May Company California was a chain of

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appea ...

s operating in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ag ...

and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

, with headquarters in

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...

. It was a subsidiary of

May Department Stores The May Department Stores Company was an American department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many ch ...

and merged with May's other Southern California subsidiary,

J. W. Robinson's 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. History Joseph Winchester Robinson was a merchant from Waltham, ...

, in 1993 to form

Robinsons-May Robinsons-May was a chain of department stores operating in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, from 1993 until 2006. It was created when May Department Stores combined two of its chains, May Company California and J. W. Robinson's chains. ...

. May Company California was established in 1923 when May acquired A. Hamburger & Sons Inc.. (founded in 1881 by Asher Hamburger). The company operated exclusively in

until 1989 when

had dissolved

Goldwater's Goldwater's Department Store was a department store chain based in Phoenix, Arizona. History Michael Goldwater, the grandfather of U.S. Senator and 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, established a trading post in 1860 in Gila City, Ar ...

, based in

Scottsdale, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Winfield Scott , image_skyline = , image_seal = Seal of Scottsdale (Arizona).svg , image_blank_emblem = City of Scottsdale Script Logo.svg , nic ...

, and transferred its

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

store to May Company California. Two well-known stores were the flagship Downtown store on 8th Street between

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and

Hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as ...

streets, and the May Company Wilshire at

Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the principal ...

and

Fairfax Avenue Fairfax Avenue is a street in the north central area of the city of Los Angeles, California. It runs from La Cienega Boulevard in Culver City at its southern end to Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood on its northern end. From La Cienega Boulevard ( ...

. The 1926 garage building at 9th and Hill Streets was one of the nation's first parking structures (

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria. History The Historic-Cult ...

No. 1001). The Wilshire location has been featured in several vintage films, including

Behave Yourself! ''Behave Yourself!'' is a 1951 American comedy directed and cowritten by George Beck, starring Farley Granger and Shelley Winters and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Plot Mild mannered young CPA Bill Denny forgets about his and his wife Kate's ...

History

A. Hamburger & Sons "The People's Store"

Main St. store

May Company California can trace its roots to the store that Asher Hamburger and his sons Moses, David and Solomon had established in Los Angeles after their recent move from Sacramento. This store first opened on October 29, 1881, in a 20-by-75-foot room on Main Street near Requena Street and was original known as The People's Store.Alternate Link
via

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, providin ...

Spring St. store

In 1882, only one year later, Hamburger's moved to the Ponet-Bumiller Block at 45 N. Spring St. (post-1890 numbering: 145 N. Spring), SW corner of Temple, in a space of 46 by 100 ft. Later, it expanded into the north half of the ground floor of the newly built

Phillips Block The late-Victorian-era Downtown of Los Angeles grew year by year, around 1880 centered at the southern end of the Los Angeles Plaza area, and over the next two decades, extending south and west along Main Street, Spring Street, and Broadway t ...

, NW corner of Spring and Franklin, then in 1887 into the south half. In April 1899 it added the Ponet store 20 ft to the north of the Bumiller Block.

Phillips Block — largest store in the West

In 1899, Hamburger's renovated and took over the entire

, all four floors plus the cellar. The space officially opened June 1, 1899 and the store claimed at that time to have of floor space and to be the largest retail store in the Western United States. Later Hamburger's added an additional onto its back side on New High St.Link
via

1908: An even larger “largest store in the West”

By the start of the 20th century, A. Hamburger & Sons had outgrown its Spring Street location, which had 520 employees working on five floors. The Hamburger family decided to build a much larger store at the southeast corner of Broadway and Eighth, a location that was outside of then current retail district. Construction started in 1905, with a grand opening held in 1908.Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

