May Company Christmas, South Los Angeles, CA, 1949
Gleaming silver stars hang from frizzly-foiled canes fixed to stylish streetlamps towering above signs, signals, bus benches and painted curbs. Is this an obstacle course or an intersection? There is no traffic; no flag and the sidewalks are deserted. It’s Sunday and the store is closed.
Architecturally speaking, this is what happens when a streamline modern ocean liner of the ‘30s and the famous flying wing of the ‘40s have a baby. Less, of course, the potted vines sprouting over the trio of terraces. As if passing motorists don’t have enough to look at and out for already, MAY CO is clearly spelled out twice in golden metal-framed yellow neon readable at any speed.
Line-wise, little relieves this smooth slab-sided, curved cornered department store spectacular with the exception of its nearly hypnotic asymmetry. Don’t stare too long! Let’s lovingly call this style: late-streamline early mid-century mod minimalism. And a very rare example of it at that.
Miraculously this streamlined suburban super store still stands at the corner of Martin Luther King and Crenshaw Blvds, in the Crenshaw District, one of my favorite LA neighborhoods to explore. The May name marked the building until 2005 when Macys, the granddaddy of all grand department stores, took control.
Macy’s started in NYC in 1878 one year after May Company began in Leadville, Colorado. By the end of the 1920’s Macy’s had morphed into the nations largest department store. Ultimately it would become a retail beast that would swallow its competition including the second and third largest stores ever, Hudson’s in Detroit and Marshall Field in Chicago.
Here’s to May Company, Marshall Field, Hudson’s Macy’s and YOU,
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles, CA
Dec 8, 2009
Some of the above posters do not seem to be aware that the May Company had several stores in the Los Angeles area. The one in the picture is definitely the May Company Crenshaw store.
As a young child I can remember driving past this store while it was under construction. When it was finished my mother got a job there and worked for the May Company for the next 20 years, until her death. BTW, they were good to her in her final months.
I have many, many memories of going down to this store for my mom to buy me clothes on her 20% employee discount. Early on, we would ride the street car down through Leimert Park to Santa Barbara to get there. Eating at the Ontra Cafeteria down the steet a little way was a big deal too. I bought my first “English Racer” bicycle there. My mom helped me with her discount. That was about 1955.
Later on it was a big deal to drive the family car there with my dad to pick her up. I began that on my learner’s permit. The store began to stay open till 9:00 pm on Thursdays and Fridays about 1953.
On other memory is that in the early days there was a coffee shop up front facing Crenshaw. I was a big deal to meet Mom there for lunch. I could get a “chocolate coke” there. Today I wouldn’t touch such a concoction, but then it was hot stuff.
Hello all – I’m doing a story about Santa Barbara Plaza in the Crenwshaw/Leimert Park/Baldwin Hills area. I would love for you to hear about your memories of the area – an historical record is hard to come by – so you are the history teachers for this. I’m the creator of http://www.LeimertParkBeat.com and you can contact me through that site. thanks – and thanks to Charles for sharing such great stuff.
OOPS!!!!!!! I would like to make a correction on my previous post. I was not 10 y/o in 1957. I was seven. Sorry.
This reply is in response to the December 10, 2009 post from Rosenda. I remember shopping at that shopping center. The first time I ever went there was in 1957 when our parents would take us to see the decorated department store windows at Christmas. I was probably 10 years old and even though I was born and raised in L.A., had never been to that part of town. Boy, was I impressed! The shopping center was so “California suburban”. I remember on the north side of Santa Barbara Avenue, there was an Ortho Mattress Store, Lindberg Nutrition that had a lunch counter where I had my first Veggie Burger, JJ Newberry and on the south side of Santa Barbara Avenue was The Broadway Dept. Store that did, indeed have a liquor dept. and the most beautiful women’s restroom on the 3rd floor that rivaled the women’s restroom at the May Co. Downtown. There was a FW Woolworth, Leed’s Shoe Store, Lerner Shops (remember that?), Gudes-Barnett Shoes and Ontra’s Cafeteria. Across the parking lot and along Santa Barbara Avenue was a Bank of America (or was it Security Pacific National Bank), Sav-On Drug Store, Thom McAn Shoes, Sylvia Stevens Boutique, Singer Sewing Machines and i’m sure a couple more than escape me. I remember on the south side of the parking lot was Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream, Mondello’s Shoe Repair, IHOP, which is still there today and the coolest Mobil Gas Station EVER!! Remember the one on the corner of Santa Rosalia and Marlton? They tore it down to replace it with a restaurant that never took off and stayed vacant for over 20 years. What a waste. I really miss that lifestyle…dept. stores and such. I can’t believe that it has all been replaced with what is there now. My feeling is if you’ve been to one mall in So. Cal, you’ve been to them all. No choices in shopping these days. Not to mention that they have taken those jewels and replaced and altered them as they have. I say bring back the old department store/ shopping center experience. It is so important to maintain the integrity in things.
