Sears Building and Garden Center Santa Monica, California Evaluation Report Building Permit History City Directory Research Photographs Tax Assessor Map Sanborn Maps Prepared for: City of Santa Monica Planning Division Prepared by: PCR Services Corporation Santa Monica, California June 15, 2004
Sears Building and Garden Center City of Santa Monica APN: 4290-012-003 City Landmark Assessment and Evaluation BACKGROUND INFORMATION Description of site or structure, note any major alterations and dates of alterations The subject property is situated on the south side of Colorado Avenue on Lot 2 of Tract 15603 in the City of Santa Monica. The triangular-shaped lot size is approximately 462 feet by 547 feet by 586 feet. The property consists of two buildings, a large two-story retail store with public entrances facing north, east, and south; a large surface parking lot situated to the south of the retail store; and a small retail garden center with public entrances facing west and east. The subject property is located on the southern edge of the Central Business District between Fourth and Main Streets, directly south of Santa Monica Place and immediately north of the Santa Monica Freeway and the Santa Monica Civic Center. The surrounding area also includes the Sears Automotive Center just north of 4 th Street, the Holiday Inn south of Main Street, and several smaller businesses and offices buildings along 4 th Street north of Colorado Avenue. This property has been previously identified and evaluated in the City s Historic Resources Inventory (1983), the City s Historic Resources Inventory Update of the Central Business District (1998), and in the Civic Center Specific Plan Draft EIR (2004). The Sears Building and contributing Garden Center were identified as appearing eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (National Register) at the local level of significance and were given, collectively, a National Register status code of 3S. 1 Description. Constructed in 1947, the Sears Building is rectangular in shape, constructed of reinforced concrete, and is two-stories in height with a three-story center core plus basement. Designed in the Late Moderne style, the flat-roofed department store has three primary elevations corresponding with the public entrances facing north on Colorado Avenue for pedestrian traffic; on the east elevation paralleling an automobile driveway; and at the rear, south elevation for serving customers who arrived by car and parked their automobiles in the large surface parking lot behind the store. Truck ramps located at the southwest corner of the parking area lead down to a wide loading dock at the building s basement level along the west elevation. Horizontally-patterned striations on the building s corners and a grid of incised squares on the remaining elevations further define the Late Moderne design. Curved projecting, cantilevered canopies shade all public entrances which consist of glazed aluminum-framed double-doors. Diagonal, glazed metal-framed display windows flank the public entrances on the primary (north, east, and south) elevations. Flat storefront windows (that were modified in 1953 and again in 1995) feature grid-like metal mullions and are located near the diagonal display windows. The 1953 alterations included the removal of the two storefront window 1 3S: Appears eligible for separate listing in the National Register of Historic Places. page 1
openings closest to the west end of the Colorado Avenue (north) elevation. Crowning the recessed third floor is a tapered parapet of stacked horizontal striations. An employee cafeteria, located on the northeast corner of the top floor, is punctuated by horizontal bands of casement windows reminiscent of an airport control tower. On the east and west ends of the Colorado Avenue (north) elevation, stylized plaster sculptures in relief evoke nautical mythology. The large neon letters spelling SEARS in a stylized period typeface that highlight each elevation near the roofline also appear rendered in the terrazzo flooring near the sidewalk at the Colorado Avenue entrance. The Sears Garden Center, also Late Moderne in architectural style, was built in 1947 as a service station and was converted to its present use, as a garden shop, in 1961. Neither city directories (where it is not listed) nor other source materials indicate that the service station had a particular proper name or was associated with a specific oil company brand. In reviewing advertisements of the period, it appears that the service station was directly associated with the Sears Roebuck and Company department store. Ads in the city directories note the store as providing goods for the family, home, and car. The small onestory building is situated at the northeast corner of the property at the intersection of Fourth Street and Colorado Avenue. Of concrete construction, the building is capped with a flat roof and overhanging canopies on the west and south elevations that mirror those sheltering the Sears Building entrances. The original service station canopies intended to shelter refueling automobiles extend to the sidewalk on the north and east elevations. Incised squares and rectangles near the west entrance mimic those of the adjacent Sears building. In 1961, the service station was converted to the Sears Garden Center. Five years later, in order