John and Donald Parkinson

Last updated
John Parkinson
John Parkinson, architect.jpg
John B. Parkinson
Born(1861-12-12)December 12, 1861
Scorton, Lancashire, England
DiedDecember 9, 1935(1935-12-09) (aged 73)
United States
NationalityEnglish
OccupationArchitect
Buildings Paradox Iron Brewery
Metropolitan Building
Holmby Hall
Donald B. Parkinson
Born(1895-08-10)August 10, 1895
United States
DiedNovember 17, 1945(1945-11-17) (aged 50)
United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationArchitect
ParentJohn Parkinson
Buildings Metropolitan Building
Holmby Hall

John and Donald Parkinson were a father-and-son architectural firm operating in the Los Angeles area in the early 20th century. They designed and built many of the city's iconic buildings, including Grand Central Market, the Memorial Coliseum, and City Hall. [1] [2]

Contents

John Parkinson

Early years

John Parkinson (12 December 1861 - 9 December 1935) was born in the small village of Scorton, in Lancashire, England in 1861. At the age of sixteen, he was apprenticed for six years to Jonas J. Bradshaw, an architect and engineer in nearby Bolton, where he learned craftsmanship and practical construction. He attended night school at Bolton's Mechanics Institute to study architectural drafting and engineering. Upon completion of his apprenticeship at age 21, he immigrated to North America as an adventure; he built fences in Winnipeg and learned stair building in Minneapolis. He returned to England only to discover that the English construction trades demanded more time and service for advancement. He decided that his then capabilities would be more appropriate to the less-structured opportunities in America. Parkinson went to California, settling in Napa where he again worked as a stair-builder, and he took on architectural commissions in his spare time, designing some of his first commercial projects including an annex to the original Bank of Napa building (1888, Demolished). [3]

Seattle practice

The Interurban Building, 2007 Seattle - Interurban Building 01.jpg
The Interurban Building, 2007

Considering Napa a "dead town", Parkinson ventured north to Seattle in February 1889, where he opened his first architectural practice after failing to secure a position as a draftsman. [4] In March he entered a partnership with Cecil Evers, but this ended little more than a year later; Parkinson would leave Napa for good in September 1889 but would retain professional relationships with local mills to supply lumber and trim. Parkinson's early projects in Puget Sound included the Olympia Hotel, Olympia (1889; destroyed), the Calkins Hotel, Mercer Island (1889; destroyed), and several residences. After the Great Seattle Fire of 6 June 1889, he secured several important business blocks, the Butler Block (1889–90; altered), and the Seattle National Bank Building, later called the Interurban Building (1890–92), an exemplary work of Romanesque Revival architecture.

In 1891, Parkinson won the design competition for the B.F. Day School (1891–92; altered), located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. Thereafter the Seattle School Board appointed Parkinson as the Seattle Schools Architect and Superintendent. Parkinson was responsible for all Seattle Schools projects over the next several years, including the Pacific School (1892–93; destroyed) and the Cascade School (1893–94; destroyed). He also designed the Seattle Seminary (1891–93)--the first building at Seattle Pacific University (now known as Alexander Hall); and the Jesuit College and Church (1893–94; altered)--the first building at Seattle University (now known as the Garrand Building).

Parkinson frequently published renderings of his buildings in the professional architectural press. He was an early member of the Washington State Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (predecessor to today's AIA Seattle chapter).

Parkinson invested in real estate and he was both architect and developer of the Seattle Athletic Club Building (1893–94; destroyed). His investments left him financially vulnerable when the Panic of 1893, the severe national depression, curtailed construction after June 1893. Parkinson's schools position was terminated by the Seattle School Board early in 1894. In 1893 and 1894, he entered several competitions, but failed to win any commissions.

Parkinson firm in Los Angeles

Faced with no projects, nor prospects for work in Seattle, John Parkinson moved to Los Angeles in 1894 and opened his architecture office on Spring Street between Second and Third Streets. By 1896, Parkinson had designed the city's first Class "A" fireproof steel-frame structure: the Homer Laughlin Building at Third Street and Broadway. His 1901 Susana Machado Bernard House and Barn has been designated as a Historic Cultural Monument and listed in the National Register of Historic Places. His design for the 1904 Braly Block at Fourth Street and Spring became the first "skyscraper" built in Los Angeles. It held the distinction of being the tallest structure in town until the completion of City Hall in 1928.

