by Paul R. Spitzzeri
It is hard to think of any better document of the phenomenal growth of Los Angeles during another of its many development booms, this one taking place during much of the apt phrase, the Roaring Twenties, than the highlighted object from the Museum’s collection for this post, an aerial photograph providing a “bird’s-eye” view of most of downtown taken by Spence Airplane Photos on 2 March 1925.
There have been a series of prior posts on this blog featuring other images of the Angel City’s burgeoning commercial core taken by the firm, which was among the earliest of its kind taking these remarkable views thanks to the rapidly developing world of aviation and aerial photography. They’ve been at varying elevations and this one is relatively close to the ground compared to other, though there is no identification as to altitude.
What is inscribed on the reverse, along with the identification number and date and the firm’s stamp from its quarters on 7th Street just west of Westlake (now MacArthur) Park, is “Lkg N from 12th St, on Hill St. / New Chamber of Commerce Bldg foreground.” In fact, it seems very likely the photo was taken specifically for the purpose of showing the block-wide structure, with its distinctive three towers above a three-story section (not unlike Biltmore Hotel), which faced 12th and was between Broadway and Hill.
The main north to south thoroughfares in the photo include Main Street at the far right, Broadway (including a link between those two streets that no longer exists), Hill, Olive, and Grand Avenue. A bit of Hope Street can also be detected at the center left edge. Because of the elevation and the heights of some buildings, it can be challenging to make out the numbered streets running east to west, aside from 12th at the bottom and a portion of 11th Street above it.
Obviously, the further away from the location of the Spence craft, the more difficult it can be to make out details, but what is clear is that the large Chamber edifice, which one news article stated was the second-largest in the city at the time—it didn’t identify the biggest building, but this distinction belonged to the Pacific Electric Building, hub of the massive streetcar system that connected a huge swath of greater Los Angeles—was outside the commercial core of the Angel City.
In fact, when the project was publicly announced early in 1922, this was a criticism leveled at the Chamber, which was not often taken to task by political and business leaders in the burgeoning metropolis. Formed in 1887 (there was an earlier version launched in the 1870s during the city’s first boom, but which folded during the resulting lengthy bust), the organization, which counted Mayor William H. Workman as 1st Vice-President, was in leased quarters until 1903, when a purpose-built structure was completed on Broadway at 1st street during the third major growth spurt in the city.
While it was thought, as was so often the case, that those quarters were enough for the Chamber to do its work for years to come, the phenomenal expansion of the city and region, in which the organization had no small part thanks to its relentless promotional campaigns through its many bureaus and staff, meant that a much larger structure was needed. The board and the indefatigable secretary, Frank Wiggins, who’d held that role since 1890, acquired the property and began plans for the structure with plenty of exhibit, event and office space for the needs of the Chamber.
Board President (and former county District Attorney) John D. Fredericks told the Los Angeles Times in its edition of 31 January 1922 that it was gratifying to know that his organization was well-known in eastern metropolises like New York City, Boston and Philadelphia as in California, but added.
However, it often happens that when strangers visit the Chamber of Commerce Building, they are very much disappointed to find that we are so poorly housed. Our Chamber of Commerce has been so busy developing the industry of the community that we have failed to keep up with it ourselves.
There is no doubt but that the time has come when our present housing situation can no longer be tolerated. Undoubtedly the location to which we are now committed will in the very near future, be the most accessible center in the city.
As a matter of fact the chamber cannot continue to do the work it is doing in leading the city, unless it puts up a better front and equips itself with better facilities.
There was pushback, though, from some well-known civic figures, even as the Chamber took out ads under the heading of “Los Angeles Forward” promoting the $3 million proposed edifice as it observed that “Los Angeles is growing—her skyline changes almost over night!” While this promotion was placed in the 11 February edition of the Los Angeles Express, that day’s issue of the Times included some trenchant remarks in response to the plan, which began with a newly announced fundraising campaign of $544,000 to buy the property and for paying off indebtedness on the current headquarters.
While backers identified the twin issues of location and price, the paper noted that local business leaders “say that the site is too far removed from the present business district, and that its effect would be an unstabilizing [destabilizing] one because of its tendency to still father scatter the mercantile center of the city.” Banker Joseph F. Sartori opined that the plan was “unwise” and believed that many Chamber members would oppose the idea without “open discussion by the members and the public whose interests should be paramount.”
Another banker, Jackson A. Graves, echoed his contemporary’s views, stating “it seems foolish to scatter our business over so wide a territory” and noted that having a business district was “for the convenience of the greatest number,” something the proposed building could not address. Adding that other civic structures and facilities were far to the north, Graves growled that “it is perfectly absurd to swing business to a southern limit so far out of range.” He went on to insist that the Chamber was to serve the public, but “should not be called upon to be a pathfinder” and the project was “neither feasible nor desirable.”
