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![]() Hamburger's building (later May Company downtown L.A. flagship) at 8th and Broadway, ca. 1912 | |
Formerly | A. Hamburger & Sons |
---|---|
Type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Department store |
Founded | October 29, 1881Los Angeles, California as A. Hamburger & Sons, Inc. | in
Founder | Asher Hamburger |
Defunct | January 31, 1993 |
Fate | Merged with J.W. Robinson's |
Successor | Robinsons-May (1993) Macy's (2006) |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Area served | Southern California and Las Vegas |
Products | Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. |
Parent | May Department Stores Company |
May Company California was a chain of department stores operating in Southern California and Nevada, with headquarters in North Hollywood, California. It was a subsidiary of May Department Stores and merged with May's other Southern California subsidiary, J. W. Robinson's, in 1993 to form Robinsons-May.
May Company California was established in 1923 when May acquired A. Hamburger & Sons Inc..[1] (founded in 1881 by Asher Hamburger). The company operated exclusively in Southern California until 1989 when May Department Stores had dissolved Goldwater's, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and transferred its Las Vegas, Nevada store to May Company California.
Two well-known stores were the flagship Downtown store on 8th Street between Broadway and Hill streets, and the May Company Wilshire at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. The 1926 garage building at 9th and Hill Streets was one of the nation's first parking structures (Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1001). The Wilshire location has been featured in several vintage films, including Behave Yourself!
May Company California can trace its roots to the store that Asher Hamburger and his sons Moses, David and Solomon had established in Los Angeles after their recent move from Sacramento. This store first opened on October 29, 1881, in a 20-by-75-foot room on Main Street near Requena Street and was original known as The People's Store featuring clearly printed "One Price" tags.[2][3]
In 1882, only one year later, Hamburger's moved to the Ponet-Bumiller Block at 45 N. Spring St. (post-1890 numbering: 145 N. Spring), SW corner of Temple, in a space of 46 by 100 ft. Later, it expanded into the north half of the ground floor of the newly built Phillips Block, NW corner of Spring and Franklin, then in 1887 into the south half. In April 1899 it added the Ponet store 20 ft to the north of the Bumiller Block.
In 1899, Hamburger's renovated and took over the entire Phillips Block, all four floors plus the cellar. The space officially opened June 1, 1899 and the store claimed at that time to have 3.5 acres (150,000 sq ft; 14,000 m2) of floor space[4] and to be the largest retail store in the Western United States.[5] Later Hamburger's added an additional 2,500 square feet (230 m2) onto its back side on New High St.[6][7][8]
By the start of the 20th century, A. Hamburger & Sons had outgrown its Spring Street location, which had 520 employees working on five floors.[9] The Hamburger family decided to build a much larger store at the southeast corner of Broadway and Eighth, a location that was outside of then current retail district. Construction started in 1905, with a grand opening held in 1908.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] This location, which was also known as the Great White Store, was the largest department store building west of Chicago at the time and would eventually become the flagship location for the May Company California. At the time that the Great White Store was opened, the store could boast of having one of the first escalators on the West Coast, several restaurants, a drug store, grocery store, bakery, fruit store, meat market, U.S. post office, telegraph office, barber shop, a dentist, a chiropractor, a medical doctor, an auditorium, an electricity and steam power plant in the basement that was large enough to support a city of 50,000 inhabitants, a private volunteer 120 men fire brigade,[23][24] 13 acres of retail space (482,475 sq.ft., larger than all the department, clothing and dry goods stores in the city), and 1200 employees.[13][25][26][27][28][29] The Los Angeles Public Library was also located on the third floor from 1908[30] until it was forced to move to a larger location when it outgrew the Hamburger space by 1913.[31][32][33] For a short time, Woodbury Business College briefly was also located on the fifth floor.[34] Circa 1912, there was a temporary free public menagerie on the fourth floor of 50 animals including a cassowary, a sun bear, an orangutan, a 28 ft (8.5 m)-long python, monkeys and iridescent birds.[35][36][37]
The store continued to expand until it took up the entire block bounded by Broadway, Hill, 8th and 9th. In 1923, a nine-story addition was built on Hill Street. With the addition of a new nine-story, 250,000 sq ft (23,000 m2) building in 1930 it then measured over 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m2) of floor space. In the mid-1920s May Company also built a warehouse at Grand and Jefferson and in 1927 a nine-story parking garage at 9th and Hill streets.[38]
On March 31, 1923, the Hamburgers sold their store to the May family of St. Louis for $8.5 million.[39][40] Thomas and Wilbur May, sons of the founder of the May Company, were sent to manage the former Hamburger store. One of the first things that they did was to expand the store again by building adjacent additions on the other parts of the city block.[41][42] After several more years, the May Company store eventually occupied almost the entire block between Broadway and Hill and between 8th and 9th Streets. The old Hamburger store was officially renamed the May Company in 1927.[43][44]
To keep pace with the extreme growth in population within Southern California during the Great Depression, May Company opened the first branch store in 1939 on Wilshire at Fairfax at a cost of $2 million.[45][46][47][48][49]
After World War II, a second branch store was opened on October 10, 1947[50] along Crenshaw Boulevard at the northeast corner of Santa Barbara St. (now M. L. King, Jr. Blvd.). The store would later be integrated into the Broadway-anchored Crenshaw Plaza directly across the street to the south.[51][52][53][54][55]
A proposed store in Hollywood that was planned at the same time was never built.[51][56][57]
From 1952 to 1992 May opened stores across suburban Los Angeles and Southern California (see table below).
