This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2008) |
![]() | |
Company type | Department store |
---|---|
Industry | Retail |
Founded | February 24, 1896 |
Founder | Arthur Letts Sr. |
Defunct | 1996 |
Fate | Converted to Macy's |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. |
The Broadway was a mid-level department store chain headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1896 by English-born Arthur Letts Sr., and named after what was once the city's main shopping street, [1] the Broadway became a dominant retailer in Southern California and the Southwest. Its fortunes eventually declined, and Federated Department Stores (now Macy's, Inc.) bought the chain in 1995. In 1996, Broadway stores were either closed or converted into Macy's and Bloomingdales.
In 1895, J. A. Williams formed J. A. Williams & Co., built and opened his Broadway Department Store on August 29, 1895. In February, 1896 the store was liquidated, and Arthur Letts bought the name, assets, fixtures, and the building lease for $8377 and, on February 24, 1896, the Broadway started operating under Letts. [1] [2] [3] The previous owners had a good location in a recently constructed building at the southwest corner of Broadway and Fourth Streets, [4] but had all of its assets seized by their creditors for failure to pay its bills after just four short months of operations. [5] [6] [7] In contrast, Letts was able to pay off all of his creditors in a short period of time after acquiring the assets for the failed store by the quick sale of the same assets and by watching his expenses. [8] [9]
In a short period of time, the business was doing so well, that it had to expand into adjacent store fronts.
Between 1900 and 1910, the population of Los Angeles more than tripled. Bullock's, in 1907, and Hamburger's (later May Co.), in 1908, had both opened stores occupying entire city blocks. It was clear to Letts that The Broadway needed a new, much larger building. [2]
In 1912 The Broadway announced plans for a new nine-story building with nearly 11 acres of floor space to be built in several phases at the same location (320 W. Fourth St., southwest corner of Broadway, now the Junipero Serra state office building). The store would have 11 passenger and 4 freight elevators; three entrances on Broadway, one on Fourth St. and one on Hill St. The architect was John Joseph (J. J.) Frauenfelder of Parkinson & Bergstrom. [10] [11] with construction starting in 1913 while the current store remained in business. [9]
The first phase was to acquire space in the first three floors of the Clark Hotel Building along Hill St.; the hotel backed up to the Broadway's existing store. This 71,000-square-foot (6,600 m2) Hill Street "division" (wing), as it was then called, opened as a new part of the store. The departments from the southern half of the existing store along Broadway were transferred to the Hill St. space on November 3, 1913. [12] [13]
The second phase was to demolish the southern building of the existing store complex, along Broadway, and build the southern half of the new Broadway store in its place. This section (96,600 square feet (8,970 m2)) opened on August 10, 1914. Departments from the northern half of the store facing Broadway and Fourth streets were transferred into the new space. [14] [15]
Finally, the northern half of the store along Broadway was removed and the northern half of the new Broadway store was built. This section opened on June 25, 1915, [16] [17] although the formal inauguration was during Fashion Week on September 16, 1915. [18]
The new "New and Greater Broadway store", as it was advertised, [19] had 242 feet (74 m) of storefront along Broadway and 166 feet (51 m) along Fourth Street. It was 9 stories high and covered 11 acres (4.5 ha), stretching from Broadway all the way west to Hill Street, which also had an entrance.[ citation needed ]
On November 10, 1924, The Broadway added another building, 80 feet (24 m) wide and 123 feet (37 m) deep, immediately west of the main building along Fourth Street, thus adding 119,790 square feet (11,129 m2) of floor space over ten above-ground and three below-ground floors. It added six passenger and three freight elevators. [20] [21]
In summary, the Downtown flagship store evolved in size as follows: [21]
Date | Total floor space | Addition | |
---|---|---|---|
Sq ft | Sq m | ||
1898 | 12,000 | 1,100 | |
1900 | 19,520 | 1,813 | |
1902 | 28,520 | 2,650 | |
1904 | 48,040 | 4,463 | |
November 3, 1913 | 95,000 | 8,800 | Construction of new building begins in phases. Southern half of store (ca. 24,000 sq ft) moves to 3 floors of Clark Hotel Building on Hill St. (71,000 sq ft) and is razed and rebuilt. |
August 10, 1914 | 117,000 | 10,900 | New larger southern half (96,000 sq ft) of Broadway-facing building opens. Departments from northern half (ca. 24,000 sq ft) move into it. |
June 25, 1915 | 457,210 | 42,476 | New larger northern half of Broadway-facing building opens, thus completing the new 9-story building with "nearly 11 acres" of floor space. |
November 10, 1924 | 577,000 | 53,600 | New 119,790 sq ft (11,129 m2) building on 4th Street added to the west. |
In 1931, The Broadway bought the B. H. Dyas Hollywood store which became the Broadway-Hollywood. [22]
In 1940, The Broadway built a landmark three-story store in Pasadena, at the corner of Colorado and Los Robles on the site of the old famous Maryland Hotel. The striking Streamline Moderne building had a 117-foot tower with a marquee facing both streets, and parking for 400 cars. [23] It would be abandoned in 1980 for a newly built store across the street in the new Plaza Pasadena mall.
