Ralphs Grocery Store (Los Angeles, California)

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Coordinates: 34°3′35.5″N 118°26′40″W / 34.059861°N 118.44444°W / 34.059861; -118.44444
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the NRHP listed buildings. For the Ralphs Grocery Store chain, see Ralphs.
Ralphs Grocery Store
Spanish Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No.92000969[1]
LAHCM No.360
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJuly 30, 1992
Designated LAHCMJune 21, 1988

Ralphs Grocery Store is a historic building in the

saucer dome, with a pediment over the entrance and arcaded wings extending north and east. It was photographed by Ansel Adams in 1940, declared a Historic-Cultural Monument in 1988, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1992.

Origins of Westwood Village

The history of Westwood Village began in 1925, when the

Mediterranean style."[3]

Architecture and opening of Ralphs Grocery Store

The new Westwood Village began to open in 1929, and one of its original buildings was the Ralphs Grocery Store located on

Spanish Colonial Revival, Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival elements, and is said to have served as a model for other low-rise commercial structures in the village.[2] Early advertising materials for the Westwood Village development featured images of the Ralphs tower and the Janss dome, which became area landmarks. The opening of the store in the fall of 1929 was timed to coincide with the opening of the UCLA campus, and the Los Angeles Times proclaimed the store "one of the most beautiful exclusive grocery marts in the West."[4] The opening was celebrated with a free food show, as Ralphs boasted a new feature at their Westwood store — "the employment of uniformed boys to wrap each purchase of merchandise while it is being paid for at the cashier's stand, and then carry it to the customer's car."[5]

In 1940, Ansel Adams took a series of photographs of Westwood Village, some featuring the Ralphs building. The photographs are part of the collections of the Los Angeles Public Library and can be viewed here, here and here.[6]

Businesses operating in the building

Ralphs operated a grocery store on the site until the mid-1960s, when it left Westwood Village.

Peet's Coffee & Tea, which remains currently. In early 2012, part of the shuttered movie theater was converted into 800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria.[8]

Historic preservation and designation

Modern high rise behind Spanish-Mediterranean Ralphs building

Since the 1970s, the demand for office and residential space around the UCLA campus has resulted in much of the original Mediterranean architecture giving way to large modern high rises, as depicted in the photograph to the right. Preservationists sought to preserve what could be saved of the original Westwood architecture, and in 1988 the Ralphs-Bratskeller-Egyptian Theater building was designated as a Historic Cultural Monument (HCM #360) by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission.[9] Eight other historic buildings in Westwood Village (including the Fox Bruin Theater, the Fox Village Theater and the Janss Investment Company Building) were given monument status at the same time.[9] In 1992, the Ralphs building was also added to the National Register of Historic Places.

See also

  • List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d e Kathleen Kelleher (1992-08-02). "The Quest for a Place in History Former Ralphs Building May Get a Place on National Register". Los Angeles Times.
  3. ^ a b O.W. Van Petten (1969-10-26). "Westwood: The Case of the Bartered Bride". Los Angeles Times.
  4. ^ "Business Units Will Be Opened: Three Westwood Village Concerns Plan Events for Coming Week". Los Angeles Times. 1929-11-17.
  5. ^ "Ralphs to Open Westwood Unit". Los Angeles Times. 1929-11-20.
  6. ^ "Photography Collections". Los Angeles Times. (By entering "Ralphs" as the "Keyword" and "Adams" as the "Photographer", the database will pull up the three Ansel Adams photographs linked above with detailed credit information.)
  7. ^ "Fading to black in Westwood". August 1, 2009 – via LA Times.
  8. ^ "Counter Intelligence: 800 Degrees in Westwood". March 31, 2012 – via LA Times.
  9. ^ a b "Historic-Cultural Monuments Listing" (PDF). City of Los Angeles. 2008-06-04.

External links

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