No. 118 - Pellissier Building

Pellissier Building
1931 – Stiles O. Clements
3789 Wilshire Boulevard – map
Declared: 5/16/73

The first time I was in the Wiltern Theater was on June 18, 1992 to yuk at Jerry Seinfeld and George Wallace in a benefit performance following that spring’s rioting. I’ve been to shows there many times since, never knowing the Wiltern was part of what’s called the Pellissier Building. Now that I know, it’ll probably take me another fifteen years to learn how to pronounce Pellissier.

Germain Pellissier was a Frenchman who made it to Los Angeles via San Francisco where he arrived in 1867. In 1882, he paid $3,200 to the Southern Pacific Railroad for 140 acres of land, today roughly bounded by San Marino Street on the south, Normandie Avenue toward the east, Western Avenue on the west, and Wilshire to the north. At the time, Wilshire Boulevard hadn’t even existed.

Pellissier started a sheep ranch, but gave it up shortly thereafter, building a house on the land. He died in 1908.

Twenty years later, after the homestead’s partial subdividing in 1913 and 1926, Pellissier’s grandson, Henry de Roulet, got the hankering to build the area’s premiere complex for retail space, offices, and a theater on the site which by now sported “The Pellissier Square Real Estate Office of Henry de Roulet for Uptown Los Angeles.”

From the Los Angeles Public Library photo archive, below’s a picture of Roulet’s real estate office, right where the Wiltern is today. The make of the cars dates the shot from mid-April, 1926, while the lighting places the time between 3:00 and 3:30 in the afternoon. It doesn’t look it here, but in 1928, the L.A. Times called Wilshire and Western “the busiest intersection in the world.”

De Roulet hired the city’s oldest architectural firm, Morgan, Walls & Clements, to design the Art Deco Zigzag Moderne building. It’s mainly the work of Stiles O. Clements, who was, in the late 1920s, in the midst of building the Richfield Building downtown.

The diagonally-situated building is twelve stories constructed of reinforced steel. The Gladding McBean Company created the custom-glazed terra cotta tiles of aqua-green, which then became known as “Pellessier green”. The exterior design contains scallops, zigzags, and chevrons (or ‘V’s to us layfolk). The second floor featured retail display windows for attracting the attention of the passengers on the then-popular double-decker buses.

De Roulet also brought in G. Albert Lansburgh to design the theater’s interior with Dutchman Anthony B. Heinsbergen (whom we met at the Biltmore) creating the murals. The original color scheme was orangey. Warner Bros leased the theatre, which became known as the Warner Bros Western Theater.

The 2,344-seat theater opened on October 7, 1931. For the night, Roulet had built a temporary red carpetish footbridge spanning Wilshire, allowing the muckamuck audience to escape mingling with the hoi polloi.

That night, William Powell emceed a night of speakers, a cartoon (Looney Tunes, of course), a newsreel, a comedy, a short comedy, an organ solo by Albert Hay Malotte on the theater’s giant Kimball, the largest organ in the western U.S., and the film Alexander Hamilton, starring George Arliss.

The Depression was a drag, of course, and the theater closed within a year. It re-opened in the mid-thirties with 20th Century Fox and some independent exhibitors running it. It was then the theater was rechristened the Wil-Tern, cleverly mashing up the intersection’s Wilshire and Western.

Mahogany doors, terrazzo floor, sunburst ceiling.

In 1956, the de Roulets sold the Pellissier Building to the Franklin Life Insurance Company, who put the building up for sale in 1970. There were no takers.

In early 1979, the Wiltern, which was being operated by Pacific Theaters, closed, and Franklin Life applied for a demolition permit. With the combined efforts of the recently-formed L.A. Conservancy, the Cultural Heritage Board, the Citizens Committee to Save the Wiltern (founded by Rick Newburger), and city council president John Ferraro, the landmark was given a series of reprieves until early 1981 when Wayne Ratkovich led developers Ratkovich, Bowers & Perez, Inc. and Bronco, Ltd to buy the Pellissier Building for $6.3 million.

Santa Monica’s Rossetti Associates went on to renovate the office tower for about $5 million, gutting the floors to create larger offices (although Henry de Roulet’s original second-story office was saved).