Will T. Bishop of the Chamber’s campaign committee countered that the body’s forty members, including realtors, felt that the site, offered by the late Robert A. Rowan‘s realty firm, was excellent as to access to business and industry as well as to the purchase price, not to mention the “favorable terms accorded us for our present building.” The Times added its own views in an editorial on the matter, stating that the “plans are not commensurate with the enlarged scope of possible commercial and industrial activities; and the structure proposed is too small.” Its conclusion, however, was striking:
If we are to take and maintain a place in the vanguard of world progress we must be prepared to blaze new trails; we must cast aside timidity and march boldly to the conquest of future. Our opportunities are limitless . . . Before another generation has passed we can make the Pacific Coast the front door of America; it is no more grandiose a project than that of those who set forth a quarter of a century ago to make Los Angeles the metropolis of the white races on the Pacific.
To further buttress the backlash, the paper, at the end of February, published a rendering by the city engineer’s office showing a radically remade area for the long-proposed Civic Center, of which there were several concepts, that included the removal of the historic Plaza, the center of pre-American Los Angeles, in favor of a Union Station for all railroads serving the city; a new plaza to the south about where U.S. 101 runs through downtown today; a City Hall between Main and San Pedro streets and on both sides of Los Angeles Street; and a Chamber structure with a “City and County Horticultural Building” included on the west side of Main across from the projected new plaza. A subheading read that the engineer “Says Chamber of Commerce Building Should Be At City’s Gate.”
Undeterred and not to be dissuaded, the Chamber pressed forward with a “fast and furious” fundraising campaign, with the issuance of a half million dollars in notes with a maturity date of a decade and earning 5%. Whatever reservations that Times may have had about the project, it included the building in its 4 June list of “big developments” in process or in the planning stages, the total comprising at least $125 million. Among the entrants were the Biltmore Hotel ($7 million); a Central Public Library ($2 million); the Union Pacific terminal at the harbor and a Union stock yard complex ($10 million each); a new sewer system ($10 million); the Coliseum ($1 million); a new lumber and logging plant at the Port of Los Angeles ($10 million); a Hall of Justice ($3 million); the Union Station ($16 million); and the Chamber building. It concluded “for two years [the] city has been practically [the] only business ‘White Spot‘ of [the] United States.”
On the 1st of October, the Times reported that the gold notes issued by the Chamber were mailed out to subscribers, with the total amount of $567,700 mainly comprised of single bonds of $100 value, though one unidentified investor took $50,000 (it may have been oil tycoon Edward Doheny, of whom see below.) It was added that a building committee was reviewing submitted plans for a 12-story structure “with provisions for luncheon and committee rooms, [a] lecture hall to accommodate large audiences and office space for other [c]ommunity organizations as well as the chamber itself,” while it was hoped the structure could be finished within two years.
With funding for the purchase of the site and the paying off of existing debt secured, the next order of financial business was to issue a half million dollars worth of bonds by the newly created Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Building Corporation. Dated the 1st of January 1923 and with a ten-year term, these instruments were in denominations of $500 and $1000 with an attractive rate of interest of 7% payable the first of the year and on 1 July.
It was noted, however, that the building, designed by the prominent architects John C. Austin and John Parkinson with the C.J. Kubach Company hired as the general contractor, was scaled down to eight stories, with a basement, and that the cost would be not under $2.25 million, while the bonds were secured by equity in the property of $1.75 million subject to first mortgage bonds of $2 million.
On 19 April 1923, a groundbreaking ceremony was held with Chamber President William T. Bishop (a confectioner whose business was suddenly acquired by Nabisco at the beginning of the Great Depression) joined by his immediate predecessors, Fredericks and Sylvester L. Weaver (a roofing company owner whose namesake son, known as Pat, was president of NBC in the 1950s, and whose daughter is the actor Sigourney Weaver) in turning over the first shovelful of dirt for the project.
With 1923 being the peak year of the regional real estate boom, one of the problems confronting the construction industry was a concrete shortage and the 2 July edition of the Express included an ad by twenty members of the Building Material Dealers Association with a letter to the Chamber about the acute crisis which included laborers out of work and heavy financial losses to builders, contractors realtors and others. Obviously, the shortage affected the construction of the Chamber edifice along with so many other projects in greater Los Angeles.
After excavation for the basement and supporting elements, the next major problem with building materials was, not surprisingly, the declining availability of steel, which was not only increasingly used for structural support of buildings, but for steel pipe for infrastructure and all manner of items for the exponential growth of the oil industry. There were several large steel plants in Los Angeles, such as the Baker Iron Works, which provided material for the Chamber building, which, the Times of 23 September reported, involved “the largest steel construction contract ever let in Southern California” and which called for 4,000 tons.
By the end of the year, massive shipments of steel, carefully conveyed from Baker down to the site, were in place and the building began to take shape as 1924 debuted, with four massive trusses, fifty feet long and 55 tons each, bein the largest ever built in the City of Angels, supporting the roof of the large main hall for Chamber exhibits.