to increase interior space for use as a garden shop, the exterior wall of the east elevation was pushed out towards Fourth Street terminating near the edge of the extant service station canopy at the sidewalk. Building Permits. Building permits indicate that the Sears Building was constructed in 1947 for an approximate cost of $300,000 under the ownership of the Janss Investment Corporation of Westwood with Rowland H. Crawford of Beverly Hills serving as architect. A permit was also issued for construction of a service station on the property in 1947 under the same ownership and by the same architect. In 1948, a small, rectangular auto service building was constructed for approximately $2,700 (that no longer appears in the circa 1964 Sanborn map). Modifications to the Sears Building over the years included architect Crawford s 1953 alteration of the large storefront display windows and removal of two storefront window openings located on the north elevation at an approximate cost of $48,000 (which included the cost of a new interior escalator). A permit for an addition to the northeast corner of the employee cafeteria was issued in 1958 for a cost of $10,000. In 1961, the service station was converted into a Garden Shop with alterations including extending the south end of the east canopy for a combined total cost of $9,000. Sears Roebuck was listed as the Garden Shop owner with no architect indicated for the conversion. A small key shop costing $1,400 was added to the south end of the Sears Building s east elevation in 1963, which is no longer extant. Also since removed is the 1964, 224 square foot insurance booth addition that was attached to (and blocked) the existing diagonal display window on the west end of the south public entrance facing the parking lot. Over 2,500 square feet of enclosed floor space was page 2
added under the Garden Shop s existing east canopy in 1966, at an estimated cost of $3,000. The third floor retail store employee cafeteria was remodeled for an approximate cost of $4,000 in 1970. In 1995, the Sears Building s storefront window framing systems were altered again (although the window openings remained unchanged) along with miscellaneous exterior improvements for approximately $40,000. Statement of Architectural Significance The Sears Building located at is an excellent example of a large department store building complemented by a service station (now Garden Center) that were both designed in the Late Moderne architectural style typical of the early postwar years in Southern California. The World War II years essentially halted the evolution of architectural styles such that immediately following the war, until the early 1950s, many Southern California commercial buildings were strongly influenced by architectural designs popular in the late 1930s. The Late Moderne style was based on a blend of the International Style of architecture with the Moderne architectural style. The result was a stylistic melding of the curve and teardrop forms of the Moderne complemented by the sharp angularity of the International Style. With the Late Moderne, smooth stucco exterior walls were often replaced by incised concrete or brick and fenestration was often accentuated by bezeled windows. Character-defining features of the Late Moderne style exhibited by the Sears Building include an emphasis on horizontality as expressed by the horizontally-patterned striations on the building s corners, the grid of incised squares on exterior elevations, and the International Style casement window bands of the third floor employee s cafeteria. Additional Moderne elements include the curving canopies that shade the main customer entrances and the pair of stylized bas-relief sculptures that embellish both ends of the Colorado Avenue (north) façade. Of the few remaining examples of Late Moderne architecture in Santa Monica, the Sears Building is a noteworthy and highly intact example of the blending of the pre-war Moderne and soon-to-be dominant postwar International Style as expressed in a commercial building. Architectural historians and authors David Gebhard and Robert Winter describe the Sears Building as a classic example of a post- World War II Modern retail store building. 2 Additionally, the free-standing building originally designed as a service station adjacent to the main retail store exhibits Late Moderne characteristics. In this case, Moderne architectural influences predominate as expressed by the deep curving canopies that continue to define the building s form in its current use as a garden center. The grid-like striations incised into the building s west elevation are International Style in inspiration, mimicking those of the main Sears Building. As such, the Sears Garden Center building is an important contributor to the overall architectural significance of the subject property. Statement of Historical Importance Santa Monica. In 1875, the original townsite of Santa Monica was surveyed, including all the land extending from Colorado Street on the south to Montana on the north, and from 26 th Street on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. Between 1893 and the 1920s, the community operated as a tourist attraction, visited by mostly wealthy patrons. Those areas 2 Gebhard, David and Robert Winter. Architecture in Los Angeles, 1994, p.32. page 3
