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA).
  10. ↑ "Robinson's celebrating 75th anniversary", Desert Sun(Palm Springs, CA), January 9, 1958
  11. ↑ Murphy, Gary (March 6, 1992). "Merchants bemoan loss in Palm Springs of I. Magnin Store". Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA).
  12. ↑ "Saks will open here tomorrow". Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA). October 15, 1959.
  13. ↑ "'New Era' Launched as I. Magnin Opens". The Desert Sun . Vol. 41, no. 62. 16 October 1967. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  14. ↑ "Ground Broken Today for New Major Store". The Desert Sun . Vol. 42, no. 183. 6 March 1969. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.