Brenda Levin & Associates, with help from Shepardson/Winner Theater Consultants of St Louis, worked on the retail space and the Wiltern. Anthony B. Heinsbergen’s son, another Anthony, oversaw the restoration of his dad’s interior murals. Bill Graham Presents took over the theater, the restoration of which ran to $4.8 million. The retail corner on Wilshire was redesigned as a restaurant (today, a Denny’s).

The Wiltern re-opened May 1, 1985 with a benefit for the Conservancy and the National Trust of Historic Preservation. A subsequent $1.5 million facelift led to another re-opening on October 15, 2002. A year later, as part of a partnership with LG Electronics, the Wiltern was officially renamed the Wiltern LG.

The Pellissier Building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources:

Edwin Schallert “Western Theater Opened” Los Angeles Times; Oct 9, 1931, p. A9

Kevin Roderick and J. Eric Lynxwiler. Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles

The Wiltern: from pastureland to performing arts center: a monograph commemorating the re-dedication of a Los Angeles landmark, May 1, 1985 The Los Angeles Conservancy 1985 Los Angeles, CA

Suzanne Tarbell Cooper, Amy Ronnebeck, and Marc Wannamaker. Theatres in Los Angeles Angel City Press 2005 Santa Monica, CA Arcadia Publishing 2008 Charleston, SC, Chicago, IL, Portsmouth, NH, San Francisco, CA

Up next: Cohn-Goldwater Building

No. 117 - Beckett Residence

Beckett Residence
1905
2218 South Harvard Boulevard – map
Declared: 4/4/73

Well, next weekend will be the one-year anniversary of this blog (please, no presents). I’ve visited more than 100 sites around the city, and I gotta admit, this is the saddest of them all. This once-magnificent mansion is a wreck.

While the city’s ZIMAS page gives 1910 as the year this Colonial Revival mansion was constructed, every other source I’ve seen lists 1905. It was built for Dr Wesley W. Beckett and his wife, whom we’ll call Mrs Wesley W. Beckett.

Beckett was a chairman of the trustees of the Los Angeles County Medical Association, medical director for the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, and a member of the board of trustees at USC where he led the charge in raising money for the university’s medical school. (He must’ve been loaded, too. In 1929, he coughed up $100,000 of his own money to the cause. I’m sure that goes a long way in explaining why the university today has a Beckett Hall. I also wonder if he would’ve done the same just a few months later, after Black Thursday.)

From the city's Department of City Planning, the home in slightly better days.

Wes was a pretty big wheel at the time, and I’m sure he would want me to mention his being an officer in the Sons of the Revolution. Lenora H. King’s Southwest Blue Book 1923-1924 not only lists the Becketts as Sons members, but also gives their phone number: 71866. (They had to have been upscale to live in the ‘7’.)

By the 1940’s, West Adams Heights was morphing into Sugar Hill, home to wealthy African Americans like Ethel Waters, Hattie McDaniel (who lived across the street), and the unfortunately-named Louise Beavers. I’ve emailed both the West Adams Heritage Association (headquartered on the same block as the landmark) and the West Adams Heights/Sugar Hill Neighborhood Association to see if they could tell me who lived in 2218 during the Sugar Hill days. I’ll let you know if I hear something.

You can imagine how the value of the Beckett House (and of Sugar Hill) changed when the Santa Monica Freeway plowed through the neighborhood in the 1950s. The freeway’s actually in throwing distance from the Beckett House, if you have a really good arm and something to throw.

In Landmarks of Los Angeles, McGrew and Julian say the Veteran’s Light House and Cultural Center occupied the mansion in recent years (that was in 1994). They also mention a roof fire hitting the monument in 1981.

"Carl, you've been looking in that window for hours. Carl?"

Sadly, the building’s in real sorry shape today (that’s the La Salle Avenue/back side in the picture at the top of the post). Believe me, it looks worse in person than it does in these pictures. To boot, a neighbor lady told me that while no one’s lived there for a long, long time, the old Beckett House is today used for filming. If this is true – I mean, if someone’s actually profiting off the building while neglecting to provide upkeep to the landmark – then not only is it sad, but it’s shameful, too.