In 1950, the company merged with Sacramento-based Hale Brothers to form Broadway-Hale Stores. In the same year it purchased the year-old Westchester branch of Milliron's and converted it to a Broadway. The store, designed by legendary retail architect Victor Gruen, was a considered a model of ultra-modern retail architecture at the time, with rooftop parking and striking, angular design designed to attract passing motorists. [24] [25]
The Broadway bought out competitors in Los Angeles (B.H. Dyas, Milliron's, and Coulter's), and expanded into new markets through acquisitions of small local chains: Marston's in San Diego and Korricks in Phoenix. In later years the Broadway opened stores in Nevada (Las Vegas), New Mexico, and Colorado. In 1979, it was split into two divisions: The Broadway Southern California, based in Los Angeles; and Broadway Southwest, headquartered in Phoenix, for the stores outside California.
The Broadway's parent Carter Hawley Hale Stores ran into financial difficulties which resulted from poor management decisions and hostile takeover attempts. In 1996 the chain was acquired by Federated Department Stores and the majority of locations were converted to the Macy's nameplate. Several stores in affluent areas where Macy's already had locations, South Coast Plaza,[ citation needed ] Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, Century City Shopping Center, Beverly Center, and Fashion Island Newport Beach, [26] were closed, refurbished and reopened as Bloomingdale's. Federated sold many of the remaining stores to Sears.
The nine stories Beaux Arts building with its restrained Italian Renaissance Revival ornamentation at the southwest corner of Broadway and Fourth was designed by architects John Parkinson and Edwin Bergstrom to serve as the headquarters and the flagship store for Arthur Letts' Broadway Department store chain with the first phase of construction completed in 1913. Construction, which included demolition of the previous store and expansion to the rest of the block when additional property were acquired, continued on several different stages until 1924. The Broadway occupied this location from 1913 to 1973.
On Friday, November 16th, 1973, at 6:00 P.M., [27] The Broadway's downtown flagship store at 4th and Broadway, where it had operated for 77 years, closed its doors forever. It was replaced by a new, smaller 3-story flagship store at the newly constructed Broadway Plaza office and retail complex nearby.
