Fred C. Thomson Building, also known as the Court of Olive, is a historic retail building located at 6528 West

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, United States, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisad ...

Hollywood, Los Angeles Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

, California.

History

Fred C. Thomson Building was designed by the architectural partnership Gogerty and

Weyl Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl (; ; 9 November 1885 – 8 December 1955) was a German mathematician, theoretical physicist, logician and philosopher. Although much of his working life was spent in Zürich, Switzerland, and then Princeton, New Jersey, ...

for silent film star

Fred Thomson Frederick Clifton Thomson (February 26, 1890 – December 25, 1928) was an American silent film cowboy who rivaled Tom Mix in popularity before dying at age 38 of tetanus. Birth and athletic achievement Born in Pasadena, California to Clara a ...

and his journalist and screenwriter wife

Frances Marion Frances Marion (born Marion Benson Owens; November 18, 1888 – May 12, 1973) was an American screenwriter, director, journalist and author often cited as one of the most renowned female screenwriters of the 20th century alongside June Mathis a ...

. It was built in 1927-1928 at a cost of $100,000 and its original tenants included Mary Helen Tea Room, Sunshine of Hollywood, Kepners hair salon, and offices for Weyl. The building also housed Travis Benton's (head of

Paramount Studios Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production and distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount Global. It is the sixth-oldest film studio i ...

' costume department) studio and store during its early years. Fred Thompson died in 1928, after which the building was sold to Franklin Rice, who owned it until his death in 1949. The building was then purchased by

Edgar Bergen Edgar John Bergen (né Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, comedian, actor, vaudevillian and radio performer. He was best known for his characters Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. Bergen ...

, who broadcast '' The Charlie McCarthy Show'' from it intermittently for the next seven years.

The Cat & Fiddle The Cat & Fiddle is British Pub and restaurant located in Hollywood, California. The pub was originally opened in Laurel Canyon by British musician Kim Gardner in 1982. The establishment then moved into the Fred C. Thomson Building on Sunse ...

occupied the building from 1985 to 2014, and it has since been home to

April Bloomfield April Bloomfield (born 1974) is a British-American chef who has opened two New York restaurants: The Spotted Pig (closed January 26, 2020) and The Breslin Bar & Dining Room. Bloomfield had previously worked at several restaurants in the United K ...

's The Hearth and Hound. The building was designated

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-Cul ...

#1196 in 2019.

Architecture and design

Fred C. Thomson building features

Spanish Colonial Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture (), often known simply as Spanish Revival, is a term used to encompass a number of revivalist architectural styles based in both Spanish colonial architecture and Spanish architecture in general. Thes ...

architecture and is considered an excellent and intact example of the style. Elements of the style featured in the building include smooth

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

wall cladding, multi-lite wood

casement windows A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a case ...

, and a hipped red-tiled roof. Additional distinguishing features of the building include an interior

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...

ornamental Ornamental may refer to: *Ornamental grass, a type of grass grown as a decoration *Ornamental iron, mild steel that has been formed into decorative shapes, similar to wrought iron work *Ornamental plant, a plant that is grown for its ornamental qua ...

wall cutouts,

arched An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

window openings, and decorative

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

References

{{LAHMC Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Buildings and structures in Hollywood, Los Angeles 1920s architecture in the United States

History

Architecture and design

See also

References