7th Street (Los Angeles)

7th Street is a street in Los Angeles, California running from S. Norton Ave in Mid-Wilshire through Downtown Los Angeles to Euclid Avenue in Boyle Heights.
Originally agricultural land, 7th Street between Broadway and Figueroa Street, became downtown's upscale shopping district. This began with J. W. Robinson's deciding to build their flagship store in 1915 on Seventh far to the west of the existing Broadway shopping district, between Hope and Grand streets. The Ville de Paris and Coulter's as well as numerous specialty shops came and rounded out the district.
The area lost its exclusivity when the upscale downtown stores opened branches in Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire, Westwood and Pasadena in the late 1920s through the 1940s, notably the establishment of Bullock's upscale landmark branch Bullocks Wilshire in Mid-Wilshire in 1929.
Thirteen large office buildings opened between 1920 and 1928. By 1929, every plot on 7th between Figueroa and Los Angeles Streets had been developed.
The area remained an important, if not the most exclusive, center of retail and office space throughout the 1950s, but started a slow decline throughout the 1980s due to suburbanization. It was also the concentration of Downtown financial activity on Bunker Hill, a few blocks north. The flagship department stores like Bullock's, Barker Brothers and Robinson's had closed and only the Broadway/Macy's at The Bloc, previously named Broadway Plaza remained. However, in 1986, the Seventh Market Place mall, now FIGat7th, opened, bringing a smaller retail cluster back to Seventh such as the 7th Street/Metro Center station opening in 1991.
With new, large skyscrapers such as the Wilshire Grand Center and the nearby U.S. Bank Tower bridging the gap with Bunker Hill, Seventh Street is now contiguous to the large financial district to the north and is once again a highly desired office district.

Landmarks

In order from west to east.

Harbor Freeway to Figueroa

Wilshire Grand Center, north side, tallest building in the Western United States. Located on the site of the original Wilshire Grand Hotel, opened in 1952 as the Hotel Statler. In 1954, renamed the Statler Hilton. In 1968, renovated and renamed the Los Angeles Hilton, and later the Los Angeles Hilton and Towers. Renovated again in 1963.
FIGat7th, shopping center, originally called Seventh Market Place, housing both a Bullock's and May Co. branch in the 1980s-1990s

Figueroa to Flower

Barker Brothers Building 818 W. Seventh Street, Curlett and Beelman, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #356, Renaissance Revival, home of Barker Bros. furniture and homewares department store. Now offices.
Home Savings of America Tower, 831 W. Seventh Street, Albert C. Martin and Associates.
Fine Arts Building, 811 W. Seventh Street, Walker and Eisen, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #125
7th Street/Metro Center light rail and subway station at 7th & Flower

Flower to Hope

Roosevelt Building, 727 W. Seventh Street, Curlett and Beelman, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #355/ National Register of Historic Places: Renaissance Revival building, purported to be the largest office building in Southern California when it opened. Curlett and Beelman designed six buildings on Seventh Street. Converted in 2008 to 222 residential units. Spectacular original restored mosaic marble floors in the lobby.
The Bloc Los Angeles, originally built in 1973 called the Broadway Plaza, housing The Broadway department store after it moved from Broadway and 4th streets, now a Macy's

Hope to Grand

J. W. Robinson's Building, 600 W. Seventh Street, Noonan and Richards, Edgar Mayberry with Allison and Allison, Los Angeles. The first major department store to move to Seventh Street from Broadway. Almost nine acres of floor space on seven floors. Robinson’s was immediately successful and spurred the further development of 7th Street as an upscale shopping district. In 1934, a major remodel gave the store its current Moderne façade, replacing the original Beaux Arts design.
Second Union Oil Building, 617 W. Seventh Street, NE corner 7th & Hope, architects Curlett and Beelman
Broadway Plaza, 700 W. Seventh Street, Charles Luckman Associates : hotel, offices and shopping center originally with a Broadway department store branch replacing its downtown flagship on Broadway

Grand to Olive

Brockman Building, 530 W. Seventh Street, Barnett, Haynes and Barnett, National Register of Historic Places. The flagship J. J. Haggarty department store occupied the ground floor from 1917 through 1963. Now residential lofts and Bottega Louie restaurant.
Quinby Building, 529 W. Seventh Street, Meyer and Holler
Bronson Building, 527 W. Seventh Street, Austin and Pennell. Originally the Brack Shops, independent shops grouped together as a sort of department store.
Brock and Company Building, 515 W. Seventh Street, Dodd and Richards, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #358
Bank of Italy Building, 505 W. Seventh / 649 S. Olive, Morgan, Walls and Morgan, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #354, now Hotel Per La.
Coulter Dry Goods Company, 500 W. Seventh Street, Dodd and Richards