The original flagship store structure changed hands a number of times and sat empty for years, before being bought by developer Roger Luby in May 1984. Luby's plans fell apart the following year when his partners, a consortium of 32 Oklahoma savings and loans defaulted as a result of the savings and loan crisis and the $56 million (~$132 million in 2023) renovation project defaulted on its loans when half completed in September 1986. [28] [29]
In June 1995, the State of California paid $1.8 million for the building to the Resolution Trust Corporation, which inherited the property upon the collapse of some of the savings and loans, and $61.5 million for renovation [30] [31] to replace the unsafe Junipero Serra State Office Building at Broadway and First streets, [32] which was later demolished in 2006. [33] The renovated building at Broadway and Fourth reopened as the new Junipero Serra State Office Building in 1999. [11] To balance the state budget, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sell the office building to private developers as a part of a sale and lease back scheme. [34]
As of 2020, [update] the Junipero Serra Building is one of 56 buildings managed by California Department of General Services and only one of two (the other is the Ronald Reagan State Building) that are located in Los Angeles. [35]
This is a list of the Broadway store numbers with their locations and opening dates: [36] [37] [38]
Store no. | Store name | Mall or address | (District &) City (state=CA unless stated) | Opening date | Architect | Sq. ft. at opening | Closing date | Current building use | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Downtown | 320 West Fourth Street (southwest corner of Broadway and Fourth Street) Original 1896 building | Historic Core, Downtown L.A. | February 24, 1896 | August 8, 1914 [15] | demolished in phases 1913-5 | |||
01 | Downtown | 320 West Fourth Street (southwest corner of Broadway and Fourth Street through to Hill Street) ("New and Greater Broadway" 1913-5 bldgs.) | Downtown L.A. | March 11, 1913 (W.), October 8, 1914 (S.), June 25, 1915 (N.) | John Joseph (J. J.) Frauenfelder of Parkinson & Bergstrom. [10] | Claimed nearly 11 acres (480,000 sq ft) | November 15, 1973 | Junipero Serra State Office Bldg. | |
01 | Plaza | Broadway Plaza (now The Bloc), 700 South Flower Street | Downtown L.A. | November 16, 1973 | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | Macy's | |||
02 | Hollywood [39] | Broadway Hollywood Building, 6300 West Hollywood Boulevard & 1645 North Vine Street | Hollywood, L.A. | September 3, 1931 as B. H. Dyas | Frederick Rice Dorn [40] | 172,000 [39] | February 13, 1982 | ||
03 | Pasadena [23] | 401 East Colorado Boulevard | Pasadena | November 15, 1940 [23] | August 15, 1980 | demolished 1980 | |||
04 | Crenshaw (renamed Baldwin Hills in 1988) | Broadway-Crenshaw Center, later renamed Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza | Crenshaw, L.A. | November 21, 1947 [41] | Albert B. Gardner [42] | 200,000 (5 stories) [41] | vacant | ||
| |||||||||
05 | Westchester [25] | 8739 Sepulveda Boulevard | Westchester, L.A. | August 18, 1950 | Victor Gruen [24] | 90,000 [43] | October 14, 1990 | Kohl's | |
| |||||||||
06 | Valley (renamed Panorama City) [44] [45] | Panorama City Shopping Center, now Panorama Mall | Panorama City, S.F.V., L.A. | October 10, 1955 [44] | Welton Becket & Assoc. | 226,000 [45] | 1996 | Walmart | |
| |||||||||
07 | Anaheim [46] [47] [48] | Anaheim Plaza | Anaheim | October 14, 1955 [48] | Welton Becket & Assoc. | 208,000 [49] | January 31, 1993 | demolished, now site of power center | |
08 | Long Beach [50] | Los Altos Market Place | Los Altos, Long Beach | November 14, 1955 as Walker's [51] | Welton Becket & Assoc. (1955), Charles Luckman & Assoc. (1963 expansion) [52] [53] | 100,000 [51] | 1996 | vacant | |