. This location, which was also known as the Great White Store, was the largest department store building west of Chicago at the time and would eventually become the flagship location for the May Company California. At the time that the Great White Store was opened, the store could boast of having one of the first escalators on the West Coast, several restaurants, a drug store, grocery store, bakery, fruit store, meat market, U.S. post office, telegraph office, barber shop, a dentist, a chiropractor, a medical doctor, an auditorium, an electricity and steam power plant in the basement that was large enough to support a city of 50,000 inhabitants, a private volunteer 120 men fire brigade,Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

. 13 acres of retail space (482,475 sq.ft., larger than all the department, clothing and dry goods stores in the city), and 1200 employees.Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

. The

Los Angeles Public Library The Los Angeles Public Library system (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million residents in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, it serves the larges ...

was also located on the third floor from 1908 until it was forced to move to a larger location when it outgrew the Hamburger space by 1913.Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

. For a short time, Woodbury Business College briefly was also located on the fifth floor. Circa 1912, there was a temporary free public menagerie on the fourth floor of 50 animals including a

cassowary Cassowaries ( tpi, muruk, id, kasuari) are flightless birds of the genus ''Casuarius'' in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bones) and are native to the tropical forest ...

, a

sun bear The sun bear (''Helarctos malayanus'') is a species in the family Ursidae (the only species in the genus ''Helarctos'') occurring in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the smallest bear, standing nearly at the shoulder and weighin ...

, an

orangutan Orangutans are Hominidae, great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in ...

, a -long python, monkeys and iridescent birds.

Expansion to over one million square feet

The store continued to expand until it took up the entire block bounded by Broadway, Hill, 8th and 9th. In 1923, a nine-story addition was built on Hill Street. With the addition of a new nine-story, building in 1930 it then measured over of floor space. In the mid-1920s May Company also built a warehouse at Grand and Jefferson and in 1927 a nine-story parking garage at 9th and Hill streets.

1923: Sale to May

On March 31, 1923, the Hamburgers sold their store to the May family of St. Louis for $8.5 million.Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

. Thomas and Wilbur May, sons of the founder of the May Company, were sent to manage the former Hamburger store. One of the first things that they did was to expand the store again by building adjacent additions on the other parts of the city block.Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

. After several more years, the May Company store eventually occupied almost the entire block between Broadway and Hill and between 8th and 9th Streets. The old Hamburger store was officially renamed the May Company in 1927.Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

1939: first branch, Wilshire Bl.

To keep pace with the extreme growth in population within Southern California during the Great Depression, May Company opened the first branch store in 1939 on Wilshire at Fairfax at a cost of $2 million.Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

1947: Crenshaw branch

After World War II, a second branch store was opened on October 10, 1947 along

Crenshaw Boulevard Crenshaw Boulevard is a north-south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, that runs through Crenshaw and other neighborhoods along a 23-mile (37.76 km) route in the west-central part of the city. The street extends between Wilshire Boulev ...

at the northeast corner of Santa Barbara St. (now M. L. King, Jr. Blvd.). The store would later be integrated into the

-anchored Crenshaw Plaza directly across the street to the south.Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

.Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

.Link
via

. A proposed store in Hollywood that was planned at the same time was never built.Alternate Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

1952–1992: suburban expansion

From 1952 to 1992 May opened stores across suburban Los Angeles and Southern California (see table below). The North Hollywood store, opened in 1955 and originally marketed as part of the

Valley Plaza Valley Plaza was a shopping center in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, one of the first in the San Fernando Valley, opened in 1951. In the mid-1950s it claimed to be the largest shopping center on the West Coast of the United States and the third-la ...

shopping district, was a very large at , and claimed to be the second-largest suburban branch department store in the country, outsized only by a branch of

Hudson's The J. L. Hudson Company (commonly known simply as Hudson's) was an upscale retail department store chain based in Detroit, Michigan. Hudson's flagship store, on Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit (demolished October 24, 1998), was the tallest d ...

in suburban Detroit.