Olive to Hill

Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 W. Seventh Street, Parkinson and Bergstrom, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument
Ville de Paris (department store), now L.A. Jewelry Mart, 420 W. Seventh Street, Dodd and Richards
Dunn-Williams Building, fronting 7th and Hill, Samuel Heiman, Los Angeles Historic- Cultural Monument #984, contributing property in the Hill Street Commercial Historic District
Huntsberger-Mennell Building, 412 W. Seventh Street, Dodd and Richards
Warner Brothers Downtown Theater 401 W. Seventh Street, B. Marcus Priteca, contributing property in the Hill Street Commercial Historic District
Foreman & Clark Building, 400 W. Seventh Street, Curlett and Beelman, Gothic Revival-style structure, contributing property in the Hill Street Commercial Historic District
Sun Drug Building 700 S. Hill Street, Curlett and Beelman

7th & Broadway

Loew's State Theatre, 300 W. Seventh Street, Weeks and Day, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #522/National Register of Historic Places
Bullock's complex, National Register of Historic Places, Broadway Historic Theatre and Commercial District, now St. Vincent's Jewelry Center
*Hart '28, 7th and Hill, Parkinson and Parkinson
*Eshman Building, 345 W. Seventh Street, Morgan and Walls
*Bullock's Building, 319 W. Seventh Street, Parkinson and Bergstrom
St. Vincent's Court, small alley running through the center of Bullock's complex, built in the 1860s as the main entrance to St. Vincent’s College which occupied the site. In 1956, city boosters remodeled the alley as a faux European village square.
Western Terminus of Route 66, Seventh Street at Broadway

Broadway to Spring

Haas Building, 219 W. Seventh Street, Morgan, Walls and Morgan, offices, 12 stories, Beaux Arts with terra cotta ornamentation, metal skin added in the 1970s. Now apartments.
A.G. Bartlett Building a.k.a. Union Oil Building, The Bartlett, 215 W. Seventh Street, Parkinson and Bergstrom, National Register of Historic Places, Beaux Arts, offices.
I. N. Van Nuys Building, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #898/ National Register of Historic Places, since 1982 apartments, Beaux Arts.

Spring to Main

Hellman Commercial Trust and Savings Bank, 650 S. Spring Street, Schultze and Weaver National Register of Historic Places, Spanish Revival style. Since 2009, apartments. Former banking lobby serves as event space and filming location.
Financial Center Building, 140 W. Seventh Street, Norton and Wallis,, National Register of Historic Places

7th & Main

Los Angeles Board of Trade Building / California Stock Exchange, 111 W. Seventh Street, Curlett and Beelman, since 2009, apartments. Winged creatures adorn the building.
Santee Court, 714, 716, 720, and 724 S. Los Angeles Street, Arthur W. Angel, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #710. Block of industrial buildings converted to mixed-use, facing a courtyard.
Heywood Bros. & Wakefield / Dearden's Home Furnishings buildings: 700-710 S. Main Street, 1899, Architect unknown ; John Parkinson remodel ; 712-718 S. Main Street, R. B. Young : Now closed, the last incarnation of Dearden's was especially patronized by Latino Angelenos familiar with its Spanish-language advertising, and comprised three buildings, all of which previously housed furniture stores: Heywood Bros. & Wakefield Company on the corner, which become Overell’s in 1906; Hulse, Bradford & Company just to the south; and a third industrial structure to the rear.

Department stores on 7th Street and on Broadway

This is a table of the openings of department stores along the 7th Street and Broadway corridors:

Flower Street shopping district

For a time in the 1920s, Flower Street one block north and south of 7th, was an upscale shopping district. It began with the establishment of Chappell's at 645 S. Flower, which moved there from 7th Street in 1921 into a two-story, Spanish-style building, which exuded intimacy and tranquility compared to busy 7th Street or Broadway. It was innovative in offering parking in the rear.
Barker Brothers opened their huge furniture emporium at 7th and Flower in 1926, two blocks west of J. W. Robinson's, which was already considered far west of the main Broadway shopping district. Myer Siegel followed a half block south, on Flower, that same year, as did Parmelee-Dohrmann, a large purveyor of china, crystal and silver. Other stores were Ashley & Evers, Ranschoff's, and Wetherby-Kayser shoes.
By 1931 Flower's heyday had petered out due to the depression, the opening of Bullock's Wilshire and I. Magnin much further west on Wilshire Blvd., as Myer Siegel's 1934 move to 7th Street.