09 | Del Amo | Broadway/Del Amo Shopping Center | Torrance | February 16, 1959 | Dick's Sporting Goods & Jo-Ann Fabrics | ||||
| |||||||||
10 | Wilshire | 5600 Wilshire Boulevard | Miracle Mile, L.A. | August 3, 1960 | closed 1980 | demolished | |||
| |||||||||
11 | Whittier [54] | Whittwood Center | Whittier | February 13, 1961 [54] | 1996 | Sears | |||
| |||||||||
61 | Downtown Phoenix | 1 North First Street [55] | Phoenix, Arizona | acquired 1962 | Henry C. Trost, Trost & Trost [55] [56] | 1966 | |||
| |||||||||
62 | Chris-Town | Chris-Town Mall, now Christown Spectrum Mall | Phoenix, Arizona | August 21, 1961 | Welton Becket & Assoc. | August 31, 1992 | demolished | ||
| |||||||||
36 | Grossmont [57] | Grossmont Center | La Mesa, San Diego County | June 11, 1961 as Marston's | Welton Becket & Assoc. | 156,000 [57] | Macy's | ||
| |||||||||
12 | West Covina [58] | West Covina Fashion Center, became part of what is now Plaza West Covina | West Covina | June 8, 1962 [58] | 1996 | vacant | |||
| |||||||||
37 | Chula Vista | Chula Vista Center | Chula Vista | December 11, 1962 | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | Macy's | |||
| |||||||||
13 | Ventura | Buenaventura Plaza, now Pacific View Mall | Ventura | September 30, 1963 | Macy's | ||||
14 | Topanga Plaza | Topanga Plaza | Canoga Park, S.F.V., L.A. | August 24, 1964 | 1996 | demolished | |||
| |||||||||
15 | Century City | Century City Shopping Center | Century City, Westside, L.A. | December 10, 1964 | Welton Becket & Assoc. | 1996 | Bloomingdale's | ||
16 | Downey | Stonewood Center | Downey | October 18, 1965 | 143,400 [59] | 1996 | vacant | ||
| |||||||||
17 | Huntington Beach [60] | Huntington Center, now Bella Terra, I-405 at Edinger Avenue | Huntington Beach | November 15, 1965 [61] | Charles Luckman & Assoc. [62] | 150,000 [60] | 1996 | Kohl's | |
| |||||||||
18 | San Bernardino [63] | Inland Center | San Bernardino | August 29, 1966 [63] | Charles Luckman & Assoc. [64] | 158,000 [63] | Forever 21 | ||
| |||||||||
19 | Boulevard Mall | The Boulevard Mall | Paradise, Las Vegas Valley, NV | October 17, 1966 | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield offices | |||
| |||||||||
20 | Bakersfield | Valley Plaza Mall | Bakersfield | February 27, 1967 | Macy's | ||||
21 | Fashion Island | Fashion Island | Newport Beach | November 9, 1967 | William Pereira, Welton Becket & Assoc. | 1996 | Bloomingdale's | ||
22 | Montclair [65] | Montclair Plaza | Montclair | May 8, 1968 [65] | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | 142,000 [66] | Demolished 2018 [65] | ||
| |||||||||
63 | Biltmore Fashion Park | Biltmore Fashion Park | Phoenix, AZ | October 28, 1968 | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | Macy's | |||
38 | Fashion Valley | Fashion Valley | Mission Valley, San Diego | August 9, 1969 | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | Macy's | |||
64 | Scottsdale [67] | Los Arcos Mall | Scottsdale, AZ | October 18, 1969 | Burke, Kober, Nicolais & Archuleta | 156,000 [67] | 1996 | demolished | |
23 | Riverside [68] | Tyler Mall | Riverside | December 10, 1970 [68] | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | 156,000 [68] | Forever 21 | ||
| |||||||||
24 | Orange [69] | Mall of Orange, now The Village at Orange | Orange | August 16, 1971 [69] | Ainsworth and McClellan | 167,500 [69] | 1996 | demolished | |
| |||||||||
25 | Cerritos [70] | Los Cerritos Center | Cerritos | September 13, 1971 [70] | 178,000 [70] | Macy's | |||
26 | Northridge | Northridge Fashion Center | Northridge, S.F.V., L.A. | October 18, 1971 | 1996 | Partially demolished | |||
| |||||||||
27 | Carson | Carson Mall, renamed SouthBay Pavilion | Carson | October 9, 1973 | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | 9/1991 | IKEA | ||
65 | Metrocenter | Metrocenter | Northwest Phoenix, AZ | October 22, 1973 | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | demolished | |||
