Herman Building is a historic one-story building located at 1632 N.

Vine Street Vine Street is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, that runs north–south between Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, and Melrose Avenue. The intersection of Hollywood and Vine being symbolic of Hollywood itself. The intersection has be ...

Hollywood, California 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. ...

History

Herman Building was built in 1928 by

Carl Jules Weyl Carl Jules Weyl (6 December 1890 – 12 July 1948) was a German architect and Art director#In film, art director. He designed or co-designed six contributing properties in the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District, won a ...

and has been home to many businesses over the years, most notably a restaurant in the 1940s-1950s called the Ham & Egger. Johnny Grant broadcast a live radio show from the restaurant where he interviewed such famous celebrities as

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian, actor, entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared ...

Jimmy Durante James Francis Durante ( , ; February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American comedian, actor, singer, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side New York accent, accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced son ...

, and Alan Young. In the 1950s, Bernard Luggage Company moved into the building, and the owners purchased the building twenty years later. In 1984, the

Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District The Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District is a historic district that consists of twelve blocks between the 6200 and 7000 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. This strip of commercial and retail busines ...

was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, with 1632 N. Vine St. listed as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

in the district. In the 2000s, when the city sought to develop the area into a W Hotel & Residences, the Herman Building's owner refused to sell. The city attempted to take the building by

eminent domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...

, but lost their case. W Hotel was then built around Herman Building, which was reconstructed and restored to its original look.

Architecture and design

Herman Building features a Spanish Colonial Revival design that includes a false

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

parallel to the street as its focal point and Churrigueresque ornament along the edge of the gable. The building was compatible with Hollywood Brown Derby to its south.

References

{{HBCED Commercial buildings completed in 1928 1920s architecture in the United States Revival architecture in the United States Buildings and structures in Hollywood, Los Angeles Buildings and structures in Los Angeles Historic district contributing properties in California

History

Architecture and design

See also

References