Ville de Paris was a department store inDowntown Los Angeles from 1893 through 1919.
A. Fusenot's Ville de Paris Los Angeles store should not be confused with the unrelatedCity of Paris store operating in Los Angeles through 1897 operated byEugene Meyer & Co., then byStern, Cahn & Loeb; nor with the much more famousCity of Paris Dry Goods Co. of San Francisco.
French emigre Auguste Fusenot (FrenchConsul in Los Angeles from 1898 to 1907)[1] arrived in the U.S. in 1873 and soon became a partner in San Francisco'sCity of Paris store. After learning the business, he founded the Ville de Paris in Los Angeles in 1893. It was operated by theA. Fusenot Co. as adry goods store. It was located in thePotomac Block at 221–223 S.Broadway between 2nd and 3rd Streets,[2] at a time when most stores were located in theCentral Business District around Spring, Main, First and Temple Streets. The original store measured 3,000 square feet (280 m2).
In the latter half of 1905, the store relocated to a space 32 times larger, (96,000 square feet (8,900 m2)), formerly the premises ofCoulter's, a block away in theHomer Laughlin Building, at 317–325 S. Broadway, extending all the way back through to 314–322 Hill Street.[3][4] This is the current site ofGrand Central Market.
In 1907, Auguste Fusenot died and brother Georges took over management of the store.[5] In 1915, Fusenot sold his business to the owners ofThe Emporium in San Francisco,[5] and in 1917 the Ville de Paris removed to 7th and Olive Streets, afterJ. W. Robinson's opened their flagship store on7th Street, many blocks to the west of Broadway. The area would become the downtown's upscale shopping district for several decades. The space on Broadway has since been occupied by theGrand Central Market.[6]
In 1919 the owners sold the 7th and Olive store to B. H. Dyas,[7] and then the store becameB. H. Dyas Co., which itself closed around 1930. The Seventh and Olive building was then occupied by the Los Angeles Jewelry Mart, a constituent of what is now theJewelry District, part of theHistoric Core district.[8][9]
Image is dated 1904 but it is impossible that the Ville de Paris was in the Homer Laughlin Building that early, since Coulter's left only on May 31, 1905