The North Hollywood store, opened in 1955 and originally marketed as part of the Valley Plaza shopping district, was a very large at 452,000 square feet (42,000 m2), and claimed to be the second-largest suburban branch department store in the country, outsized only by a branch of Hudson's in suburban Detroit.[58]
On October 17, 1992, May Company California's parent, May Department Stores, announced the merger of May Company California with its sister company J.W. Robinson's to form Robinsons-May, thus ending the May Company California existence.[59][60][61] It was also announced that the Wilshire store along with the stores in West Covina, Buena Park, Santa Ana, and San Bernardino were scheduled to close by the end of January 1993.
During the early part of this division existence, May Company was also the developer of some other early shopping centers and malls which grew around the initially stand-alone stores, with the Crenshaw location being the first example.
The first May Company store, the original Hamburger's, at Broadway and 8th in downtown Los Angeles was closed when it was replaced by the just opened 7th Market Place store in 1986.[62] This building is designated as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 459. After its sale, the building was primary used by small clothing manufacturing companies.[63] In 2013, the then current owners were trying to sell the building since the surrounding area is being actively redeveloped.[64] It was announced in April 2014 that Waterbridge Capital agreed to purchase the property, but had not given out too many details on how they might go about to develop it, except to state it would be mixed-use.[65][66]
During the 1980s, the parent corporation tried to replace the iconic Wilshire store for several years by getting involved with mall development at Farmers Market.[67] However the development that eventually became The Grove at Farmers Market was delayed for nearly two decades. The St. Louis-based parent company eventually withdrew from the project and the Wilshire store was never replaced when May Company California was later merged with Robinson in 1993. After closing, the Streamline Moderne style building was sold to Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1994[68] and is currently slated to house The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.[69]
Community | Mall or address | Opened | Closed | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
opened as Hamburger's | ||||
Original Central Business District, Los Angeles | Main St. near Requena | October 29, 1881 | 20-by-75-foot room, 1,500 square feet (140 m2). Known as The People's Store.[2] | |
Bumiller Block, Temple and Spring, NW corner of Spring St. and Franklin St. | 1882 |
| ||
Broadway, Downtown L.A. | Broadway, Hill, Eighth and Ninth | August 10, 1908 | 1986 | 482,475 sq. ft. at opening. March 31, 1923 sold to May Company. Extensively expanded in later years. Now the Broadway Trade Center (mixed use). See May Company Building (Broadway, Los Angeles) |
opened as May Company | ||||
Miracle Mile | NE corner Wilshire Bl. & Fairfax Avenue | September 7, 1939[47] | January 1993 | 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2). Now houses the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. See May Company Building (Wilshire, Los Angeles) |
Crenshaw District | NW corner Crenshaw and Santa Barbara (now MLK) blvds. | October 1947 | 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2). Opened as a freestanding store across the street from Crenshaw Center. Integrated into Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza mall in the 1970s. | |
Lakewood | Lakewood Center[70][71][72] | 1952 | ||
North Hollywood | Laurel Plaza[73][74][75] | 1955 | originally marketed as part of Valley Plaza; at 452,000 square feet (42,000 m2), 2nd-largest suburban branch department store in the U.S. Turned into mixed retail use after Macy's closed in 2016.[58] | |
West Covina | Eastland Center[76][77] | 1957 | January 1993 | Now demolished for Target and Burlington Coat Factory since 1996 |
Redondo Beach | South Bay Galleria[78][79] | 1959 | ||
