Broadway & 87th Street shopping center

The Broadway & 87th Street shopping center designed by Wisstein Bros. and Surval, was one of the earliest shopping centers in Los Angeles, built in stages between 1936 and 1939 at 8701–8765 South Broadway between 87th and 88th streets, in what is now termed the Broadway-Manchester neighborhood. Researcher and author Richard Longstreth calls it the first true neighborhood shopping center.[1]

Anchors

It was notable at the time for the high number of anchor stores: a Mayfair's Foodtown supermarket (a new type of store at that time), two drugstores: Thrifty Drug Stores and Owl Rexall Drugs, and two variety stores: Woolworth's and Newberry's.[1]

Integrity

Stores each had separate façades facing the streets; there was no uniform look for the shopping center as a unit. The street-facing side of the shops was used for display windows; there were no displays facing the parking lot in back, reflecting the perception of parking lots at that time as utilitarian.[1]

Parking innovation

There was regular street parking in front, and storefronts were flush with the sidewalk. however, there was a shared parking lot for 280 cars at the back of the stores, about equal in size of the combined size of the stores, also a novelty at that time.[1] The northernmost buildings are in use as an indoor swap meet (bazaar).

References
  1. Longstreth, Richard (1997). City Center to Regional Mall: Architecture, the Automobile, and Retailing in Los Angeles, 1920–1950. MIT Press. p. 188–192. ISBN 0262122006.
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