Sources:

“University Campaign Approved” Los Angeles Times; Aug 13, 1922, p. II1

“Gifts to U.S.C. Break Record” Los Angeles Times; Jun 8, 1929, p. A1

Up next: Pellissier Building

No. 116 - Wilshire Boulevard Temple

Wilshire Boulevard Temple
1929 – A.M. Edelman, S. Tilden Norton, David C. Allison
3663 Wilshire Boulevard – map
Declared: 3/21/73

The history of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, stretches back to 5622 – or, uh, 1862 – when Joseph Newmark first obtained a state charter for the Orthodox Congregation B’nai B’rith.

In 1873, eleven years after its founding, B’nai B’rith built its first synagogue on the east side of Broadway (then Fort) between Second and Third. In 1896, the congregation moved into its new home at 9th and Hope.

Cornerstone-laying ceremonies for the congregation’s third and current home occurred March 10, 1929, seven years after ground-breaking. This new Byzantine Revival synagogue was designed primarily by Abraham M. Edelman (who built the 9th and Hope synagogue and whose dad, Abraham Wolf Edelman, was the congregation’s – and Los Angeles’s – first Rabbi) and S. Tilden Norton with David C. Allison of Allison & Allison advising. With its new home, B’nai B’rith changed its name to Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

Now, the Temple was locked up tight the day I was there, so I didn’t get to see, along with the enormous dome (135-foot tall, 100-foot wide, and inlaid with mosaic), those giant murals by Hugo Ballin. Surving Warner Bros Jack, Harry, and Abe Warner financed Ballin to create the Temple’s “precedent-shattering” murals in memory of non-surviving Warner Bros Sam and Milton (the latter not a WB partner). “Precedent–shattering” because having paintings in a house of worship went against Jewish tradition. By this time, of course, the congregation had been Reform for a while.

Ballin’s work consists of 320-foot long, seven-foot tall murals depicting key moments in Jewish history. See some pictures of them here.

Also to see: the Kimball organ with 4,100 pipes, costing a cool $40,000 back in 1929. You have to wonder how different things would’ve been had it been just a few months later, after October 24th.

The $2.5 million-dollar Temple opened to a three-day dedication celebration beginning on June 7, 1929, overseen by Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin, the congregation’s spiritual leader since 1919. Magnin went on to lead Wilshire Boulevard Temple forever, dying in 1984, four years after the Temple’s block was officially named Edgar F. Magnin Square.

Wilshire Boulevard Temple is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources:

“Hebrews Lay Corner-Stone” Los Angeles Times; Mar 11, 1929, p. A2

Arthur Millier “Hebrew Traditions Broken in Edifice Decorations” Los Angeles Times; Jun 2, 1929, p. C13

“Dedication of Temple Concluded” Los Angeles Times; Jun 10, 1929, p. A8

John Dart “Rabbi Magnin Nears 90, Goes Like 60” Los Angeles Times; May 28, 1980, p. B3

Up next: 2218 South Harvard Boulevard Residence

No. 115 - Evans Residence

Evans Residence
1913 – Theodore Eisen
419 South Lorraine Boulevard – map
Declared: 3/21/73

Well, I couldn’t get a good shot of Windsor Square’s Evans Residence, so I’ve opted to use the above ad from Car & Driver.

But seriously, though.

First off, I had never heard of Windsor Square until this post. While the Windsor Square Land Development Company bought the land way back in 1885 in the thick of the Los Angeles's first big real estate boom, it wasn’t until 1911 when developer Robert A. Rowan and the Windsor Square Investment Company began subdividing the area (Lorraine Boulevard is named after Rowan’s daughter). Today, Windsor Square, in a somewhat modified layout of the original plot, has as its borders Van Ness Avenue and Beverly, Wilshire, and Arden Boulevards, and is a city Historic Preservation Overlay Zone.

From L.A.'s Department of City Planning website, Sunshine Hall, pre-pine.

