STROLLING ON 7TH STREET: downtown’s historic thoroughfare Historic postcards from the Marlene Laskey Collection eventh Street in downtown Los The predominant architectural style seen on Seventh Angeles is a dynamic corridor with an exciting Street is Beaux Arts, a formal style based on classical (mainly Shistory. The street spans four commercial districts Greek and Roman) forms that experienced a popular revival (Financial, Jewelry, Theatre, and Fashion), grew very quickly in the early twentieth century. Most of the street had been along with the rest of the city center, and has remained developed by the time Art Deco reached the mainstream in highly intact for more than a century. the late 1920s. The street’s few Art Deco façades resulted Located nearly a mile south of the original pueblo, from 1930s makeovers of Beaux Arts structures. the area that is now Seventh Street was once agricultural As with many city centers, downtown gradually land on the outskirts of Los Angeles. With the arrival of lost favor to postwar suburbs, which offered shopping and the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876, the city’s population entertainment closer to home. Increasingly, downtown exploded, and the rural fields began to give way to residences. businesses closed and buildings became dormant. As the city’s commercial center continued to expand, In the 1960s and ’70s, redevelopment incentives Seventh evolved from residential to commercial use. The fostered the new commercial center on Bunker Hill, leaving street’s first major commercial building, the eight-story Seventh Street virtually deserted. Fortunately, it was also Lankershim Hotel, opened in 1905 at Seventh and Broadway left alone, with few historic structures demolished to make (it was demolished in the early 1990s). way for new construction. More than seventy-five percent In 1906, John Bullock opened his flagship of the buildings on Seventh between Figueroa and Los department store at the corner of Seventh and Broadway. Angeles Streets were built before 1929, creating an invaluable Bullock’s paved the way for Seventh Street to develop into an architectural trove, historic record, and filming location. upscale shopping street distinct from the bustling retail on Today, Seventh Street is the latest frontier in the Broadway. ongoing revitalization of downtown. Renewed interest, along By the end of the teens, Seventh was home to several with incentives such as the city’s Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, major retailers as well as dozens of smaller stores. The corner have fueled the conversion of historic buildings for new of Seventh and Broadway was one of the busiest intersections uses along Broadway, Spring, Main, and Seventh Streets. in Los Angeles for many years. Thousands of shoppers and Since 2003, nearly a dozen former commercial structures theatregoers arrived daily, many on the famed Red Car trolley on Seventh have reopened as apartments or condominiums. system. This increase in housing is in turn drawing new restaurants, Office development took hold along Seventh in the nightlife, and retail to the area. Seventh Street is a 1920s, with thirteen large office buildings opening between kaleidoscope of old and new, history and vibrancy, adding 1920 and 1928. By 1929, every single plot on Seventh from new layers to the story of downtown Los Angeles. Figueroa to Los Angeles Streets had been developed. STROLLING ON 7TH STREET: 2 #01 Barker Bros. Building (818 Building) #05 Roosevelt Building (The Roosevelt) 818 W. Seventh Street 727 W. Seventh Street Curlett and Beelman (1926) Curlett and Beelman (1927) Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #356 Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #355/ his Renaissance Revival structure National Register of Historic Places Twas the sixth and final downtown his massive Renaissance Revival building home of Barker Bros., a Los Angeles- Twas purported to be the largest office based furniture company founded building in Southern California when it opened. in 1880. Advertised at the time of Architects Curlett and Beelman were prolific its construction as one of the largest downtown practitioners, designing six buildings furniture stores in the country, the on Seventh Street alone. In 2008, the Roosevelt building was converted into offices underwent conversion to 222 residential units, when Barker Bros. closed in the 1980s. restoring the original entry lobby with its The building’s magnificent exterior spectacular mosaic marble floors. remains in nearly original condition. Bruce Boehner Bruce Boehner #06 J. W. Robinson Company (600 W. Seventh Street) #02 Home Savings of America Tower 600 W. Seventh Street (Figueroa Tower) Noonan and Richards (1915), Edgar Mayberry with 831 W. Seventh Street Allison and Allison (1934 remodel) Albert