San Diego | Mission Valley Center[80][81] | 1960 | The May Company Building at Westfield Mission Valley is empty now but considered an architectural landmark[82] | |
Buena Park | Buena Park Mall[83][84][85] | 1963 | January 1993 | First became Fedco in 1993, now demolished for Walmart since 2003 |
Canoga Park | Topanga Plaza Shopping Mall[86][87] | 1964 | ||
West Los Angeles | Pico & Westwood Blvd., later part of Westside Pavilion[88][89] | 1964 | ||
Whittier | The Quad at Whittier[90][91][92][93] | 1964 | March 31, 1987 | Closed just six months before the Whittier Narrows earthquake which took place at 7:42 a.m. October 1, 1987. The store's three-level parking structure fell almost flat to the ground as a result of this quake, and the store itself suffered internal damage but remained intact until its controlled implosion (via dynamite) a few years later. |
Costa Mesa | Costa Mesa[94][95] | 1966 | ||
Arcadia | El Rancho Santa Anita Shopping Center[96][97][98] | 1966 | Victor Gruen & Assoc., architects; Welton Becket & Assoc., Spanish colonial interiors. 240,000 sq. ft.[96] Was a Vons supermarket, currently empty.[citation needed] | |
San Bernardino | Inland Center[99][100] | 1966 | January 1993 | First became Gottschalks in 1995, now JCPenney since 2016, new Robinsons-May store built 5 years later in same mall (now Macy's) |
Montclair | Montclair Plaza[101][102] | 1968 | ||
Carlsbad | Plaza Camino Real[103][104][105] | 1969 | ||
Oxnard | Esplanade Mall[106][107] | November 2, 1970[108] | ||
El Cajon | Parkway Plaza[109][110] | 1972 | ||
Riverside | Tyler Mall[111][112][113] | 1973 | ||
Eagle Rock | Eagle Rock Plaza[114][115][116][117] | 1973 | ||
City of Orange | The City Shopping Center[118] | 1974 | July 1991 | Closed two months after the one at MainPlace Mall in Santa Ana, California opened |
Westminster | Westminster Mall[119][120] | 1974 | ||
Culver City | Fox Hills Mall[121][122] | 1975 | ||
Brea | Brea Mall[123][124] | 1977 | ||
Thousand Oaks | The Oaks[125][126] | 1978 | ||
Mission Viejo | Mission Viejo Mall[127][128][129] | 1979 | ||
La Jolla | La Jolla Village Square[130][131] | 1979 | ||
Sherman Oaks | Sherman Oaks Galleria[132][133] | 1980 | ||
Pasadena | Plaza Pasadena[134][135] | 1980 | ||
Bonita, Chula Vista | Plaza Bonita[136] | 1981 | ||
Palos Verdes | Promenade on the Peninsula[137][138] | 1981 | ||
Palm Desert | Westfield Palm Desert[139][140] | 1983 | ||
Montebello | Montebello Town Center[141] | 1985 | ||
Escondido | Escondido[142][143][144] | 1986 | ||
Downtown Los Angeles | Seventh Market Place[62][145] | March 13, 1986 | After a long period of declining sales, the original Downtown flagship store at 8th and Broadway was closed and replaced by this smaller store. The parent company had previously relocated the main corporate offices for the May Company California division from the former Hamburger Building to the North Hollywood store at Laurel Plaza in 1983.[146] The store is now the site of Nordstrom Rack (level M1), Target (level M2), and H&M (level M3). | |
Bakersfield | Valley Plaza Mall | 1988 | ||
Las Vegas | Fashion Show Mall | converted 1989 | acquired from sister company Goldwater's in 1989 when parent company May Department Stores decided to cut costs by consolidating divisions.[147] The Las Vegas store is one of two locations in which a pre-existing store was acquired from another organization instead of being built from scratch, the other being Orange, originally constructed as Walker-Scott Department Store.[citation needed] | |
Santa Maria | Santa Maria Town Center[148][149] | 1990 | ||
Downey | Stonewood Center[150][151] | 1990 | ||
Santa Ana | MainPlace Mall[152][153][154] | May 1991 | ||
Santa Clarita | Valencia Town Center[155][156] | September 1992 | ||
Moreno Valley | Moreno Valley Mall[157][158][159] | October 1992 | The last new store to open which was open for three months when the merger with J.W. Robinson's took place and became Robinsons-May. |
Christmas advertisement, 1905
Hamburger's People's Store Spring Street 1880s
Hamburger's People's Store after construction of and expansion into the Philips Block, Spring Street ca. 1890s
Terrazzo at the entrance of the Downtown Los Angeles flagship