The Jones Block was an important early commercial and retail building in the Victorian Downtown Los Angeles on the west side of Spring Street just south of Temple Street, which stood from the 1870s through the 1920s.
The original single-story building was the location of the Herald newspaper's office as early as 1875. [1] [2] [3] A second story was built in 1882 or -3. [4] It was demolished in the 1920s to create the City Hall block.
According to the pre-1890 numbering scheme, the Jones Block, although one building complex, had various discontinguous numbers for its various spaces: 71–73, 77–79, and 101–103 N. Spring Street. [5]
According to the post-1890 numbering scheme which added 100 to the previous building numbers in order to start with the number 100 at First Street, the Jones Block was located at 171–179 and 201 N. Spring Street. [6]
Tenants included:
The Historic Core is a district within Downtown Los Angeles that includes the world's largest concentration of movie palaces, former large department stores, and office towers, all built chiefly between 1907 and 1931. Within it lie the Broadway Theater District and the Spring Street historic financial district, and in its west it overlaps with the Jewelry District and in its east with Skid Row.
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.
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.
Rosson House, at 113 North 6th Street at the corner of Monroe Street in Downtown Phoenix, Arizona, is a historic house museum in Heritage Square. It was built between 1894 and 1895 in the Stick-Eastlake - Queen Anne Style of Victorian architecture and was designed by San Francisco architect A. P. Petit, his final design before his death. Named for Dr. Roland Lee Rosson and his wife Flora Murray Rosson, the house changed hands numerous times before being purchased by the City of Phoenix and restored to its original condition.
Los Angeles Street, originally known as Calle de los Negros is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Los Angeles, California, dating back to the origins of the city as the Pueblo de Los Ángeles.
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.
El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument, also known as Los Angeles Plaza Historic District and formerly known as El Pueblo de Los Ángeles State Historic Park, is a historic district taking in the oldest section of Los Angeles, known for many years as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula. The district, centered on the old plaza, was the city's center under Spanish (1781–1821), Mexican (1821–1847), and United States rule through most of the 19th century. The 44-acre park area was designated a state historic monument in 1953 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Main Street is a major north–south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California. It serves as the east–west postal divider for the city and the county as well.
Los Angeles Plaza or Plaza de Los Ángeles is located in Los Angeles, California. It is the central point of the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District. When Spanish Governor Felipe de Neve founded the Pueblo de Los Ángeles, his first act was to locate a plaza for the geographical center from which his town should radiate. De Neve's plaza was rectangular in form—75 varas wide by 100 in length. It was located north of the church; its southerly line very nearly coincided with the northerly line of West Marchessault street. On this, the cuartel, the public granary, the government house and the capilla (chapel), fronted.
The Blackstone Building is a 1916 structure located at 901 South Broadway in Los Angeles, California. It has been listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument since 2003. The Blackstone Department Store Building is an early example of the work of John B. Parkinson, Los Angeles’ preeminent architect of the early 20th century, who also designed Bullocks Wilshire. The building is clad in gray terra cotta and styled in the Beaux Arts school.
Doria Deighton-Jones was a Scottish-born American landowner and property developer in Los Angeles who built a "vast estate in and around" the city while the city was in its infancy.
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.
Harris & Frank was a clothing retailer and major chain in the history of retail in Southern California, which at its peak had around 40 stores across Southern California and in neighboring states and regions. Its history dates back to a clothing store founded by Leopold Harris in Los Angeles in 1856 near the city's central plaza, only eight years after the city had passed from Mexican to American control. Herman W. Frank joined Harris in partnership 32 years later in 1888.
Coulter's was a department store that originated in Downtown Los Angeles and later moved to the Miracle Mile shopping district in that same city.
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).
Jacoby Bros. was one of Los Angeles' largest dry goods retailers in the 1880s and 1890s, developing over the decades into a department store, which closed in the late 1930s.
Victor Clothing Company was a retail clothing store at 242 S. Broadway, Downtown Los Angeles. Originally from 1926–1964 it was located at the Crocker Building #212–6 S. Broadway.
City of Paris was a dry goods store and eventually Los Angeles' first department store, operating from the 1850s through 1897, first as Lazard & Kremer Co., then Lazard & Wolfskill Co., then S. Lazard & Co., then with the store name City of Paris operated by Eugene Meyer & Co., then by Stern, Cahn & Loeb. It should not be confused with the much more famous City of Paris store of San Francisco, or the Ville de Paris department store of Los Angeles, of Mr. A. Fusenot, which was a spinoff of San Francisco's "City of Paris".
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.
Henry Hammel was a German-born American businessman and politician was a business partner of Andrew H. Denker. He served on the Los Angeles Common Council from December 9, 1882, to December 9, 1884, and, with the help of his brother-in-law Denker, ran hotels and owned an extensive spread of agricultural property that eventually became the city of Beverly Hills, California.
HERALD office, Spring opposite Court House
Now that the new City of Paris store is approaching completion…asphalt pavement will shortly extend…in front of Doria Jones's property, embracing…the Herald office.
Mrs. Doria Jones proposes to build a second story over the Herald office and the store of Messrs. Preuss & Pironi. When this improvement is carried out the Herald will advance a step in life, as our business and editorial offices and composing room will be up-stairs.
The improvements in the Jones Block, opposite the Court House…are also part of the improvements