Parmelee-Dohrmann was a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

-based chain of stores that sold fine china, crystal, glassware, silver, and objects of art. The store dated back to 1878, when it occupied an adobe building near the

Los Angeles Plaza Los Angeles Plaza or Plaza de Los Ángeles is located in Los Angeles, California. It is the central point of the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District. When Governor Felipe de Neve founded the Pueblo de Los Ángeles, his first act was to locate a ...

. On June 17, 1899, Parmelee and Dohrmann opened the "China Hall" store at the

Workman 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 Broadwa ...

, 232–234 S.

Spring Street Spring Street may refer to: * Spring Street (Los Angeles), USA * Spring Street (Manhattan), New York City, USA * Spring Street, Melbourne, Australia * Spring Street, Singapore * Spring St (website), a US based lifestyle website Subway and trolley ...

— at that time they also carried appliances like stoves and refrigerators. Throughout 1906, the company held several grand opening events to celebrate its new flagship store, occupying five floors of a new eight-story building at 436–444 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 Stree ...

, which had by then become the city's busiest retail district. The store was designed by Morgan & Walls. In addition to tabletop and home decoration, the store sold art. The store was described as the finest of its kind west of New York. It featured an innovation, pneumatic tubes for processing sales transactions between the sales floor and the cashiers' area. In 1927 it moved to the new upscale shopping area around West Seventh Street that took place after

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, ...

moved to Seventh, Hope and Grand in 1917."Steam Shovels Scooping Out Dirt At Site Of Big Store", ''Los Angeles Times'', May 24, 1914
/ref> Its new quarters were at 741–747 S. Flower Street, also not far from

Myer Siegel Myer Siegel was a Los Angeles-based department store, founded by Myer Siegel (1866–1934), specializing in women's clothing. Myer Siegel established his store in 1886 at 218 N. Spring St., at that time selling only children's wear and lingeri ...

and

Barker Brothers Barker Bros. was a major Los Angeles-based retailer of furniture, home furnishings, and housewares. Founded as Barker and Mueller in 1880, the business operated under various names through 1992. History Obadiah Truax Barker had owned upholster ...

. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' described the company, once it had moved to its new Flower Street store, as the largest china, crystal and silver retail organization in the world at the time, with fifteen stores in total. In March 1933, the Los Angeles Flower Street flagship and Pasadena branch were closed and a joint venture was set up with upscale department store

Bullock's Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialty ...

whereby a "Bullock's Parmelee Dohrmann" opened inside Bullock's flagship store at

Seventh and Broadway Broadway, until 1890 Fort Street, is a thoroughfare in Los Angeles County, California, USA. The portion of Broadway from 3rd to 9th streets, in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles, was the city's main commercial street from the 1910s un ...

in Downtown Los Angeles. It took up the entire seventh floor and sold "dinnerware, glassware, kitchen utensils, refrigerators, ranges, and washing machines". The Dohrmann bought Parmelee out and in the 1950s the remaining stores' names were changed to Dohrmann's. The San Francisco

Union Square Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

store was demolished in 1967 and

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

constructed a building on the site that would become part of the complex of its Union Square store. Dohrmann's was bought by the Broadway-Hale Corporation which would, in 1995, become part of

Federated Department Stores Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shilli ...

, which itself was later renamed Macy's, Inc.Family Parmelee website
/ref>

References

{{History of Retail in Southern California Retail companies established in 1878 Retail companies based in California Defunct retail companies of the United States Defunct companies based in California Companies based in Los Angeles