The Famous Department Store (not to be confused with the "Famous Clothing Store", precursor to

Famous-Barr The Famous-Barr Co. (originally Famous and Barr Co.) was a division of Macy's, Inc. (formerly Federated Department Stores). Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, in the Railway Exchange Building, it was the flagship store of The May Department Sto ...

and the May Department Stores Co.) was a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California. Famous had its origins with the Cal Hirsch & Sons Mercantile Co., founded in 1860 or 1871 depending on the source, which ran Army and Navy surplus stores in St. Louis. 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 Blackstones or Blackstone's may refer to: * The Blackstones, UK-based reggae vocal trio active since the mid-1970s * Blackstones F.C., non-league football club from Stamford, England * Blackstone's commentaries, Blackstone's ''Commentaries'', Comme ...

building at 901 S. Broadway (designed by architect John Parkinson, built in 1917) and renovated and expanded it to 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. Morgan, Walls & Clements designed an

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

building for Famous on Pine Street in downtown

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, which opened in 1929. 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, reported by the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' as "one of the larges mercantile sales of its kind in recent years in California". The chain at that time consisted of eight stores: Advertising for the Famous Department Store ceases in 1952.

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 *San Diego *Fullerton *Glendale, Brand at Harvard *Fresno *San Bernardino *Porterville

External links

Blackstone Department Store Building (site of Famous Department Store), Los Angeles ConservancyGoogle Street View of Long Beach store (art deco, 1929, Morgan, Walls & Clements)"Famous Department Store, Long Beach, CA" in Pacific Coast Architecture Database
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References

{{History of Retail in Southern California Defunct department stores based in Greater Los Angeles Art Deco architecture in California Morgan, Walls & Clements buildings