Merritt Building
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Merritt Building is a historic building located at 761 S.
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 301 W. Eighth Street in the Jewelry District and Broadway Theater District in the historic core of
downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...
.


History

The Merritt Building was built by
Reid & Reid Reid & Reid, also known as Reid Brothers, was an American architectural and engineering firm that was active from 1880 to 1932. Established in Indiana by Canadians, Canadian immigrants, the firm moved to the West Coast of the United States, West ...
in 1915 and was named after its owner Hulett C. Merritt. Merritt originally wanted the building to contain 23 stories at a height of 233 feet, but
Los Angeles City Council The Los Angeles City Council is the Legislature, lawmaking body for the Government of Los Angeles, city government of Los Angeles, California, the second largest city in the United States. It has 15 members who each represent the 15 city council ...
refused to waive the city's 180-foot building height ordinance, and so Merritt built a 9-story (plus one below-ground story), 144-foot building instead. Upon completion, the building contained ground-floor retail with offices above, with the top floor reserved for Merritt himself. In December 1956, Home Savings and Loan Association purchased the building, after which they modernized the lower floors and added a
Millard Sheets Millard Owen Sheets (June 24, 1907 – March 31, 1989) was an American artist, teacher, and architectural designer. He was one of the earliest of the California Scene Painting artists and helped define the art movement. Many of his large-scale b ...
-designed entrance on Broadway. In 1979, the
Broadway Theater and Commercial District The Broadway Theater District in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles is the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch ...
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 Merritt Building 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 2016, the building was purchased by Bonnis Properties for $24 million.


Architecture and design

Merritt Building is made of
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...
and
steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
with a
Yule Marble Yule Marble is a marble of metamorphosed Leadville Limestone found only in the Yule Creek Valley, in the West Elk Mountains of Colorado, southeast of the town of Marble, Colorado.Marble Quadrangle, Colorado; USGS 7.5-minute series topogr ...
facade. It was designed in the Neoclassical/
Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...
/ Beaux Arts style and features
ionic columns The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
and heavy
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
that create a rendition of the Temple of Minerva on a three story
plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...
. Each floor is separated by a prominent
belt course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...
, and the building's second story originally featured prominent rustication, however this was covered by smooth
masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...
when the building was modernized following its purchase by the Home Savings and Loan Association.


See also

*
List of contributing properties in the Broadway Theater and Commercial District The properties on this list are contributing properties to Los Angeles's Broadway Theater and Commercial District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and expanded in 2002. The following properties were original ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merritt Building Commercial buildings completed in 1915 Buildings and structures in Downtown Los Angeles Neoclassical architecture in California Reid & Reid buildings Historic district contributing properties in California 1910s architecture in the United States Broadway (Los Angeles)