El Rancho Santa Anita Shopping Center
El Rancho Santa Anita Shopping Center in Arcadia, California was one of the first planned shopping centers in suburban Los Angeles, opened in 1948-1950, and later anchored by a large May Company department store. The May Company building is now empty, but the center remains anchored by a supermarket.
History
In April 1940, Santa Anita Village, an early suburban housing development, petitioned the Arcadia city council for a zoning change to permit an 18-acre shopping center along Huntington Drive at Michillinda to be known as the Santa Anita Village Shopping Center.[1]
When the shopping center opened in 1948, it advertised as the El Rancho Santa Anita Shopping Center. It opened with a supermarket in 1948 but the official opening wasn't until 1950, when it also opened the first elevator in Arcadia.[2]
Competition nearby at the time included a local department store,
On October 8, 1966, the May Company opened a large 240,000-square-foot (22,000 m2) branch here, its fourteenth store in California, designed by Victor Gruen and Associates with Spanish colonial interiors by Welton Becket and Associates.[3][4] The store closed in the late 1980s and was bought by Vons Cos., parent company of Vons supermarkets, and converted to that company's new headquarters[5][6] until the brand was purchased by Albertsons, and the headquarters function was moved to Albertsons' regional office in Fullerton.[7]
References
- ^ "Santa Anita Village Views on Rezoning". Arcadia Tribune. April 4, 1940.
- ^ "Shopping Center Gives Arcadia First Elevator". Los Angeles Times. May 20, 1950.
- ^ "May Co. El Rancho Opens". Monrovia Daily News-Post. August 8, 1966.
- ^ "Colorful Rites Open New May Co". Los Angeles Times. October 9, 1966.
- ^ "Business: Leason Pomeroy…". Los Angeles Times. February 10, 1989.
- ^ "Vons Set to Move Its Headquarters". Los Angeles Times. September 17, 1988.
- ^ "Vanishing Institutions". Arcadia's Best. February 2015.