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On February 22, 1929, hundreds of Angelenos crowded on the corner of 10th and Hope streets in downtown Los Angeles. They had come to celebrate the opening of a fantastical, four-story structure designed by esteemed architect
Bernard R. Maybeck. Broadcast over radio station KFI, the event was hosted by L.A. Mayor George Cryer and movie star Dolores del Rio. An orchestra played standards and Paul Taylor s Metropolitan Chorus sang popular tunes of the day.
May 21, 1928: A customer get service at a Muller Bros. Service Station in Southern California.
(Security Pacific National Bank Collection
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The Sears department store in Boyle Heights is gone. The Eastside landmark, with its familiar tower visible for miles around, closed its doors for good last month, after being open for nearly 100 years.
The front door of the now-closed Boyle Heights Sears store.
(Leslie Berestein Rojas LAist)
At one time, the massive, 2-million-square-foot retail complex at Olympic Boulevard and Soto Street was one of several large Sears distribution centers located around the country. It first opened its doors in 1927.
For the generations of Angelenos whose families shopped there climbing that long flight of stairs at the entrance, inhaling the smell of popcorn, gazing up at the tower’s green neon glow the Boyle Heights Sears is more than a piece of history. It s inextricably tied to the experience of growing up on the Eastside. And the memories go back many decades.