7th Street Looking West

7th Street Looking West, Downtown Los Angeles (1917)
United States
United States › California › Los Angeles County › Los Angeles

This photograph from 1917 shows a bustling view looking west along 7th Street in Downtown Los Angeles, between Broadway and Hill Street. At the time, 7th Street was one of the city’s most important commercial corridors, filled with department stores, hotels, theaters, and specialty shops.

Several notable buildings appear in the scene. On the left stands Smith’s Hotel, which would soon be replaced in 1921 by the Loew’s State Theatre. Nearby is the John Brockman Building, completed in 1911 by architects Barnett, Haynes & Barnett. With its twelve stories and reinforced concrete and steel structure, it was one of the tallest and most modern buildings in Los Angeles at the time.

Dominating the center of the image is the Ville de Paris Department Store, whose large sign is clearly visible. The store had been founded in San Francisco in 1850 by the Verdier brothers, French immigrants, and its Los Angeles branch was built in 1916 by architects William J. Dodd and William Richards. On the right side of the street stands the B. H. Dyas Company Department Store, a well-known sporting and dry goods retailer that later occupied the Ville de Paris building.

At street level, the energy of early twentieth-century Los Angeles is evident. Automobiles, streetcars, and pedestrians crowd the roadway, illustrating the rapid urban growth the city was experiencing during this period.

Photograph dated 1917.
Source: Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL).

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