Opened in 1947, this is the May Company where Bette Davis’ character worked in the 1952 movie THE STAR. She plays a washed-up movie star who takes a job at the May Company after being arrested for drunk driving. Working in the lingerie department, she overhears two old ladies clucking how disgraceful it is that a store of ‘this caliber’ would employ a woman of such poor moral character. Davis tells them off, grabs her purse, and goes stomping down the escalator and out the door. Luckily for us, neither May Co nor Macy’s has ever seen fit to remodel the interior of this store, so you too can still stomp down the Bette Davis Escalator at May’s Crenshaw.
About the founding year of Macy’s, it was actually 1858. Last year’s ads commemorated Macy’s 150th anniversary. Ironically, Rowland Hussey Macy died in Paris the same year the May Department Stores Company was founded (1877). Paris is the ‘birthplace’ of the department store with Le Bon Marche, which I visited last year as well as Printemps, Galeries Lafayette, and Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville (BHV).
Aww, what a nice picture though! I’m a long-time follower, I just wish you’d have larger photos. When you describe them, you see much more detail than is revealed even in the web version! I have a thing for getting lost in photos of yesteryear, and would love to revel in photos of sunny America…
Frosty greetings (as in -17 Celsius and piles of crystal snow, no kidding!) from Sweden
Just a comment regarding the street and island layout of then and now. They were clearly much more pedestrian and public transportation oriented. Those traffic islands look to be practically fortified for the protection of weary and wary walkers. Also the corner entrance is non-existent. Clearly, only the ‘undesirable’ would enter from the street!
You, of course, are so right. I knew the building didn’t look exactly the same but I thought it was before all the blandishments were attached. I didn’t even know there was a May Co. in that area. It does look kind of similar though…mainly because they are both on a northeast corner. Thanks for the correction.
Still a great fan,
Susan
Please people!
However well intentioned you may be, this is the old May Co. Dept Store on Crenshaw, now Macy’s. However much the image may resemble it, if you would observe more carefully, the old May Co. Building on Wilshire which is indeed now, LACMA West, has a gold tile mosiac streamline- moderne facade anchoring it’s corner (which has been recently refurbished)as well as additional side windows.
Charles Phoenix knows his stuff.
Thanks you, Charles.
I grew up here in Denver and my grandparents always took me shopping at May D&F. Owned by the May company. Never went into a Macy’s till I was about 40 years old! The other day a purchased a great vintage wool ladies’ suit. It was made in Turkey exclusively for May D&F.
Love you Charles,
Such a FANTASTIC picture! and all the fun memories of your fans make me smile!
Here’s to amazing forgotten pictures, realizing they are NOT forgotten, and you Charles! Happy Holidays!
Keith
Hello: Wow, I saw the picture of the Crenshaw May Company building tonight and it looks just like the old May Company building on Wilshire Blvd.Where the street level shopping windows used to be, there are what appear to be plywood covers painted in gold if I am recalling correctly.The May Company signs are gone and the building looks very sad looking, no signs of its former glory as a major shopping destination.The museum, LACMA, now owns the building and uses it for administrative offices and space for a children’s museum.The museum have been busy constructing new space for exhibits, so I am uncertain as to what the museum will do with this building in the future.They do use it for special exhibits, so at least it is not forgotten. You didn’t mention what the old Crenshaw building is used for. I hope it is being used for something and not sitting there vacant. Thanks for this week’s slide.
Dan
I love your work and the photos you find are fabulous. But I do have to correct your address for the May Co. It was and is still on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, NOT Martin Luther King and Crenshaw Boulevard. What were you thinking of?
A fan, Susan
This is the May Co building at the corner of LaBrea and Wilshire, at the beginning of the Miracle Mile district. It’s now home to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Dear Charles,
I always love your slide selections and commentaries
This time you really got my attention with the May Co
I grew up in the 50′s & 60′s in LA and shopped at both
Crenshaw & Wilshire May Co’s
Orbach’s on Wilshire really sticks out in my memory along
with lunching at Van De Kamp’s restaurant…… but I digress…..
May Co downtown LA is where I met my deceased ex husband.
We both worked in the advertising dept. He was renowned
fashion illustrator Fernando Flores and years after our son was
born and we were divorced, he came out of the closet.
Now look what one little May Co photo and essay brought up for me!
Just had to share……
Wishing you and yours a super holiday season and a bright 2010
Warm regards,
Bonnie
Charles!
I just had to comment on this picture. Such good childhood memories there. Our family lived near there, close to La Brea and Adams, when my sister brother and I were little. Only me and my sister are here now (RIP to our brother way back when), but we have a lot of fond memories shopping in the Plaza.
If I remember right, it was sort of referred to as the Santa Barbara Plaza, for the little shops on King Blvd (back then the street name was Santa Barbara), some of which are still there, all back from Crenshaw up towards Stocker on one side and up to two blocks past Crenshaw. The two major structures of that shopping area were May Company at the Corner, and The Broadway at the next corner.
My parents bought our house (which they fixed up and I am renting from them now) back in 1956, before I was born in 1962, but just after my brother was born, I believe. Three of our old neighbors who moved in the neighborhood around the same time are still there now.
