Quote:
Originally Posted by odinthor
I don't believe we've had the cafe at Coulter's Dry Goods before . . .
odinthor collection
It was in operation by 1906 |
Excellent find,
odinthor.
...I didn't know Coulter's Dry Goods had a cafe. . .& I'm surprised by how large it is! It appears to take up the entire fourth floor.
I realize we covered Benjamin Franklin Coulter's Dry Good Store back in the early days of the thread.
but let's brush up on our history.
It was a dark, stormy night....It all began on October 22, 1878
"In a small room, eighteen by twenty feet, in the Downey block at the corner of Temple and Spring streets (present site of the post office and Federal building) constituted Mr. Coulter’s first store. At that time it was the only structure available for store purposes in the community. Merchandise for this diminutive room was purchased in New York, the first order amounting to one thousand dollars.
Business grew so rapidly that a year later it became necessary to find more adequate quarters, and the Baker block at 332-34 North Main street, was selected because it offered a larger room—twenty by one hundred and ten feet. Here the store remained until 1885. During this period Mr. Coulter established the Coulter Woolen Mills, located at 439 Figueroa street, where fine blankets were woven and finished, marketed at retail over the counter, and also distributed wholesale in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and elsewhere.
In 1885 and thereabouts the business district of Los Angeles centered about the Old Plaza, extending only a little farther south than First street, so that the third movement of the store was true pioneering. The selection of a room sixty by one hundred and forty feet, in the Hollenbeck Hotel block at Second and Spring, seemed epoch-making; however the move proved amply justified.
In 1892 Mr. Coulter incorporated the store into the Coulter Dry Goods Company; its directors were from the immediate family, under whose management and sole control the business has ever since remained.
The pressing need for more ample space again manifested itself, and in 1898 the company selected a new site on Broadway between Third and Fourth streets—this being the ground floor of the Homer Laughlin building, fronting one hundred and twenty feet on Broadway.
In
1906 the company moved to its own building and into the Bicknell building adjoining, on Broadway between Second and Third streets; now occupying three floors, with one hundred and twenty feet on Broadway. At that time the establishment represented the last word in convenience and beauty of appointments; and here it remained until October, 1917, when the large and beautiful store on the southwest corner of Seventh and Olive streets was opened; where it remains today, catering to a discriminating clientele of the pioneer families of Los Angeles and their descendants."
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