Parmelee-Dohrmann was a

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

–based chain of stores that sold fine china, crystal, glassware, silver, and objects of art. The store dated back to 1878, when it occupied an adobe building near the

Los Angeles Plaza Los Angeles Plaza or Plaza de Los Ángeles is located in Los Angeles, California. It is the central point of the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District. When Spanish Governor Felipe de Neve founded the Pueblo de Los Ángeles, his first act was to lo ...

. On June 17, 1899, Parmelee and Dohrmann opened the "China Hall" store at the Workman Block, 232–234 S. Spring Street—at that time they also carried appliances like stoves and refrigerators. Throughout 1906, the company held several grand opening events to celebrate its new flagship store, occupying five floors of a new eight-story building at 436–444 S.

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

, which had by then become the city's busiest retail district. The store was designed by Morgan & Walls. In addition to tabletop and home decoration, the store sold art. The store was described as the finest of its kind west of New York. It featured an innovation, pneumatic tubes for processing sales transactions between the sales floor and the cashiers' area. In 1927 it moved to the new upscale shopping area around West Seventh Street that took place after J. W. Robinson's moved to Seventh, Hope and Grand in 1917."Steam Shovels Scooping Out Dirt At Site Of Big Store", ''Los Angeles Times'', May 24, 1914
/ref> Its new quarters were at 741–747 S. Flower Street, also not far from

Myer Siegel Myer Siegel was a Los Angeles–based department store, founded by Myer Siegel (1866–1934), specializing in women's clothing. History Myer Siegel established his store in 1886 at 218 N. Spring St., at that time selling only children's ...

and Barker Brothers. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' described the company, once it had moved to its new Flower Street store, as the largest china, crystal and silver retail organization in the world at the time, with fifteen stores in total. In March 1933, the Los Angeles Flower Street flagship and Pasadena branch were closed and a joint venture was set up with upscale department store

Bullock's Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialt ...

whereby a "Bullock's Parmelee Dohrmann" opened inside Bullock's flagship store at Seventh and Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. It took up the entire seventh floor and sold "dinnerware, glassware, kitchen utensils, refrigerators, ranges, and washing machines". The Dohrmann bought Parmelee out and in the 1950s the remaining stores' names were changed to Dohrmann's. The San Francisco Union Square store was demolished in 1967 and

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

constructed a building on the site that would become part of the complex of the Macy's Union Square store. Dohrmann's was bought by the Broadway-Hale Corporation which would, in 1995, become part of

Federated Department Stores Macy's, Inc. (previously Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American holding company of department stores. Upon its establishment in 1929, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus (departm ...

, which itself was later renamed Macy's, Inc.Family Parmelee website
/ref>

References

{{History of Retail in Southern California Retail companies established in 1878 Retail companies based in California Defunct retail companies of the United States Defunct companies based in California Companies based in Los Angeles Seventh Street (Los Angeles)