| |||||||||
28 | Puente Hills [71] | Puente Hills Mall | City of Industry | February 18, 1974 [71] | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | 160,000 [71] | 1996 | demolished | |
| |||||||||
29 | Murray, Utah | Fashion Place | Murray, UT | May 8, 1974 | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | 1993 | demolished | ||
| |||||||||
66 | Park Mall | Park Mall | Tucson, AZ | August 26, 1974 | Charles Luckman & Assoc. | vacant | |||
| |||||||||
30 | Santa Anita | Santa Anita Fashion Park | Arcadia | November 11, 1974 [72] | Macy's | ||||
31 | Laguna Hills [73] | Laguna Hills Mall | Laguna Hills | April 8, 1975 [74] | Edward Killingsworth | demolished | |||
| |||||||||
32 | Fox Hills [75] | Fox Hills Mall | Culver City | June 10, 1975 [75] | William Pereira | 192,470 [75] | Macy's | ||
67 | Albuquerque [76] | Coronado Center | Albuquerque, NM | December 2, 1976 | Chaix, Pujdak, Bielski, Takeuchi, Daggett Associated Architects & Planers [77] | 159,378 [76] | Round 1 & Dick's Sporting Goods | ||
33 | Glendale | Glendale Galleria | Glendale | August 8, 1976 | Jon Jerde | Macy's | |||
34 | Hawthorne [78] | Hawthorne Plaza | Hawthorne | December 2, 1977 | Charles Kober & Assoc. | abandoned | |||
39 | UTC [79] | University Towne Centre | San Diego | October 15, 1977 [79] | 155,000 [79] | Macy's | |||
35 | Sherman Oaks [80] | Sherman Oaks Fashion Square | Sherman Oaks, S.F.V., L.A. | May 11, 1977 [80] | 183,000 [80] | 1996 | Bloomingdale's | ||
40 | Thousand Oaks | The Oaks | Thousand Oaks | February 18, 1978 | demolished | ||||
| |||||||||
42 | Meadows Mall | Meadows Mall | Las Vegas, NV | July 31, 1978 | Charles Kober & Assoc. | Macy's | |||
41 | Brea | Brea Mall | Brea | October 21, 1978 | Macy's (Women's) | ||||
| |||||||||
68 | Fiesta Mall | Fiesta Mall | Mesa, Arizona | March 10, 1979 | demolished [81] | ||||
| |||||||||
43 | Carlsbad | Plaza Camino Real, now The Shoppes at Carlsbad | Carlsbad | October 20, 1979 | Macy's (Women's and Children's) | ||||
29 | Pasadena [82] | Plaza Pasadena, now Paseo Colorado | Pasadena | August 16, 1980 [82] | Charles Kober & Assoc. | 153,000 [82] | demolished | ||
| |||||||||
44 | Santa Monica Place | Santa Monica Place | Santa Monica | October 16, 1980 | Frank Gehry | vacant | |||
| |||||||||
45 | Beverly Center | Beverly Center | Beverly Grove, w.L.A. | March 25, 1982 | Lou Nardorf of Welton Becket & Assoc. | 1996 | Bloomingdale's | ||
47 | Horton Plaza | Horton Plaza | Downtown San Diego | April 10, 1985 | Jon Jerde | vacant | |||
| |||||||||
48 | North County Fair | North County Fair | Escondido | February 13, 1986 | Macy's | ||||
46 | South Coast Plaza | South Coast Plaza (Crystal Court) | Costa Mesa | October 31, 1986 | Macy's Home | ||||
| |||||||||
50 | Santa Barbara | Ortega Building, Paseo Nuevo | Santa Barbara | August 17, 1990 [83] | John Field | 140,000 [83] | vacant | ||
| |||||||||
opened specifically as Broadway Southwest locations: | |||||||||
69 | Tucson Mall | Tucson Mall | Tucson, Arizona | July 16, 1982 | demolished | ||||
| |||||||||
70 | Lakewood, CO | Villa Italia Mall, now Belmar | Lakewood, CO | May 11, 1985 | 1987 | Dick's Sporting Goods | |||
| |||||||||
71 | Englewood, CO | Cinderella City | Englewood, CO | May 11, 1985 | 1987 | Englewood Public Library and City Hall | |||
| |||||||||
72 | Westminster, CO | Westminster Mall | Westminster, CO | October 30, 1986 | 1996 | demolished | |||
| |||||||||
73 | Paradise Valley, AZ | Paradise Valley Mall | Paradise Valley, AZ | February 17, 1991 | demolished | ||||
|
The last Broadway Southwest store was originally planned to be built at Superstition Springs Center mall in Mesa, Arizona. But due to the attempted hostile takeover by The Limited, construction was halted. And as a result, it started doing business as Robinsons-May instead in 1994 (now Macy's since 2006).
