Bob Hope Patriotic Hall is a 10-story building that was dedicated as Patriotic Hall by the

Los Angeles Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Sessions as their first ...

in 1925 and was built to serve veterans of

Indian Wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settle ...

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and to support the

Grand Army of the Republic The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Il ...

. It serves as the home of the Los Angeles County Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Patriotic hall was rededicated to honor of

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...

and renamed "Bob Hope Patriotic Hall" on November 12, 2004.

History

Patriotic Hall was built in 1925 and the building opened its doors in 1926 to serve the public. When it was built, the building was the tallest building in the city.

Design

The building was designed by

Allied Architects Association Allied Architects Association was a coalition of Los Angeles-based architects founded in 1921 to design public buildings. Participating architects included Octavius Morgan, Reginald Davis Johnson, George Edwin Bergstrom, David C. Allison, Myron ...

(33 prominent architects in Los Angeles) using Romanesque features. The lobby was designed with vaulted arch construction and contains murals on the walls. A three panel mural created by A.J. Leitner called ''Soldiers and Sailors'' occupies one of the vestibules of the building. Created as part of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

, the murals depict uniformed U.S. military personnel from 1776 to 1941. A series of lobby murals completed by

Helen Lundeberg Helen Lundeberg (1908–1999) was a Southern Californian painter. Along with her husband Lorser Feitelson, she is credited with establishing the Post-Surrealism, Post-Surrealist movement. Her artistic style changed over the course of her career, ...

as part of the

were removed in the 1970s, and are now considered missing. In 2013, muralist Kent Twitchell unveiled ''We the People, Out of Many, One,'' a series of murals which occupies the site of Lundeberg's original work. Twitchell's murals pay homage to Lundeberg's design, while depicting real life veterans and other people associated with the military.

Awards

A Certificate of Honor has been awarded to the building for its exceptional merit by the Southern California Chapter of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

, and it was placed on the State’s Register of Historical Resources on 27 February 1976. The building was built on land deeded by

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

veterans.

Other notable events

Arianna Huffington Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (née Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou, el, Αριάδνη-Άννα Στασινοπούλου ; born July 15, 1950) is a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of ''Th ...

hosted a Shadow convention in Patriotic Hall while the

2000 Democratic National Convention The 2000 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial presidential nominating convention for the Democratic Party. The convention nominated Vice President Al Gore for president and Senator Joe Lieberman from Connecticut for vice president. The ...

took place in Staples Center

Refurbishment

In 2006, the building was temporarily closed so that it could be renovated. The renovations included: * Updated mechanical systems *

ADA Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...

upgrades, including new parking stalls * Updated meeting, conference and office spaces * Refurbished gym * 500-seat auditorium * Full-service kitchen The renovated Patriotic Hall was completed in 2013 at a cost of $46 million. In more active years, Patriotic Hall was the headquarters and/or a mailing address for hundreds of organizations. Once renovation was completed, the original veteran service organizations were invited back into the building, this includes: *

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militi ...

Post 8 * World War II Veterans Groups * County offices such as the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, which returned to the building on August 26, 2013 under its new director, Brig. Gen. Ruth A. Wong.

Ownership and management

Bob Hope Patriotic Hall is owned by the

County of Los Angeles Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

. Operations are managed by the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

Current purpose

The hall is the home to military artifacts and memorabilia. It houses documents from wars and conflicts starting with the American Revolutionary War, and including recent Middle East conflicts. Additionally, multiple veteran organizations hold tenancy in the building and offer a range of services including free mental health support, case management services, employment assistance, benefits and service connection assistance, women veteran specific programming, and veteran peer access support. Patriotic Hall is meant to be a service center, therefore walk-ins are welcome. At the rededication ceremonies in 2013, American Legion member and past California Department Commander Hugh Crooks Jr expressed appreciation that the building was being rededicated back to the veterans: “This is not just for past veterans. It is also for future vets. All future vets will know that this building in Los Angeles County is their building. That’s what it’s here for. That’s what it will always be for.”

Location

The building is less than a mile from

Staples Center Crypto.com Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. The arena opened on October 17, 1999; it was ...

and

LA Live L.A. Live is an entertainment complex in the South Park District of Downtown Los Angeles, California. It is adjacent to the Crypto.com Arena and Los Angeles Convention Center. L.A. Live was developed by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), Wach ...

. It is visible from both

interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

(Santa Monica Freeway) and State Route 110 (Harbor Freeway). The structure is located at 1816 S.

Figueroa Street Figueroa Street is a major north-south street in Los Angeles County, California, spanning from the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington north to Eagle Rock. A short, unconnected continuation of Figueroa Street runs just south of Marengo Driv ...

, Los Angeles, California, 90015. Figueroa Street was a part of the old

US Highway 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast from Bishop, California, to P ...

. It is west from

Historic South Central Historic South Central Los Angeles is a 2.25-square-mile neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, within the South Los Angeles region. It is the site of the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall. From the late 1800s to early 1910s, African Americans began re ...

neighborhood. It is only one block from the

Metro A Line The Metro A Line is a bus rapid transit line in the Twin Cities, Minnesota operated by Metro Transit. The A Line operates primarily along the Snelling Avenue corridor and travels through the cities of Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Falcon Heights, ...

train station at

Los Angeles Trade-Technical College LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significance ...

Collections

There are many artifacts stored in the hall. They have been documented and cataloged. The estimated worth of the collection is valued at more than $1 million. Included are: * Uniforms from

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

General George Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...

, General Norman Schwarzkopf. * Historic flags * Historic weapons * Original oil paintings by naval artist Arthur Beaumont. Much of the collection is property of American Legion Post 8. Display cases hold these valuable artifacts.

References

External links

Bob Hope Patriotic Hall
(Los Angeles County Government Web site) {{County of Los Angeles Buildings and structures completed in 1925 1925 establishments in California Buildings and structures in Los Angeles County, California Museums in Los Angeles American Legion buildings Clubhouses in California Allied Architects Association buildings Bob Hope Romanesque Revival architecture in California