Wilshire Boulevard runs from Downtown Los Angeles to Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, its heart and core at Vermont to Fairfax Avenue. This stretch served as LA’s prime shopping strip for several decades until the middle class who lived in this area in the 1920s and 30s moved out in the 1970s and 80s. Most of the storefronts along the boulevard have lost their tenants but the architecture of the buildings – the Streamline Moderne and Zizag styles designed to look like French castles and Egyptian temples –provide a fascinating window into a faded era.[1]
Lafayette Park
Lafayette Park is east of Vermont and home to some excellent examples of early 20th century architecture and the period-revival style. Perhaps the best example is the Granada Buildings at 672 S. Lafayette Park Place, a shopping and residential building that resembles a Spanish Colonial village. Also in the vicinity is the First Congregational Church at 540 S. Commonwealth Avenue, a 1930 Gothic cathedral with huge pipe organs used to perform the annual Bach Festival. Nearby is the Romanesque Park Plaza Hotel at 607 S. Park View Street, a hotel decorated with intricate sculptures on all sides of the building, highlighted by a marble lobby.[2]
Bullocks Wilshire
Bullocks Wilshire is a department store at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard, an excellent example of early Art Deco. This building is probably the most complete and preserved 1920s architecture in LA, and features a dazzling copper tower built on a terracotta base. The Bullocks Wilshire was completed in 1928 and was Los Angeles’ first department store. It was also the first to construct a porte-cochere entry for cars and a parking lot in the back, catering to the new era of automobiles. Unfortunately, the building was badly damaged during the 1992 riots and the store closed as a result. Today, it is used as the law library for Southwestern University. There are still periodic tours offered that allow you to catch a glimpse of the store’s faded opulence.[3]
Ambassador Hotel
The Ambassador Hotel is one of the notable attractions of Wilshire Boulevard. Located at 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, much of the hotel has unfortunately been demolished. All that remains is the annex that supported the hotel entrance, the coffee shop, the shopping arcade, and the Cocoanut Grove – which will be reused by the school being built on the site.[4]
The Ambassador Hotel was a landmark of the Wilshire Boulevard’s golden age. In its heyday from the early 1920s to the late 1960s, it was the hangout spot of all the Hollywood celebrities. Its famous Cocoanut Grove club was a favorite nightspot attracting performers[5] like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Duke Ellington and Bing Crosby.[6] The hotel’s ballroom also hosted a few early Academy Award ceremonies. And it is probably most famous for being the setting of Senator Robert Kennedy’s assassination, who was gunned down in 1968 in the hotel’s kitchen after he had just won the California presidential primary.[7] Today, while much of it has been demolished, you can still visit the site and catch a glimpse of what remains – the annex of the hotel entrance, the coffee shop, the shopping arcade, and the Cocoanut Grove.[8]
Brown Derby
The Brown Derby Restaurant is a landmark restaurant that is located across the street from the Ambassador Hotel and re-sited from its original location. Opened in 1926, the restaurant is a prime example of programmatic architecture – the design of buildings to resemble objects. The Brown Derby itself is shaped like a brown, derby hat. The restaurant closed in 1985 and was relocated to the roof of a mini-mall, and designated an official historic monument of LA.[9]
In its heyday during the golden age of Hollywood (from the early 20th century to the 1960s), the Brown Derby served many celebrities and was the site of after-parties following bashes at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub at the Ambassador Hotel. Culinary-wise, the Brown Derby was the first to serve the chiffon cake, and invented the Cobb Salad.[10]
St. Basil’s Roman Catholic Church
St. Basil’s Roman Catholic Church is a few blocks west of the Brown Derby at 3611 Wilshire Boulevard and was once the seat of the Roman Catholic Church in LA. It dates from 1969 and is a great example of contemporary ecclesiastical architecture, featuring concrete columns, colored-glass sculptures, teak altars and pews, and ceilings decorated with 2,000 twisted aluminum tubes.[11]
Wilshire Boulevard Temple
The Wilshire Boulevard Temple at 3633 Wilshire Boulevard is a Byzantine structure of lustrous mosaics, gold and marble – an aesthetically stunning monument.[12]
Wiltern Theater
The Wiltern Theater is a former movie palace that is designed with a blue Zizag Moderne façade with narrow windows and a building that seems larger than it really is. The interior of the theater features opulent sunburst motifs and grand columns and friezes in the Art Deco mold. The theater was originally known as the Warner Bros Western Theater when it was completed in 1930. Today, it is a converted concert hall.[13]
References:
“Ambassador Hotel.” < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Hotel>
“Brown Derby.” < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Derby>
Dickey, Jeff. Los Angeles, 3rd Edition. Rough Guides, 2003. ISBN: 1843530589.
[1] Dickey, 75
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Ambassador
[5] Dickey, 75
[6] Ambassador
[7] Dickey, 75
[8] Ambassador
[9] Dickey, 75-76
[10] Brown
[11] Dickey, 76
[12] Id.
[13] Id.
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