1935-1939 Pictures Of The United States

LOOK AT THE PICTURES!

WE ALL NEED A REMINDER!

America …during the years of 1935 – 1939

For those who have not read “Grapes of Wrath”

We are whining over $5.00 per gallon gasoline?

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, California there was a growing class of well to do.

Scanned photo from Auto club of Southern California Westways magazine dated March/April 2011. the following explanation of the photo and a history.

Emporium Moderne

BY MORGAN P. YATES

Rising above its motor court of wheeled subjects, Bullock’s Wilshire (the apostrophewas later dropped) radiates high fashion and architectural panache in this 1938 image. When the store opened to the public a month before the stock market crash of 1929, the Los Angeles Times said that the art deco ziggurat, located at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard, about a mile-and-a-half west of downtown, added “a meaningful sentence to the poem of progress that is the Los Angeles skyline.”

In the 1920s, residential growth and congested downtown districts led many department stores to start opening branch stores in outlying areas to complement their flagship stores. When this part of Wilshire Boulevardwas rezoned from residential to commercial in 1926, the stage was set to transform the area into L.A.‘s own version of New York‘s Fifth Avenue. Bullock‘s led the way, and its success attracted further commercial development. By the late 1930s, the Wilshire corridor exemplified the apex of fine shopping in the region.

Retailers in the 1920s also increasingly recognized the importance of infusing distinctive architectural designs into their establishments to attract shoppers. Bullock‘ < s embraced the movement to synthesize art and commerce by construct­ing the building in art deco, a new and modern style ema­nating from France. Designed by Los Angeles father-and-son architects John and Donald Parkinson, type resulting structure—from its distinctive exterior to its eye–popping decor­ became a beacon visible for blocks around, announcing the city‘s coming–of–age on a national stage.

Best of all, the cathedral to commerce is still with us todayy thanks to its elegant transformation into a law library under the stewardship of the Southwestern School.