Ohrbach's was a moderate-priced department store with a merchandising focus primarily on clothing and accessories. From its modest start in 1923 until the chain's demise in 1987, Ohrbach's expanded dramatically after World War II, and opened numerous branch locations in the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. Its original flagship store was located on Union Square in New York City. It maintained administrative offices in Newark and in Los Angeles. The retailer closed the Newark offices in the 1970s. Paul László designed the Union Square store as well as many of their other stores.
The Paseo is an outdoor mall in Pasadena, California, covering three city blocks with office space, shops, restaurants, a movie theater, and 400 loft-style condominiums above.
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.
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 contains large buildings from the early 20th century, particularly along Seventh Street, once the city's upscale shopping street; the area also attracts visitors as the 7th and Flower area is at the center of the regional Metro rail system and is replete with restaurants, bars, and shopping at two urban malls.
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.
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.
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.
Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza is a shopping mall located in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. This was one of the first regional shopping centers in the United States built specifically for the automobile. Two anchor buildings, completed in 1947, retain their original Streamline Moderne style. Since the mid-1960s, the mall has become a major economic and cultural hub of surrounding African American communities which include a spectrum of socioeconomic classes.
Hill Street is a major north–south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, measuring 4.8 miles (7.7 km) in length. It starts on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard near the campus of USC, and passes north through Downtown Los Angeles, past such landmarks as Pershing Square, the Subway Terminal Building, Angels Flight, Fort Moore and Chinatown. Hill Street merges with the Arroyo Seco Parkway near Dodger Stadium.
Anaheim Plaza, originally Broadway Orange County Center, then Anaheim Center, in Anaheim, California, was the first shopping mall in Orange County. It was a regional mall from 1955 to 1993 and is now a power center anchored by big-box stores.
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.
The Bloc, formerly Macy's Plaza and Broadway Plaza, is an open-air shopping center in downtown Los Angeles at 700 South Flower Street, in the Financial District. Its tenants include the downtown Los Angeles Macy's store, LA Fitness, Nordstrom Local, UNIQLO, and the Sheraton Grand Los Angeles hotel. The shopping center has its own entrance to the 7th Street/Metro Center station of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The Bloc tends to connect the financial, fashion, jewelry, and theater districts and the 7th Street Metro Center Station, meaning where four Downtown Los Angeles lines converge more.
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.
The Fifth Street Store was a major department store in Los Angeles opened in 1905.
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).
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.
Milliron's Westchester, later The Broadway-Westchester, was a department store at 8739 S. Sepulveda Blvd., in Westchester, Los Angeles, designed by architect Victor Gruen. Its original design was considered a landmark in exterior architecture of retail stores, although much of the original design is no longer present. The building now houses a Kohl's.
Orange County Plaza, later Garden Grove Mall, Garden Promenade, now The Promenade at Garden Grove, was upon its expansion in 1959, with sixty stores, the largest shopping center in Orange County, California, and at the time billed itself as "Orange County's first regional shopping center". However, Anaheim Plaza had in fact already opened In 1955, four years prior, and had an anchor department store.
Boston Stores, originally and later still often called The Boston Store, was a chain of department stores based in Inglewood, California, just southwest of Central Los Angeles, that operated from 1934 through 1996.
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.
The stock of the Broadway store has been sold by the board of trade to Arthur Letts for the sum of $8377.
The Superb New Broadway Structure at The Corner of Fourth Office and Mercantile Apartments of Modern Proportions The Upper Story to Be Utilized as a First Class Lodging Hotel With a Roof Garden
The new institution will be styled J.A. Williams & Co., the members of the firm being Mr. J. A. Williams, and Mr. B.F. Overman. The place of business will be styled the Broadway Department Store, and it will occupy apartments in the Hallett & Pirtle building, at the corner of Fourth and Broadway.
Broadway Department Store Attached by Several Creditors Yesterday.
The Creditors' Committee in the matter of J.A. Williams & Co. will receive sealed bids for the stock, fixtures and fittings of the Broadway Department Store, Pirtle Building, southwest corner Broadway and Fourth Street.
The entire stock of J.A. Williams & Co. will be placed on sale Monday, February 24th, and must be Closed Out in Thirty Days...Broadway Department Store; Arthur Letts, Assignee; Corner Fourth and Broadway.