In 1905, Parkinson formed a partnership with G. Edwin Bergstrom which lasted for ten years. Parkinson and Bergstrom became the dominant architectural firm for major structures in Los Angeles. Bergstrom left to establish his own successful practice in 1915.

Parkinson & Parkinson

Residence of John Parkinson at Sixth Street and St. Paul Street, Los Angeles, c. 1900-1910 Mission style residence of John Parkinson, architect, at Sixth Street and Saint Paul Street, ca.1900-1910 (CHS-1217).jpg
Residence of John Parkinson at Sixth Street and St. Paul Street, Los Angeles, c.1900-1910

John Parkinson was joined in 1920 by his son, Donald B. Parkinson (1895—1945).

Parkinson & Parkinson designed many of Los Angeles' finest buildings, which became some of the city's most enduring landmarks. Found on the roster are: the Campus Master Plan and several noted buildings of the University of Southern California (1919–39), the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1923 and 1930–31), Los Angeles City Hall (1928, with Albert C. Martin Sr./structural and John C. Austin/working drawings), Bullocks Wilshire (1929) and Union Station (1939). John Parkinson completed an important early renovation of Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles. Their work was also part of the architecture event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics. [5] [6]

Parkinson firm evolution

Selected works

John Parkinson

Parkinson and Bergstrom

Donald Parkinson

Parkinson and Parkinson

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welton Becket</span> American architect (1902–1969)

Welton David Becket was an American modern architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadway (Los Angeles)</span> Major thoroughfare in Los Angeles County, California, USA

Broadway, until 1890 Fort Street, is a thoroughfare in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The portion of Broadway from 3rd to 9th streets, in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles, was the city's main commercial street from the 1910s until World War II, and is the location of the Broadway Theater and Commercial District, the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch of Broadway, it is the only large concentration of movie palaces left in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Bergstrom</span> American architect (1876–1955)

George Edwin Bergstrom was an American architect who designed The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia.

<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">Financial District, Los Angeles</span> Neighborhood of Los Angeles in County of Los Angeles, California, United States

The Financial District is the central business district of Los Angeles It is bounded by the Harbor Freeway to the west, First Street to the north, Main and Hill Streets to the east, and Olympic Boulevard and 9th Street to the south. It is south of the Bunker Hill district, west of the Historic Core, north of South Park and east of the Harbor Freeway and Central City West. Like Bunker Hill, the Financial District is home to corporate office skyscrapers, hotels and related services as well as banks, law firms, and real estate companies. However, unlike Bunker Hill which was razed and now consists of buildings constructed since the 1960s, it also contains large buildings from the early 20th century, particularly along Seventh Street, once the city's upscale shopping street; the area also includes the 7th and Flower area at the center of the regional Metro rail system, restaurants, bars, and two urban malls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumner Hunt</span> American architect

Sumner P. Hunt was an architect in Los Angeles from 1888 to the 1930s. On January 21, 1892, he married Mary Hancock Chapman, January 21, 1892. They had a daughter Louise Hunt.

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, and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas. Mary Ann Magnin founded the company in 1876 and named the chain after her husband Isaac.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">May Company California</span> Defunct California department store that merged with J. W. Robinsons to create Robinsons-May

May Company California was an American chain of department stores operating in Southern California and Nevada, with headquarters at its flagship Downtown Los Angeles store until 1983 when it moved them to North Hollywood. It was a subsidiary of May Department Stores and merged with May's other Southern California subsidiary, J. W. Robinson's, in 1993 to form Robinsons-May.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myron Hunt</span> American architect (1868–1952)

Myron Hubbard Hunt was an American architect whose numerous projects include many noted landmarks in Southern California and Evanston, Illinois. Hunt was elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects in 1908.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William H. Willcox</span>

William H. Willcox was an American architect and surveyor who practised in New York, Chicago, St. Paul, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spring Street (Los Angeles)</span> Historic district in Downtown Los Angeles

Spring Street in Los Angeles is one of the oldest streets in the city. Along Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles, from just north of Fourth Street to just south of Seventh Street is the NRHP-listed Spring Street Financial District, nicknamed Wall Street of the West, lined with Beaux Arts buildings and currently experiencing gentrification. This section forms part of the Historic Core district of Downtown, together with portions of Hill, Broadway, Main and Los Angeles streets.

