Bullocks Wilshire: The Genius Team Who Created Los Angeles’ Famed Art Deco Masterpiece

BY MARGARET LESLIE DAVIS

This elegant book chronicles the efforts of the impressive team of international architects, designers and businessmen who created Los Angeles’ famed Art Deco masterpiece.

Excavation for Bullocks Wilshire began in 1928. Located at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard near present day MacArthur Park, the enterprise was hailed as the first suburban department store and the first to cater to the automobile. The steel girder skeleton of Bullocks Wilshire began to take shape in 1929. John and Donald Parkinson, father and son, served as the building’s gifted architects.

The father and son firm founded by John Parkinson in 1894 was already responsible for many of the city’s great landmarks, including the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Memorial Coliseum, City Hall and later Union Station. The design featured a landmark 241-foot tower. The advertising value of the stunning tower paid off handsomely and it became the signature stamp of the revered Los Angeles landmark.

Bullocks Wilshire recounts the lives of the two immigrant entrepreneurs, John Gillespie Bullock and Percy Glen Winnett, who, with this magnificent department store, tested a new theory of retailing in the suburbs, and the architectural team, Parkinson and Parkinson, who executed that vision into one of Los Angeles’ most beloved landmarks.

“A stolen glimpse of the glamour that was L.A.'s Cathedral of Commerce.”
— Los Angeles Times
The rooftop garden of Bullock's downtown store soon after the 1907 gala opening. The single word “BULLOCKS” ablaze with lights could be seen for miles in the Los Angeles skyline.

Written by a noted chronicler of Los Angeles history based on extensive interviews and research, Bullocks Wilshire promises readers an unprecedented opportunity to peek inside the doors of a unique architectural icon and discover its rich history from construction and golden age to its renovation and rebirth.

There were a total of 18 stations for stylists in the store's Salon of Beauty, where exotic looking hair dryers awaited fashionable patrons. Adored by the citizens of Los Angeles, Bullock's Wilshire and its grand days – its customers and their devotion, the movie stars, the rich and famous customers who shopped there and shaped the store's evolving role in the community – secured its place in the city's cultural soul.
“A loving coffee table book.”
— The New York Times
The city celebrated the completion of the great emporium with near religious zeal. Possibly for the first time, contemporary art came into a home of its own in Los Angeles. In no previous attempt had there been so sympathetic an understanding and an outlay of so many millions of dollars to bring the spirit of modern art into a happy coordination with modern life as had been created at the Wilshire store. It was described at the time simply in three powerful words – a “Contemporary Cathedral of Commerce.” The Bauhaus style elevator doors inside the grand foyer featured bronze, copper and gunmetal.

A store like no other, the architectural gem is considered a national treasure, part of the fabric of Los Angeles, indelibly etched into the city’s cultural soul. This hard-cover volume combines 100 beautifully reproduced historical photographs with the dramatic text of award-winning author Margaret Leslie Davis.

Originally produced for employees in 1989 for the sixtieth anniversary of Bullocks Wilshire, this magnificent replica keychain has been recently reinterpreted by BW Ambassador Eric Evavold in solid sterling silver or bronze. Depicting the historic tower of the glamorous Art Deco icon, the crown jewel of Wilshire Boulevard, it makes a great gift for any BW lover or any Angeleno. Forged in solid sterling or solid bronze, the exquisite keychain is handmade by artisans in downtown Los Angeles at the St Vincent Jewelry Center at Seventh and Broadway which is also the site of the former original flagship Bullocks store founded in 1907. Ideal for the perfect gift, the BW Tower measures two inches tall and the key ring is four inches long. A loving reproduction is a classic gift for any occasion. Also included, is an elegant recreation of the BW signature box from 1930, with the store’s famous initials embossed in silver foil. A nostalgic kiss to an era when no gift had more cachet than one gift wrapped in a BW box. The BW Tower is an exquisite and integral part of the Los Angeles skyline forever immortalized by author Raymond Chandler in The Big Sleep. “The violet light at the top of Bullock’s green-tinged tower . . . far above us, serene and withdrawn from the dark, dripping city.” 

Commemorate the famed BW Tower in this tender and exclusive reproduction.   

A portion of the proceeds will go towards The Friends of Bullocks Wilshire for ongoing restoration and preservation of the Art Deco Icon.

The perfect gift!

NEW! Bullocks Wilshire Enamel Pin

Available now! The Brooch is back. “These days better than a tweet,” as one stylist recently told the New York Times, the men’s lapel pin is now the essential accessory. In concert with New York’s newest fashion trend and designed by BW Ambassador Eric Evavold, this exclusive handsome enamel lapel pin is befitting of the BW trademark and shopping experience. The BW tower is a beacon of style and sophistication. Evoking the metallic hues of BW’s unforgettable interior with tones of copper and patina green, each pin is finished by hand and arrives in the signature BW box. 

“Here is a new way for men to express themselves,” noted the New York Times. “Brooches have begun to be that statement. There’s going to be a 360 from the super casual quarantine dressing that we’ve become so comfortable with.” 

“Finally, the world of fashion has realized the importance of a piece of jewelry as a messenger of large subjects such as love, peace, unity, friendship and devotion.” 

The Perfect Gift!

Read the full delicious NY Times article.

 

 

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2020 Hardcover Edition $50

Bullocks Wilshire Vintage Keychain in Sterling Silver $125 or Bronze $55

New! Bullocks Wilshire Pin $25

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Tel: 323 662 4813