just outside of the incorporated city limits were semi-rural in setting and were populated with scattered residences. After the advent of the automobile in the 1920s, Santa Monica experienced a significant building boom, with homes being constructed in the tracts north of Montana and east of Seventh Street for year-round residents. Central Business District. The subject property is located at the southern boundary of the City of Santa Monica s Central Business District. This area is roughly bounded by Wilshire Avenue to the north, 2nd Street to the west, Colorado Avenue to the south (in this case, the Santa Monica Freeway), and 4th Street (south of Santa Monica Boulevard) and 7th Street (north of Santa Monica Boulevard) to the east. Most buildings are commercial in function, with a small scattering of residential properties. The Central Business District developed early in the history of Santa Monica as the location of commercial businesses catering to both local residents and the City s many visitors. Second Street, the oldest commercial street in Santa Monica, was supplanted by Third Street as the City s principal commercial street in the early twentieth century. A three-block stretch of Third Street was closed to vehicular traffic and became a pedestrian shopping mall in 1965. Fourth Street between Wilshire Boulevard and Colorado Avenue evolved from a primarily residential neighborhood at the turn-of-the-century to a predominantly commercial area by the early 1920s. The impetus for this change occurred as a result of the continuing resident and tourist population growth of the City overall. Buildings of each period of development, from 1875 through the present day, stand in the area, their styling and historic associations providing a physical document of the commercial history of the city. 3 The most prevalent styles are those associated with the 1920s and 1930s, including: Spanish Colonial, Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and Classically influenced vernacular structures. Additionally, there are key postwar examples including the Sears Building, the subject property. Buildings located within the Central Business District range from one to twelve stories in height and are clad in a variety of materials, including stucco, brick, and concrete. Sears Roebuck and Company and Sears Southern California Expansion. Sears, Roebuck and Company was founded in Minnesota in 1886 by Richard W. Sears as the R.W. Sears Watch Company. Watchmaker Alvah C. Roebuck joined the company in 1887 just as the firm moved its operation to Chicago. Renamed Sears Roebuck and Company in 1893, the firm s first large general mail order catalog was printed three years later in 1896, which was the beginning of the company s tremendous sales growth. The catalog continued to expand with an exceptional variety of merchandise including shoes, women s garments and millinery, wagons, fishing tackle, stoves, furniture, china, saddles, buggies, firearms, and glassware, in addition to watches and jewelry. With a mail order business focused primarily on rural America where customers previously experienced limited access to such a wide variety of goods, Sears prospered under the motto Shop at Sears and Save. By 1925 Sears Roebuck and Company, now a public company under the leadership of Robert E. Wood, was witnessing the success of other chain stores that were cutting into Sears mail order business. Further, with the growing dominance of the automobile, rural customers were no longer limited to shopping by catalog. Many of Sears rural customers were abandoning the farm for the factory in urban areas across the country. 3 Santa Monica Historic Resources Inventory, 1985-1986: Final Report, p.28. page 4
In 1925, Wood opened the company s first retail store in Chicago, which proved immediately successful. By the end of 1927 he had opened an additional 26 stores and by 1933 there were 400 retail stores operating across the country. During the Depression, Sears retail sales substantially topped mail order revenues as the company continued to expand despite the poor economy. Wood believed that The automobile made shopping mobile, and this mobility created an opportunity for the outlying store, which had lower land values, could give parking space; with lower overhead, rent and taxes, could lower operating costs, and could with its enlarged clientele created by the automobile offer effective competition to the downtown store. 4 With its vast surface parking lot, Sears postwar Santa Monica store sited on the southern end of Third Street would prove Wood s assertions by siphoning retail business away from the Central Business District s retail stores that relied on limited street parking. When World War II broke out in 1941, more than 600 retail stores were operating across the nation, most in outlying areas away from city centers. After the war, Wood resumed his expansion program following the same philosophy in locating new stores that he had pioneered in the prewar years. In Southern California, following Woods dictum, Sears opened two stores outside of downtown Los Angeles in 1927. One of these, the company s enormous (and still extant) Olympic Boulevard/Boyle Heights mail order/retail building with its prominent central tower located east of downtown Los Angeles, remained Sears most visible Southern California landmark until after World War II. In 1936, the Janss Investment Corporation, owner of the subject property and developer of the master-planned Westwood Village in Los Angeles, welcomed Sears to the retail chain s newest location on Westwood Boulevard. The stylish 42,000 square foot Spanish Colonial Revival style store featured a prominent tower and was the largest store in Westwood Village (since demolished). Another key Sears store that opened in the pre-world War II period was the company s Pico Boulevard store. According to urban historian Richard Longstreth, the 1938-39 Sears Pico Boulevard Sears store played a seminal role in the realignment of stores away from the street. 