May Co and The Broadway (where Walmart is now) were so beautiful, those buildings were GORGEOUS to me as a little kid. The Broadway had this AWESOME little enclosed hat salon, with pretty decorated windows and individual try-on desks with mirrors etc etc.
And we used to sometimes have lunch at the Woolworth/Newberry next door to the Broadway (can’t recall which it was). I also recall that May Co and The Broadway had a Liquor Dept. Our parents bought their liquor there and we got to buy whatever little imported gourmet treats they sold there too. Cheese crackers and chocolates etc etc. They even had gold paper boxes of chocolate covered ants a few times, which my sister and I were intrigued by but would not on our life ask our mother or father to buy them. Eek!
On the Santa Barbara side of the shopping center, there used to a big location of Jack Lalanne’s gym operation. Bigger even than the one that was on Wilshire (where the Conga Room is now).
Memories Flood!!
Rosenda
Charles,
I am certain you are going to get a lot of s__t about this, but of course
the former May Co. Department store is still at the corner of Fairfax &
Wilshire on the Miracle Mile in the Fairfax District.
B
Thanks for sharing, Charles! I could have sworn it was the May Co at
Fairfax and Wilshire…didn’t know they had one in So. LA. Thanks!
sb
Thanks for that pic, Charles. But that’s the May Company (now LACMA’s
west wing) at Wilshire and Fairfax. It’s located in the virtual center of
L.A. (vs. south L.A.) – 1/2 way between downtown and Santa Monica. My
mom worked there part-time while she was attending L.A. High. It’s a
beautiful late deco masterpiece (four blocks from my house!).
Â
Cheers,
Â
–Chris
pic of May Company at Wilshire & Fairfax:
http://www.gonegraphics.com/uglyangel/mayco_2.jpg
Charles
ARCHITECTURE ALERT—-
***THIS IS NOT the MAY CO building… at WILSHIRE & FAIRFAX***
Several emails have come in correcting me on the location of this building.
This is indeed Crenshaw Plaza MAY CO building at the northwest corner of Crenshaw Blvd. and Martin Luther King (formerly Santa Barbara Ave.) in South Los Angeles!
Understandable why so many would be confused…
When I was a kid we shopped at Eastland May Co, Eastland Shopping Center, built in 1957, then at the Montclair May Co, built in 1968. OOOOH the May Company….
May Company-ily,
Charles
These old postcards and pics are the closest I’ll ever get to time traveling.
BTW, you can use Google Street View to see this building today:
http://tinyurl.com/ya9lxvq
I think it looked more inviting in the old photo.
Then again, so many older Los Angles buildings have gotten the wrecking ball. It’s nice to see one that was spared.
Las Vegas’s PENNEYS used to be on DOWNTOWN FREMONT STREET. Like this May Co., IT WAS AN ART DECO BEAUTY!
I MOST REMEMBER, walking into the curled wall at the back of the “indirectly lit” marble stairway.
There was the smell of dust on hot flourescent lamps IN THAT TALL, TINY, CREVICE.
I always felt like Alice walking into the “Looking Glass” inside that cozy little alcove… THAT NO ADULT COULD FIT INTO.
Does anyone know where the store was located and who designed it?
Look at that blacktop! Maybe because there are no cars it looks almost brand new-or maybe it was new. Weren’t those the days, when businesses all closed on Sunday so everyone could have a day of rest? I say bring it back. I miss those little tea rooms and lunch counters the big stores had back then as well. You really dressed up to go shopping back then, because once you stopped for a break at the tea room you needed to be correctly dressed to be there. I still remember being dressed up in hat, coat and shiny patent shoes to go to Knott’s Berry Farm and the big outdoor malls here in Orange County.
Dang, your slides make me always feel so nostalgic! Thanks Charles, and have a wonderful holiday.
It was lovely here before the Global floodgates were opened.
To go back to the old days!!!!!
Well, I’m not old enough to recall a time when stores were shuttered on Sunday, but I do remember my early childhood in the 1970s, when retail establishments closed at 5 on weekends. Now, Target remains open ’til 10 P.M. SEVEN DAYS A WEEK! And NOBODY shuts down at 5 on Saturday or Sunday.
I stood on that corner probably in ’55 or ’56 selling mistletoe for an older cousin and a friend. They had harvested and baged it and a number of us younger fellows sold it.
Hard to believe in this age of gridlock anyplace, let alone L.A. could be so void of auto traffic! (neat building though) Thanks Charles!
Thanks for sharing, Charles. As a long-time employee of May Stores, Inc. (May Company downtown, then Robinsons-May in North Hollywood), I have fond memories of the old stores and their former run-down glories. As late as the 1980′s, the tea room at the Wilshire store (May Co. #2) was still going strong. I worked at the Downtown Store (May Co #1), which still boasted a bakery and other vendor departments when I was employed there. I still miss the day-to-day dramas, and am sad that so many glorious department stores in Los Angeles were swept up in the tide of mergers and buyouts. To name a few gone, but not forgotten: Bullocks, Bullocks-Wilshire, Buffums, Broadway, and Robinsons.