In 1913, developer Rowan got a pal, widow Jeanette Donovan, to move from New York to his new sub-division and into the Classical Revival home which she then dubbed Sunshine Hall. Designed by Theodore Eisen, the two-story redwood house is notable first and foremost by the large Ionic columns out front. It included (and, for all I know, may still include) a pair of 18th-century fireplace mantels brought from a Virginia family home of Civil War general J.E.B. Stuart. Sunshine Hall had the farthest setback of any home in Windsor Square.

As an aside, I’m thrown by how many otherwise reputable sources list I. Eisner as the architect. By now, you know how ignorant I am regarding architects and their work, but a quick search shows Theodore Eisen was born in Ohio in 1852, came to California two years later, eventually making his way to Los Angeles to help out on building the County Courthouse and the L.A. Orphan Asylum in Boyle Heights. By himself or with guys like Sumner Hunt or Octavius Morgan, Eisen designed tons of L.A. buildings, including Historic-Cultural Monuments Casa De Adobe and the Doheny Mansion. He died in 1924.

Sunshine Hall’s second owner, Harwood Huntington, added the tennis courts, a guest-house, servant’s quarters, tennis courts, gardeners’ sheds, and a four-car garage. (Yeah, it’s kinda nice.)

Hugh and Gladys Evans bought the home from its third owner, Grace G. Huntington, during World War II. Nicknamed “Old Natchez” for the Evans’s ties to Natchez, MS, it stayed in the family for more than four decades.

Former Ram Danny Villanueva renovated the interior in the 1980s, and, after owning the home for five years, Yong and Kyung Park put the city landmark up for sale in 1999 for about two and a half million dollars.

You can see the home in movies, too, including Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall with Mary Pickford and Mississippi starring Bing Crosby.

So, call it the Donovan Residence, Sunshine Hall, the Evans Residence, Old Natchez, or “the Grand Old Lady of Windsor Square”, it’s definitely a spot I’m visiting next Halloween just to see what sort of candy the owners hand out (unfortunately, I’ve yet to find any correlation between the means of candy-givers and the quality of candy).

A very special Big Orange Landmarks thanks to Jane Gilman and the Larchmont Chronicle for providing me with nearly every bit of information in this post. But you should see the website for the Windsor Square Association, too.

Up next: Wilshire Boulevard Temple

No. 114 - Wilshire United Methodist Church

Wilshire United Methodist Church
Allison & Allison – 1925
4350 Wilshire Boulevard – map
Declared: 3/7/73

When it was announced in January 1923 that the Wilshire Congregational Church would get a home of its own at the corner of Wilshire and Plymouth, Carleton Monroe Winslow, whose most current project was the city’s new Central Library, was the architect. Plans called for a $500,000, Spanish/Colonial complex of three units around a central patio with the church’s main entrance facing Plymouth. However, Winslow’s plans were scrapped, and the team of Allison & Allison was brought in. (Don’t feel to bad for Winslow. He also worked on St Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral (HCM No. 66) and went on to design St Mary of the Angels Church (HCM No. 136).)

James and David Allison’s works are all over the list of the city’s Historic-Cultural Monuments, including the 13th Church of Christ, Scientist (No. 559), the Irving Branch Library (No. 307), and the Southern California Edison Building (No. 347). They’re also famous for a bunch of buildings at UCLA, the Beverly Hills Post Office, and high schools in Burbank, Palo Alto, and Santa Monica.

The Allisons used several styles on the steel and concrete church, but mostly Romanesque on the outside and Gothic on the inside. For the façade and 140-foot tower, the team was inspired by Brescia’s Church of St Francis in Italy and the La Giralda in Sevilla, Spain.

A shot of the inside.

Born in Cornwall, England, in 1875, emigrating to the U.S. in 1892, Dr Frank Dyer founded the Wilshire Congregational Church in 1921, the year he moved to Los Angeles from Tacoma, WA. From the get-go, he decreed his church would strive to be non-sectarian, a stance that would continue to rankle the Congregational Church fathers.

Construction began at the end of October 1924 with McDonald & Driver winning the spot of general contractors. When the church opened on May 24th the next year, the congregation of 550 members had room to spare in the auditorium built for 1,400. By this time, Dyer had brought in a co-pastor to share his load, Kansas City clergyman Dr Charles Frederick Aked.