5 The 202,000 square foot two-story retail building, since razed, was innovative in its use of rooftop parking and lack of exterior windows above the ground floor. It was this last design element, the windowless building, that became a hallmark of department store design in the postwar years. Like Sears Pico Boulevard store, the Santa Monica Sears Building was a transitional design in its incorporation of storefront display windows combined with windowless upper stories. In addition to Sears store design innovations, the early postwar years witnessed the rapid evolution of department store planning and design throughout the Los Angeles region. For example, Bullock s Pasadena, a large suburban department store constructed in 1947, was noteworthy for its country club appearance and atmosphere and orientation towards its large off-street surface parking lot. The Milliron s department store in Westchester built in 1949 incorporated graceful ramps leading to rooftop parking, a concept first seen regionally in Sears Pico Boulevard store, and free-standing display cases near the sidewalk instead of storefront windows. As a transitional department store design, the Sears Santa Monica store 4 Longstreth, Richard. City Center to Regional Mall: Architecture, the Automobile, and Retailing in Los Angeles, 1920-1950, p.118. 5 Longstreth, p.251. page 5
was an integral part of the region s swiftly evolving retail landscape. Department Stores in Santa Monica. When the subject property was constructed in 1947, a handful of competing department stores already existed in Santa Monica. In the city s Central Business District, stores such as Montgomery Ward & Company and J.C. Penney s located on Third Street, and Henshey s Department Store situated at Santa Monica Boulevard at Fourth Street, were the primary shopping destinations for local households. Of these, Henshey s Department Store was probably the most well known and the closest to Sears in terms of clientele, size, selection, and quality. Henshey s, founded in 1925 and housed in a traditional brick multi-story building constructed that same year, survived as a mid-level department store until the 1990s. Early on in its history, Henshey s advertised in the local city directories as Your metropolitan department store. The Penney s and Montgomery Ward stores, located side-by-side on Third Street, were eventually converted to other commercial uses following their closure. Of the department stores listed in the City of Santa Monica s 1947-48 directory, only Sears Santa Monica survives today. Sears Santa Monica. Because of the population boom of the postwar years, the need for greater shopping opportunities arose. As noted, Santa Monica had been served by a number of modest department stores in the Central Business District prior to the end of World War II. Identifying a market opportunity in the rapidly growing Santa Monica area, Sears opened its tenth Southern California store, the subject property, in July, 1947, on the former site of the Patten & Davies Lumber Company. 6 Amongst the civic leaders and company officials present at the opening ceremonies were Robert Stern, manager of the new store, who remained in his position into the mid-1950s. The Sears Building was prominently sited on a large, triangular island of land adjacent to Olympic Boulevard and the Civic Center, and the Central Business District that terminated at Third Street at the foot of Sears Colorado Avenue entrance. Visible from every direction at the time, the Sears store was, and remains, a strong physical presence and familiar visual feature of the community. The adjacent service station, designed to complement the retail store building s Late Moderne style, was operated by Sears and offered gas and oil to store customers and passersby. By the late 1950s, however, few Sears stores in the Los Angeles region offered fuel services while many featured expansive garden centers. In 1961, Sears Santa Monica service station was converted into a small garden center consistent with company trends. Today, many of the prewar and early postwar Sears stores in the region have closed and/or have been demolished. Along with Sears Olympic Boulevard/Boyle Heights store built in 1927, Sears Santa Monica is the company s oldest operating store in the Los Angeles region. Santa Monica s Sears Building remains an excellent example of a generously proportioned department store that still reflects an important chapter in the architectural and economic history of Santa Monica. The adjacent Garden Center, while modified from its original use as a service station, contributes to the overall integrity of the property complementing the location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association of the subject property site. 6 The other nine stores were located in Boyle Heights, Hollywood, Long Beach, Vermont and Slauson, Westwood Village, Inglewood, Compton, Pico Boulevard, and Glendale. page 6
