Famous Department Store

The Famous Department Store (not to be confused with the "Famous Clothing Store", precursor to Famous-Barr and the May Department Stores Co.) was a department store in Los Angeles, California.

This article is about defunct Los Angeles–based department store and its forerunner, Cal Hirsch & Sons. For the Famous Clothing Company of St. Louis, see Famous-Barr.
Famous Department Store
PredecessorCal Hirsch & Sons Mercantile Co.
Defunct1950 (1950)
FateStores sold to J. J. Sugarman Co., brand subsequently retired
Headquarters
Los Angeles, California
,
United States
Number of locations
8 (1950)

Famous had its origins with the Cal Hirsch & Sons Mercantile Co., founded in 1860 or 1871 depending on the source,[1][2] which ran Army and Navy surplus stores in St. Louis.[1]

After opening stores in Los Angeles starting in 1913 and later moved its headquarters there. In 1939, it took over the vacated Blackstone's Department Store building at 901 S. Broadway (designed by architect John Parkinson, built in 1917) and renovated and expanded it to 90,000 square feet (8,400 m2) of selling space, shifting the existing 530 S. Main St. store to use mostly as a warehouse. The new Broadway store sold men's, women's and children's clothing, furnishings and accessories; shoes, drapes, furniture, drapes, household utensils and accessories and an entire floor was devoted to toys. It also has a beauty shop and lunch counter.[2]

Morgan, Walls & Clements designed an art deco building for Famous on Pine Street in downtown Long Beach, which opened in 1929.[3]

In 1950 the stores were sold to the J. J. Sugarman Co., a Los Angeles business investment firm, a value estimated at $3.5 million (~$31.6 million in 2021), reported by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the larges mercantile sales of its kind in recent years in California". The chain at that time consisted of eight stores:[4] Advertising for the Famous Department Store ceases in 1952.[5]

Stores
  • Main store till 1939, then Famous Army and Navy store: 530 S. Main St., Los Angeles
  • Main store from 1939: 901 S. Broadway, Los Angeles
  • Long Beach, along shopping corridor Pine Avenue at 6th
  • Santa Ana, 4th and Bush[6]
  • San Diego[7]
  • Fullerton
  • Glendale, Brand at Harvard
  • Fresno
  • San Bernardino
  • Porterville

References
  1. Harris, Charles H.; Sadler, Louis R. (2016-04-25). The Secret War in el Paso: Mexican Revolutionary Intrigue, 1906–1920. ISBN 978-0-8263-4654-4.
  2. "Famous Department Store Moves to Broadway Home". Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  3. Thomas, John W.; Cooper, Suzanne Tarbell; Christopher Launi, J. (2006). Long Beach Art Deco. ISBN 978-0-7385-4670-4.
  4. "Famous Stores Chain Sold to Sugarman Co". Los Angeles Times. 5 November 1952. p. 34. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  5. Search newspapers.com
  6. "Advertisement for The Famous Dept. Store". Santa Ana Register. June 13, 1935. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  7. "Advertisement for Famous Department Store". Los Angeles Times. 14 Oct 1917. p. 6. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
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