1992: Merger into Robinsons-May

On October 17, 1992, May Company California's parent,

, announced the merger of May Company California with its sister company J.W. Robinson's to form

, thus ending the May Company California existence. It was also announced that the Wilshire store along with the stores in West Covina, Buena Park, Santa Ana, and San Bernardino were scheduled to close by the end of January 1993.

Disposal of older stores

During the early part of this division existence, May Company was also the developer of some other early shopping centers and malls which grew around the initially stand-alone stores, with the Crenshaw location being the first example. The first May Company store, the original Hamburger's, at Broadway and 8th in downtown Los Angeles was closed when it was replaced by the just opened 7th Market Place store in 1986. This building is designated as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 459. After its sale, the building was primary used by small clothing manufacturing companies. In 2013, the then current owners were trying to sell the building since the surrounding area is being actively redeveloped. It was announced in April 2014 that Waterbridge Capital agreed to purchase the property, but had not given out too many details on how they might go about to develop it, except to state it would be mixed-use. During the 1980s, the parent corporation tried to replace the iconic Wilshire store for several years by getting involved with mall development at Farmers Market. However the development that eventually became

The Grove at Farmers Market The Grove is a retail and entertainment complex in Los Angeles, located on parts of the historic Farmers Market. History The complex fills space previously occupied by an orchard and nursery, which were the last remains of a dairy farm owned b ...

was delayed for nearly two decades. The St. Louis-based parent company eventually withdrew from the project and the Wilshire store was never replaced when May Company California was later merged with Robinson in 1993. After closing, the Streamline Moderne style building was sold to

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

in 1994 and is currently slated to house The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Store list

Gallery

File:Christmas advert for Hamburger's Department Store, Los Angeles, 1905.png, Christmas advertisement, 1905 File:Hamburger's People's Store Spring Street 1880s.jpg, Hamburger's People's Store Spring Street 1880s File:Hamburger's People's Store Spring Street ca. 1890s.jpg, Hamburger's People's Store after construction of and expansion into the Philips Block, Spring Street ca. 1890s File:The May Co terrazzo.jpg, Terrazzo at the entrance of the Downtown Los Angeles flagship

References in popular culture

*On the

Jack Benny Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with ...

radio and television programs, Benny was said to have met his girlfriend

Mary Livingstone Mary Livingstone (born Sadya Marcowitz, later known as Sadie Marks; June 25, 1905–June 30, 1983) was an American radio comedienne and actress. She was the wife and radio partner of comedian Jack Benny. Enlisted casually to perform on her h ...

(played by his real-life wife, Sadie Marks) at the May Company when she worked there in the hosiery department. This is one of the few instances in radio or television history where a real business was made part of the story. (Jack and Mary Benny actually met through friends and not at a department store.) *In

Andre DeToth Endre Antal Miksa DeToth, better known as Andre de Toth (born Endre Antal Mihály Tóth; May 15, 1913 – October 27, 2002), was a Hungarian-American film director, born and raised in Makó, Austria-Hungary. He directed the 3D film ''House o ...

's 1948

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarde ...

'' Pitfall'',

Lizabeth Scott Lizabeth Virginia Scott (born Emma Matzo; September 29, 1921 – January 31, 2015) was an American actress, singer and model for the Walter Thornton Model Agency, known for her "smoky voice" and being "the most beautiful face of film noir during ...

's character, Mona Stevens, is depicted working in the fine dresses department of the May Company's Wilshire Boulevard location.

References

{{Macy's history American companies established in 1881 Retail companies established in 1881 Retail companies disestablished in 1993

History

A. Hamburger & Sons "The People's Store"

Main St. store

Spring St. store

Phillips Block — largest store in the West

1908: An even larger “largest store in the West”

Expansion to over one million square feet

1923: Sale to May

1939: first branch, Wilshire Bl.

1947: Crenshaw branch

1952–1992: suburban expansion

1992: Merger into Robinsons-May

Disposal of older stores

Store list

Gallery

References in popular culture

See also

References