Blackstone Building (Los Angeles)
The Blackstone Building (formerly Blackstone's Department Store, now the Blackstone Apartments) is a 1916 structure located at 901 South Broadway in Los Angeles, California. It has been listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument since 2003 (number LA-765).[1] The Blackstone Department Store Building is an early example of the work of John B. Parkinson, Los Angeles’ preeminent architect of the early twentieth century. The building is clad in gray terra cotta and styled in the Beaux Arts school.[2]
History
Nathaniel Blackstone (brother-in-law of department store magnate J. W. Robinson) opened Blackstone's Dry Goods in 1895 on the 300 block of Broadway, and later hired Parkinson to design his flagship store further down the street, opening in 1917.[3] In 1939, Blackstone’s was sold to the Famous Department Store Company, and renovated by Morgan, Walls & Clements. Stiles O. Clements designed a ground-floor façade in the Streamline Moderne style; this façade is now protected by an easement by the Los Angeles Conservancy.[2] Also it was the building behind Harold Lloyd in the famous scene when he is climbing another building and does those amazing stunts hanging from the building's clock - in the 1923 silent film "Safety Last ". Blackstone's department stores received about 20 minutes of free advertising in a very popular film that year
In 2010, the Blackstone Building was adaptively reused and converted to 82 apartments with ground-floor retail space and a subterranean parking garage.[4]
References
Coordinates: 34°02′32″N 118°15′23″W / 34.0423°N 118.2564°W