Coulter's

Coulter's was a department store that originated in Downtown Los Angeles and later moved to the Miracle Mile shopping district in that same city. It was founded by B. F. Coulter, a minister and entrepreneur from Kentucky, in 1878, at the corner of Temple and Main streets. The first building measured 900 square feet (84 m2) and held merchandise valued at $1,000.[1]

Coulter's final location on the Miracle Mile
B. F. Coulter's Dry Goods (bottom center) in the Baker Block, N. Main Street at Arcadia, c. 1880

Coulter's philosophy was to sell exceptional quality items at a fair price, but also with exceptional customer service. The store motto in ads was "the nicest store in Los Angeles". As was common with Los Angeles retailers of the time, Coulter moved the store's location several times, as the most desirable retail districts moved away from the Plaza. Coulter's thus moved successively to Main St., Spring St., and by 1904, 317–325 S. Broadway, the Homer Laughlin Building,[2] which would later be the home of the Ville de Paris department store and after that, Grand Central Market. Broadway was becoming the home of many large department stores such as J. W. Robinson's (1895), The Broadway (1896), Desmond's (1900), the Fifth Street Store (1905), Bullock's (1907), and Hamburger's (1908).[1] In 1905, when the Homer Laughlin building was extended through to Hill St. and Ville de Paris occupied the Coulter's space, Coulter's moved to 225–9 S. Broadway (which went through to 224–6-8 S. Hill street).[3]

In 1917, Coulter's moved to fashionable Seventh Street, as the choice retail district moved "around the corner" i.e. south of Bunker Hill and west of Broadway.[1] It maintained a branch store at 215 S. Broadway.

Finally, in 1938, it relocated for the last time to the Miracle Mile on Wilshire Boulevard.[1] Again, unlike other stores that opened an additional branch on Wilshire, it moved its only store — its entire business — to Wilshire.[4]

Coulter's was purchased by the Broadway chain in 1960 and became a Broadway branch.[5]

Miracle Mile building

The Streamline Moderne flagship store at 5600 Wilshire Boulevard, was designed by Stiles O. Clements and completed in 1938-39 was four stories high, as described by the Los Angeles Conservancy, "with a rounded exterior of white concrete and horizontal bands of glass block rather than proper windows. A dramatic seventy-two-foot-high panel of glass soared above the boulevard entrance".[4]

The building was nominated for listing in the National Register of Historic Places but was demolished in 1980 before the nomination was heard.[4]

The site remained - as the Conservancy described it — "a community eyesore for decades, with pools of tar and oil visible at the bottom of a deep pit" — it now a large mixed-use development.[4]

References
  1. Knapp, Dan "A Retail History on the Shelf", USC News, November 12, 2010, University of Southern California. Retrieved April 30, 2019
  2. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31677180/the_los_angeles_times/
  3. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31677707/coulters_location_1906_225229_s/
  4. "Coulter's Department Store (Demolished)", Los Angeles Conservancy, Retrieved April 20, 2019
  5. "Coulter's, Los Angeles, Bought By Broadway-Hale Store Chain". New York Times. March 9, 1960. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
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