J. M. Hale Co., also known as Hales, was a department store Downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Hale's was founded by James M. Hale (October 7, 1846,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

–January 31, 1936, Los Angeles), one of the Hale brothers, whose brothers also founded the Hale Bros. stores in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, San José, Salinas, Stockton and Petaluma, California. J. M. Hale, originally from New York City, worked with his brothers in Northern California and came to Los Angeles in 1883, opening his first store in October of that year. In the 1920s, sources state the San Francisco-based Hale Bros. company owned 30% of Los Angeles-based J. M. Hale Co., while in the 1890s the Los Angeles stores were advertised as "branches" of the San Francisco company.

Spring Street stores

J. M. Hale opened his first store in October, 1883 at 7–9 Spring Street (post-1890 numbering: 107–109 N. Spring St.), in what was the Central Business District in the 1880s-1890s, now razed and the site of the

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. In the 1890s, for a time, Hale's had two Los Angeles stores, both at 107–109-111 N. Spring Street and another one it bought from Frank, Grey & Co. in 1893, in the Hammer and Denker Block at the northwest corner of Third and Spring.

Move to Broadway

At the end of January, 1909 Hale's moved from the N. Spring St. location to 341-343-345 S.

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, an area then known as "Petticoat Lane", just south of

Jacoby Bros. Jacoby Bros. (late 1930s, Jacoby's) was one of Los Angeles' largest dry goods retailers in the 1880s and 1890s, developing over the decades into a department store, which closed in the late 1930s. In 1870, Isaac, Nathan, Charles, Abraham, and Les ...

department store. Additional stores were opened in Ocean Park, Santa Monica, and elsewhere in Greater Los Angeles. In 1907 Hale’s acquired the stock of the

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department store.

Hale residence

Until 1907 Hale lived in the 800 block of S. Grand Avenue. In 1907 Hale had built "a handsome home in the Wadsworth & Hollister Tract costing $7,434". The house is still standing at 149 Wadsworth St. in

Ocean Park, Santa Monica The western border of Santa Monica, California, is the 3-mile (4.8 km) stretch of Santa Monica Bay. On its other sides, the city is bordered by various districts of Los Angeles: the northwestern border is Pacific Palisades, the eastern border ...

, a very-late

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/Shingle-style

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

References

{{History of Retail in Southern California Hale, J