C. Martin and Associates (1989) Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #357 n this postmodern tribute to the French ounded in Los Angeles in 1883 as the Boston Dry Goods store, Ichateaux of the Loire Valley, designer Fthe J. W. Robinson Company was the first major department Tim Vreeland paid homage to “the enduring store to move to Seventh Street west of Broadway. The building architectural quality” of Seventh Street. Original encompasses nearly nine acres of floor space on seven floors. The tenant Home Savings had a tradition of upscale store was immediately successful and spurred the further integrating public art with architecture as seen development of the area as a shopping district. In 1934, a major here in the Venetian glass mosaic murals by Joyce remodel gave the store its current Moderne façade, replacing the Kozloff, a trompe l’oeil Metro entry mural by original Beaux Arts design. The building’s upper floors now house Terry Shoonhoven, and many other works of art telecommunications and data storage equipment. in and around the building. LAC Archives #03 Fine Arts Building 811 W. Seventh Street Walker and Eisen (1926) Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #125 ntending to “create a grouping of Ithe highest class specialty shops and studios in America,” no expense was spared in this stylish and unique building LAC Archives Bruce Boehner dedicated to the fine arts. Walker and Robinson’s before and after the 1934 remodel. Eisen’s Romanesque exterior is graced with monumental figures by sculptor Burt #07 Union Oil Building (617 W. Seventh Street) Johnson, and the foyer is a tour de force by the era’s preeminent tile master, Ernest 617 W. Seventh Street Batchelder. Although the concept of a Curlett and Beelman (1923) dedicated artists’ space was short-lived, nion Oil Company the building has served for many years as Umoved its corporate architecturally distinctive office space. offices to Los Angeles in Bruce Boehner 1901, one of the first of the major oil companies to #04 Broadway Plaza (Macy’s Plaza) do so. The firm occupied 700 W. Seventh Street several buildings before this Charles Luckman Associates (1973) one, including 215 Seventh Street, now known as The overing an entire city block, the Bartlett. The massing and CBroadway Plaza includes a twenty- understated elegance of three-story hotel, a thirty-two-story the Union Oil Building is office tower, and an eight-story brick- a precursor of Curlett and clad department store/parking structure, Beelman’s later Seventh linked by a two-level atrium shopping Street office blocks, Barker plaza. Charles Luckman served as both the Bros. (1926) and the architect and developer of the project, an Roosevelt Building (1927). unusual arrangement at the time. The hotel originally featured a revolving restaurant named Angel’s Flight with 360-degree views of downtown. Bruce Boehner Bruce Boehner STROLLING ON 7TH STREET: 3 #08 Brockman Building #12 Bronson Building 530 W. Seventh Street (The Collection) Barnett, Haynes and Barnett (1912) 527 W. Seventh Street National Register of Historic Places Austin and Pennell (1913) ith the construction he Bronson Building stood nearly Wof this building Tempty until 1915, when it was leased and plans for several others, to the Brack Shops, a then-novel collection developer John Brockman of independent shops in a department helped position Seventh store-like setting. Still home to above-the- Street as an up-and-coming street retail, the building became known as district. This Renaissance The Collection in the 1970s. Revival structure is clad Annie Laskey in dark brick with cream- colored terra cotta accents. #13 Brock and Company Building (Mas Malo/ It has housed a succession of Seven Grand) upscale clothiers, including 515 W. Seventh Street longtime tenant Brooks Bruce Boehner Dodd and Richards (1922) Brothers. It later went Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #358 through an extended vacancy and several preservation struggles, before being converted into eighty loft-style apartments. uilt for Brock and Company, one Bof the city’s most successful jewelry companies, this building has an ornate #09 Henning Building (The Mandel) terra cotta façade. The luxurious interior showrooms featured murals of Versailles 518 W. Seventh Street and Art Nouveau-inspired display cases. Dodd and Richards (1917) Clifton’s Silver Spoon cafeteria occupied his modest four-story brick-clad building the space from 1974-1997, keeping many Thas a long retail history. Over the years, of the interior details intact. The second it housed Swobdi Millinery, the elegant floor reopened in 2007 as Seven Grand, woman’s clothing store Citrin’s, and Mandel’s one of many hip new bars revitalizing the Fascinating Slippers. The Henning Building nightlife scene downtown. The ground floor