Famous Department Store on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Famous Department Store was a
In 1929, the company opened a location in downtown
Blackstone Department Store Building (site of Famous Department Store), Los Angeles ConservancyGoogle Street View of Long Beach store (art deco, 1929, Morgan, Walls & Clements)"Famous Department Store, Long Beach, CA" in Pacific Coast Architecture DatabasePhoto of Famous Department Store sign painted on Chapman Building
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, California.
History
Famous had its origins with the Cal Hirsch & Sons Mercantile Co., founded in 1860 or 1871. The business ran Army and Navy surplus stores in St. Louis. The company opened stores in Los Angeles in 1913 and later moved its headquarters there. It operated the "Army and Navy Store" at 526 South Main Street then in December 1916 moved to a larger space next door, advertised as the "world's largest Army and navy store", at 530-532 South Main Street starting. In 1917, the company advertised another branch store in San Diego.
In 1929, the company opened a location in downtown Long Beach
Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
. Morgan, Walls & Clements designed the building, which is now a is a city landmark.
U.S. Hirsch was president of the company during the 1930s. By 1948, Urban Hirsch, Jr. was president.
In 1939, the company took over the vacated Blackstone's Department Store Building at 901 South 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 Stre ...
and renovated and expanded it to , after which the Main Street store was used mostly as a warehouse. The Broadway store sold men's, women's, and children's clothing, shoes, accessories, furniture, furnishings, and an entire floor was devoted to toys. It also had a beauty shop and lunch counter.
In 1950, the company was sold to the Los Angeles business investment firm J. J. Sugarman Co. for an estimated at $3.5 million , which was reported by the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' as "one of the larges mercantile sales of its kind in recent years in California." The company consisted of eight stores at that time.
Advertising for the Famous Department Store ceased in 1952.Search newspapers.com
Timeline of geographic expansion
External links
Blackstone Department Store Building (site of Famous Department Store), Los Angeles Conservancy
References
{{History of Retail in Southern California Defunct department stores based in Downtown Los Angeles Art Deco architecture in California Morgan, Walls & Clements buildings