William Boone was an American architect who practiced mainly in Seattle, Washington from 1882 until 1905. He was one of the founders of the Washington State chapter of the American Institute of Architects as well as its first president. For the majority of the 1880s, he practiced with George Meeker as Boone and Meeker, Seattle's leading architectural firm at the time. In his later years he briefly worked with William H. Willcox as Boone and Willcox and later with James Corner as Boone and Corner. Boone was one of Seattle's most prominent pre-fire architects whose career lasted into the early 20th century outlasting many of his peers. Few of his buildings remain standing today, as many were destroyed in the Great Seattle fire including one of his most well known commissions, the Yesler – Leary Building, built for pioneer Henry Yesler whose mansion Boone also designed. After the fire, he founded the Washington State chapter of the American Institute of Architects and designed the first steel frame office building in Seattle, among several other large brick and public buildings that are still standing in the Pioneer Square district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Tilden Norton</span> American architect

Samuel Tilden Norton, or S. Tilden Norton as he was known professionally, was a Los Angeles–based architect active in the first decades of the 20th century. During his professional career he was associated with the firm of Norton & Wallis, responsible for the design of many Los Angeles landmarks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Building (Los Angeles)</span> United States historic place

The Metropolitan Building, in Los Angeles, California, was completed in 1913 and is one of a number of buildings built along Broadway in the early decades of the twentieth century for commercial and retail uses in what had then become the busiest and largest shopping district of the city. Located at the intersection of W. 5th Street and S. Broadway, the Metropolitan Building replaced a two-story, Romanesque Revival style building with storefronts on S. Broadway and W. 5th Street. This building was called the Mueller Building for its owner, Michail Mueller. The date of the building's construction is not known, nor has any additional information about it been located.

Albert Raymond Walker (1881-1958) was an American architect. He is primarily known for his work with Percy A. Eisen as Walker & Eisen in Los Angeles.

Silas Reese Burns (1855–1940) was an American architect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myer Siegel</span>

Myer Siegel was a Los Angeles–based department store, founded by Myer Siegel (1866–1934), specializing in women's clothing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorian Downtown Los Angeles</span> Historical neighborhood in California, US

The late-Victorian-era Downtown of Los Angeles in 1880 was centered at the southern end of the Los Angeles Plaza area, and over the next two decades, it extended south and west along Main Street, Spring Street, and Broadway towards Third Street. Most of the 19th-century buildings no longer exist, surviving only in the Plaza area or south of Second Street. The rest were demolished to make way for the Civic Center district with City Hall, numerous courthouses, and other municipal, county, state and federal buildings, and Times Mirror Square. This article covers that area, between the Plaza, 3rd St., Los Angeles St., and Broadway, during the period 1880 through the period of demolition (1920s–1950s).

<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.

References

  1. "The forgotten Brit who helped shape Los Angeles". BBC News. 2018-07-05. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  2. "The Britons who made their mark on LA". Daily Telegraph. 2011-09-11. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 2018-07-19.
  3. "Another New Brick Block". Napa Register. UCR Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 23 Mar 1888. p. 1. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  4. "Napa's Future; A Homily On the Present and Future Prospects of Napa". Napa Weekly Reporter. UCR Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 6 Sep 1889. p. 5. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  5. "Donald Parkinson". Olympedia. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  6. "John Parkinson". Olympedia. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  7. "The Laughlin Building: California's Finest Office Structure as It is", Los Angeles Times , July 5, 1898
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form - California SP Broadway Theater and Commercial District". United States Department of the Interior - National Park Service. May 9, 1979.
  9. "Will Go Up Rapidly: Work on the Jacoby Building Was Begun Today: Most of the Material for the Big Business Structure Is Already on the Ground". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. September 1, 1899. p. 1. Architect John Parkinson
  10. "Joannes Bros. Co". historicplacesla.org. Los Angeles Historic Resource Inventory, Office of Historic Resources. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  11. "To Be Enlarged". Los Angeles Times . May 4, 1902.
  12. "Bullock's Department Store #1", Pacific Coast Architecture Database
  13. "Pomona, CA — Great American Stations". www.greatamericanstations.com. Archived from the original on 2015-01-20. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  14. "New Desmond Store Planned". The Los Angeles Times. 24 November 1929. p. 70. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  15. "Saks Fifth Avenue". Los Angeles Conservancy. Archived from the original on 30 March 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  16. http://www.planning.lacity.org/eir/USC/DEIR/files/IV.C.%20Cultural%20Resources.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]