Officials broke ground early October in 1926 for two new units – Gunsaulus Hall, named for Dr Frank W. Gunsaulus, a Chicago minister who had died about five years earlier, and a church school/gymnasium.

The Reverend Dyer was controversial to say the least, unpopular with church elders and co-workers alike. In 1925, Dr Aked left the congregation, later calling Dyer an “ingrained liar, a man of savage passion, ruthless selfishness and acting in bad faith.” Dyer’s subsequent co-pastor, Dr Thomas B. Harper, also split on bad terms with Dyer.

Now, if charges such as playing jazz in the church and, worse, supporting the ACLU, weren’t enough for the Congregational Church to take action, the feces hit the fan when, in the spring of 1928, in order to raise $50,000 to stave off foreclosure, Dyer announced Jack Dempsey would take part in a charity bout. In just a few weeks, nearly all of the 110 pastors and delegates of the Los Angeles Congregational Association voted to find Dyer guilty of “conduct unbecoming a minister, misrepresentation of facts and responsibility for bringing disgrace on the denomination by sanctioning a boxing bout to raise money for church indebtedness.” Dyer vowed to continue to fight for his preaching gig and the church he founded seven years earlier, even after being ousted with Dr Thomas Harper being called back for pastor duties.

From LAPL.org, a shot of whom I'd bet dollars to donuts is Dr Dyer.

Dyer’s battle was a futile one, though. In May 1929, 150 members of the All Souls’ Church voted to take over the Wilshire and Plymouth church in a sale involving more than $300,000. Up until that time, All Souls’ Church had no buildings, holding its services in theaters. Oh. All Souls’ minister was Dyer’s old co-pastor, Dr Aked.

Dr Frank Dyer went on to preach and write in the Los Angeles area until his death in 1963 at the age of 88.

Widening Wilshire in the late 1920s, also from LAPL.org.

All Souls’ tenure in the church building was short-lived, too. Aked announced his resignation at the end of 1930 when the buildings were put up for sale. In the fall of 1934, the Wilshire Methodist Episcopal Church moved in, leaving its home at Hobart Boulevard and Second Street. (The Wilshire Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1907 as the Hobart Methodist Church. In 1927, it merged with the Westlake Methodist Church, itself having merged with the Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church in 1910. A final merger in 1973 with Trinity Methodist Church created the newly-named Wilshire United Methodist Church. I think some sort of family tree is needed here.)

A monument to the church's history.

Today, Wilshire United Methodist Church is made up of four ministries: Korean, Filipino, English, and Hispanic, with the first two autonomous.

According to the Church’s website, there used to be a parsonage on Lucerne Boulevard and a parish house that were torn down to make way for Ritter Chapel (named for Fred Ritter), the Children’s Educational Chapel (1951), and a parking lot addition.

The Children's Educational Chapel (1951).

And, now, the important stuff.

Actress Ethel Shannon married screenwriter Joseph Jackson here on April 10, 1927. Dyer presided.

Reginald Denny was best man when Laura La Plante married William Seiter here.

Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Raymond got hitched here on June 16, 1937. Nelson Eddy sang, Basil Rathbone and Harold Lloyd were ushers, and Fay Wray and Ginger Rogers were maids of honor. (Thanks for the information.)

In September of 1945, John Agar hit the jackpot when he married Shirley Temple at the church. She was seventeen.

Sources:

To Open Church in Hotel. Los Angeles Times; 12/31/21

Church Plans Are Indorsed [sic] Los Angeles Times; 1/28/23

Will Launch Church Drive Los Angeles Times; 3/18/23

Church Edifice is Commenced Los Angeles Times; 11/2/24

Wilshire Church to Open Los Angeles Times; 5/23/25

New Units of Church Under Way Los Angeles Times; 10/4/2

Church Issues Plea for Help Los Angeles Times; 4/30/28

Dr. Dyer Will Face Charges Los Angeles Times; 5/27/28

Ministers Vote Dr. Dyer Guilty Los Angeles Times; 6/8/28

Dr. Dyer Will Keep Up Fight Los Angeles Times; 6/13/28

Church to be Taken Over Los Angeles Times; 5/23/29

Costly Church for Sale Los Angeles Times; 12/30/30

Buildings Acquired by Church Los Angeles Times; 9/30/34

Dr. Frank Dyer, Veteran L.A. Churchman, Dies Los Angeles Times; 9/14/63

Actress Ready for Her Nuptials Los Angeles Times; 11/11/26

Up next: Evans Residence

No. 113 - Young's Market Building

Young’s Market Building
1924 – Charles F. Plummer
1602 West Seventh Street – map
Declared: 3/7/73

Considering the state of the building after being looted and torched during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, it’s remarkable the former headquarter of the Young’s Market grocery chain is standing at all. (For a picture of the building at its nadir, go to page 186 in McGrew and Julian’s Landmarks of Los Angeles.)

Young’s was founded in the late 1880s by John G. Young, the oldest of a set of grocery-minded brothers. By the time the Seventh and Union market formally opened on February 23, 1925, Young’s Markets had grown to a string of more than forty stores. By then, there were five brothers in the business: W.G. was president; George F., J.G., and C.T. were vice presidents; and P.M. was secretary and treasurer. It was P.M. who oversaw the construction of this city landmark.

The Union Avenue side.

Charles F. Plummer designed the five-story, 126,000-square-foot building to headquarter the executive offices of the chain and house the company’s central retail market and distribution center. The exterior north and east sides still boast thirty-foot tall, 42,000-pound Corinthian columns of granite as well as a wrap-around bronze grill. You really need to look up next to you pass by to take in the della Robbia-style “ceramic polychrome” frieze just below the cornice. Fruits of the earth and all that.

I reckon the picture below is not of the same section as above, but close enough for government work.

Speaking of opening day, get this: this massive Young’s Market was open twelve hours that first day – not for business per se, but for inspection only. In other words, prospective customers (women, mainly) could come in, check out the place, get all pumped up about the mother of all grocery stores, but would have to return the next day if they wanted to buy anything. Can you imagine going to Ralph’s on opening day and being told you weren’t allowed to purchase anything, but you were encouraged to look around?

The main theme of the interior’s ground floor/mezzanine was of a Pompeian marketplace. On the mezzanine, there was the household goods department and a large writing room for the ladies. Of special note were the stenciled concrete supports crossing the ceiling. You can still see the faded remnants of these today.

Someone, at some point, mustered enough energy to give a bit of restoration a stab:

The rest of the building contained rooms dedicated to coffee roasting (with a capacity of 10,000 pounds of imported-only coffee), flour blending, flour mixing (holding five carloads of flour), pastry-making, as well as a dough room and a sweet dough room (“No, no, no. This is the room for regular dough. The room for sweet dough is down the hall. This is 4B. You want 4D.”) The market’s bakery had enough gas ovens to bake either 900 loaves of bread hourly or 1,000 loaves every forty-five minutes, depending on which source you choose to believe (the even hour of the former appeals to me, but I like the round number of 1,000, so I’m torn). There was a floor for the offices, and the second floor was the vast order-filling department – so vast, in fact, the Southern California Telephone company had its largest order up to that time – seventy trunk lines – to accommodate the operators. Finally, 125 carloads of merchandise could fit comfortably into the basement.

At the time of the 1992 riots, the building was occupied by the Andrew Hardware and Metal Company. Today, the old Young’s Market Building is home to Michael’s Furniture and the 44-unit CityView Lofts. CityView has a pretty good website with pictures and a brief video tour which kicks off with the penthouse (under "Filming Available").

The stenciled concrete beams were blackened out in the corner section.

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 113, Young’s Market Building, is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources:

“Market Ready the First of the Year” Los Angeles Times; Nov 2, 1924, p. E10

“Young’s Food Emporium” Los Angeles Times; Jan 1, 1925, p. 36

“Youngs in a New Marketplace” Los Angeles Times; Feb 22, 1925, p. B3

The black and white photographs are via the Los Angeles Public Library photo archive.

Up next: Wilshire United Methodist Church