The next big landmark for the edifice was the dedication of the cornerstone at the end of March, with Chamber officials joined by Mayor George E. Cryer and Governor Friend Richardson. An Express editorial noted that the event was “a milestone on the broad road of progress Los Angeles pursues” and that it “was of truly notable significance in the history of” the growing metropolis. It added that the “towering steel construction” was “visible verification of the prophecies” prognosticated in 1903 when the current headquarters was built.
The piece continued that the Angel City had come a long way in the two decades since with a good deal of growth in trade and wealth, while “before us expands an alluringly bright future.” The Express offered its belief that it represented the views of the city’s citizens “when it felicitates the Chamber on this notable occasion” and “expresses the gratitude all hold in common for the nobly constructive service it has rendered.” It also observed,
Standing now between the realizable prospects of that future and realized achievements of the past, we gladly remember and gratefully testify to the creative and supporting part the Chamber of Commerce has ever played in building the greatness of Los Angeles. It has been at once the bulwark of safety and a tower of strength.
With the structure moving along in its construction, the building corporation embarked on its major bond issue in July 1924 with 6% gold bonds with a twenty-year term and totaling $2 million offered to the public. The previous bond issue discussed earnings and these were noted as increased in this offer and it was added that half of the space in the building was already under lease with the expectation that the whole structure would be occupied when completed. During that month, the last steel component was added and the occasion was marked with actor Fritzi Ridgeway scooting out on a girder to break am orange juice (it was the Depression!) bottle over a girder.
In August, the Los Angeles Pressed Brick Company advertised that it manufactured 800,000 pieces of face brick to “form the walls of this imposing structure—the new home of [the] Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce” and showing the edifice as the facing was being applied to the lower stories. By the end of the following month, most of this work along with decorative work on the exterior and the installation of fire escapes was about complete with the expectation that occupancy would be readied by the first of 1925.
On 18 October came the news that Wiggins, whose rigorous schedule led to doctors advising the 74-year old to take a vacation, suffered a fatal heart attack while on a ship returning to Los Angeles from Panama. The long-time secretary, well-known for his bushy mustache and whiskers as well as his devotion to the Chamber and his boosting of the Angel City, was due to sit for a sculptor working on a bust to be placed in the new structure. The artist instead had to rely on a death mask and photos for the work. Wiggins was soon honored with a city trade school, now Los Angeles Trade Technical College, names for him.
With the onset of 1925, interior decorative work was conducted by an artist, Christian (Chris) Siemer, who was trained in painting at Munich and Paris, while the building corporation advertised for the $550,000 of unsold bonds from its previous issue. It was reported that Doheny subscribed for $100,000 of these. As the structured neared completion, a spectacle of some note was that a pre-American ox-cart, exhibited for some three decades by the Chamber, was ceremoniously conveyed to the new building with Sheriff William I. Traeger, Police Chief Robert Lee Heath and a trio of women actors dressed in shawls, rebozos and other accoutrements of a bygone era riding in the antique vehicle.
A six-day celebration was held in mid-February to mark the completion and occupancy of the structure and some papers had full-page coverage of the occasion with mention of dignitaries and celebrities attending functions, displays mounted to show the work of the Chamber and its promotion of greater Los Angeles, and other aspects. The Los Angeles Record of the 18th noted that there was an acre of ground comprising the building and six of rented space in a “superb and imposing structure” that was the largest of its kind for the biggest Chamber (which had over 12,000 members, including Walter P. Temple) in the country.
The ground floor had a 250-foot long arcade from Broadway to Hill and shops on either side and “light courts” of forty-foot width presented an atmosphere of “a cheerful and efficient place of business.” Also on the first floor were 14,000 square feet of exhibit space for regional promotion, while a mezzanine of 8,000 square feet was devoted to showing the products of areas outside California. The top floor and its mezzanine included 51,000 square feet for offices, a library, meeting rooms for directors and committee members, a lounge, dining room and a banquet hall. Included in the office area were spaces for the departments of agriculture, fire prevention and safety, industry, membership, publicity, research, trade and others.
Again, it appears probable that Spence took the photo on behalf of the Chamber to show the gleaming new edifice in relation to the rest of the expanding downtown of a rapidly growing Los Angeles. Just behind the building along Broadway is the Julia Morgan-designed headquarters of the Los Angeles Examiner, which still stands though the Chamber building is long gone and the site is now occupied by the City’s Department of Public Works structure.
Smaller commercial buildings and an occasional residential edifice are around the site and it is not for a few blocks north that many of the taller business structures are noted, including the financial district along Spring Street towards the upper right—this is where Walter Temple and associates constructed a pair of buildings at Spring, Main and 8th. A few blocks north on Broadway is the southern limit of the theater district, including the many “movie palaces” that would grow in number through the Twenties.
At the upper part of the photo are the distinctive Hall of Records and County Courthouse, as well as the Hall of Justice, also finished in 1925. Towards the center left is the area around Pershing Square and the 7th Street shopping district. In the distance are the Elysian and Hollywood hills and further off the Verdugo Mountains and the San Gabriel range. In all, the photo is a fine visual document of a city that saw staggering growth since the Chamber was founded nearly a half-century before and about a half-decade before the onset of the Great Depression.