The Broadway

Company type	Department store
Industry	Retail
Founded	February 24, 1896; 129 years ago (1896-02-24)
Founder	Arthur Letts Sr.
Defunct	1996; 29 years ago (1996)
Fate	Converted toMacy's
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.

The Broadway was a mid-level department store chain headquartered inLos Angeles, California. Founded in 1896 by English-bornArthur Letts Sr., and named after what was once thecity's main shopping street,^[1] the Broadway became a dominant retailer in Southern California and the Southwest. Its fortunes eventually declined, and Federated Department Stores (nowMacy's, Inc.) bought the chain in 1995. In 1996, Broadway stores were either closed or converted intoMacy's andBloomingdales, some of which were sold and converted toSears, including theStonewood Center andWhittwood Town Center locations.

In 1895, J. A. Williams formed J. A. Williams & Co., built and opened his J. A. Williams & Co. Dry Goods Store on August 29, 1895 in the new Hallett & Pirtle Building designed byFrederick Rice Dorn, who would later design the Marsh-Strong building and TheBroadway Hollywood. Williams had a 30-foot storefront along Broadway, occupying only part of the building's ground floor. Other tenants included Pearson Draperies, the La Veta restaurant, medical offices, apartments,^[2][3] and later on the Hotel Savoy.

In February, 1896, Williams went bankrupt and his store was liquidated. Arthur Letts bought the (by then "The Broadway Department Store") name, assets, fixtures, and lease for $8,377. On February 24th of that year, The Broadway started operating under Letts.^[1][4][5] The previous owners had a good location in a recently constructed building at the southwest corner ofBroadway and Fourth Streets,^[6] but had all of its assets seized by their creditors for failure to pay its bills after just four short months of operations.^[7][8][9] In contrast, Letts was able to pay off all of his creditors in a short period of time after acquiring the assets for the failed store by the quick sale of the same assets and by watching his expenses.^[10][11]

In a short period of time, the business was doing so well, that it had to expand into adjacent store fronts.

Between 1900 and 1910, the population of Los Angeles more than tripled.Bullock's, in 1907, andHamburger's (laterMay Co.), in 1908, had both opened stores occupying entire city blocks. It was clear to Letts that The Broadway needed a new, much larger building.^[4]

In 1912 The Broadway announced plans for a new nine-story building with nearly 11 acres of floor space to be built at the same location (320 W. Fourth St., southwest corner of Broadway, now the Junipero Serra state office building).^[12][13]The building was completed in 1915.^[14]

The new "New and Greater Broadway store", as it was advertised,^[15] had 242 feet (74 m) of storefront along Broadway and 166 feet (51 m) along Fourth Street. It was 9 stories high and covered 11 acres (4.5 ha), stretching from Broadway all the way west to Hill Street, which also had an entrance.^{[citation needed]}

On November 10, 1924, The Broadway added another building, 80 feet (24 m) wide and 123 feet (37 m) deep, immediately west of the main building along Fourth Street, thus adding 119,790 square feet (11,129 m²) of floor space over ten above-ground and three below-ground floors. It added six passenger and three freight elevators.^[16][17]

In summary, the Downtown flagship store evolved in size as follows:^[17]

In 1931, The Broadway bought theB. H. Dyas Hollywood store which became theBroadway-Hollywood.^[20]

In 1940, The Broadway built a landmark three-story store inPasadena, at the corner of Colorado and Los Robles on the site of the old famous Maryland Hotel. The strikingStreamline Moderne building had a 117-foot tower with a marquee facing both streets, and parking for 400 cars.^[21] It would be abandoned in 1980 for a newly built store across the street in the newPlaza Pasadena mall.

In 1950, the company merged withSacramento-basedHale Brothers to formBroadway-Hale Stores. In the same year it purchased the year-oldWestchester branch ofMilliron's and converted it to a Broadway. The store, designed by legendary retail architectVictor Gruen, was a considered a model of ultra-modern retail architecture at the time, with rooftop parking and striking, angular design designed to attract passing motorists.^[22][23]

The Broadway bought out competitors in Los Angeles (B.H. Dyas,Milliron's, andCoulter's), and expanded into new markets through acquisitions of small local chains:Marston's inSan Diego andKorricks inPhoenix. In later years the Broadway opened stores inNevada (Las Vegas),New Mexico, andColorado. In 1979, it was split into two divisions: The Broadway Southern California, based in Los Angeles; and Broadway Southwest, headquartered in Phoenix, for the stores outside California.

The Broadway's parent Carter Hawley Hale Stores ran into financial difficulties which resulted from poor management decisions and hostiletakeover attempts. In 1996 the chain was acquired byFederated Department Stores and the majority of locations were converted to theMacy's nameplate. Several stores in affluent areas where Macy's already had locations,South Coast Plaza,^{[citation needed]}Sherman Oaks Fashion Square,Century City Shopping Center,Beverly Center, andFashion Island Newport Beach,^[24] were closed, refurbished and reopened asBloomingdale's. Federated sold many of the remaining stores toSears.

This is a list of the Broadway store numbers with their locations and opening dates:^[25][26][27]

The last Broadway Southwest store was originally planned to be built atSuperstition Springs Center mall inMesa, Arizona. But due to the attempted hostile takeover by The Limited, construction was halted. And as a result, it started doing business asRobinsons-May instead in 1994 (now Macy's since 2006).

• 
  The first location, opened in 1896, 4th and Broadway
• 
  The Broadway Wilshire onMiracle Mile in 1973. The branch was originally aCoulter's department store.
• 
  A former Broadway branch atHawthorne Plaza
• 
  Broadway advertisement in December 1909

• List of department stores converted to Macy's
• List of defunct department stores of the United States

• Hawthorne branch:Gnerre, Sam (October 2010)."South Bay History: Hawthorne Plaza". South Bay Daily Breeze. RetrievedMay 25, 2020.

• The Broadway
• Retail companies established in 1896
• Retail companies disestablished in 1996

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