Person(s) of Historical Importance Architect Rowland Henry Crawford, AIA (1902 1973), the designer of the Sears Building and service station (now Garden Center) was born in Deadwood, South Dakota and attended the University of Southern California before graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1925. From 1930 until 1933, Crawford was a designer with the prominent Los Angeles architectural firm of Gordon B. Kaufmann. He established his own firm in 1938 with offices in Beverly Hills. Besides the Santa Monica Sears Building (1947), Crawford s principal works also include the Mirror Building in downtown Los Angeles (1948) and the El Rancho Shopping Center in Arcadia (1955). He was Supervising Architect for both the Times-Mirror Company from 1945 until at least 1956 and the Janss Investment Corporation (the owner of the subject property) from 1938 until 1955. He was also the Consulting Architect for the Brown Derby Restaurant Corporation from 1939 until at least 1956. Paul Gleye, architectural historian and author of The Architecture of Los Angeles, highlights Rowland H. Crawford s achievements in the Late Moderne architectural style by focusing on Crawford s Mirror Building of 1948. Gleye argues that the Mirror Building was a key representative example of the style, stating that with the Mirror Building the Moderne was combined with the International Style with horizontal bands of windows set off against the accentuated vertical façade. 7 As with the Mirror Building, Crawford s Sears Building (the subject property) of the previous year combined elements of the Moderne with the International Style in expressing the Late Moderne. The International Style was well represented in its horizontal window bands and in its smooth concrete exterior walls with grid-like striations. Characteristic of the Moderne architectural style were the curving entrance canopies and bas-relief wall sculptures. As Supervising Architect for the Janss Investment Corporation, the initial owner of the subject property, it was logical that Crawford would design Janss Sears building in Santa Monica. That a well-known architect so closely identified with the Late Moderne architectural style designed the subject property strongly supports the contention that the subject property is associated with a person of historical importance. Although the regionally prominent Janss Investment Corporation owned the subject property from construction until approximately 1957, when ownership transferred to Sears, Roebuck and Company, the Janss company and its directors were notably and historically associated with their projects in Westwood, not Santa Monica. Additionally, no information was uncovered suggesting that Robert Stern, the Santa Monica Sears store s initial manager until approximately 1953, was considered locally noteworthy. Therefore, based on current research, it appears that architect Rowland H. Crawford was the only person of historical importance known to have been associated with the subject property. Statement of other significance The property does appear to meet criteria for high aesthetic or artistic value as it is defined in the National Register Bulletin: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation. The property articulates a particular concept of design, the Late Moderne, in its overall form and 7 Gleye, Paul. "The Architecture of Los Angeles," p.149. page 7
architectural elements. Specifically, the Sears Building s emphasis on horizontality expressed by horizontal striations formed in concrete or plaster, elongated window bands, curved entrance canopies, and decorative bas-relief sculptures are a dynamic melding of the International and Moderne Styles of architecture as rendered in a commercial building. Similarly, the Garden Center building is aesthetically pleasing in the graceful curves of its canopies and the grid-like pattern of the smooth concrete west-facing wall. These elements are stylistically evocative of the much larger adjacent Sears Building and together form an aesthetically pleasing complex. Is the structure representative of a style in the City that is no longer prevalent? The Sears Building and contributing Garden Center are excellent examples of the Late Moderne style as applied to commercial structures. In performing a cursory windshield survey and a review of the Santa Monica Historic Resources Inventory, there appear to be few examples of the Late Moderne architectural style extant in the City of Santa Monica. Further, there are no other examples of remaining department stores in the City that exemplify the Late Moderne style. Therefore, it can be concluded that this particular style is no longer prevalent within the City of Santa Monica. Does the structure contribute to a potential historic district? Due to the presence of the Santa Monica Place shopping center that occupies the entire street frontage between Second and Fourth Streets north of Colorado Avenue, the subject property is now physically isolated from its historic connection to the Third Street commercial area as part of the Central Business District. Therefore, the subject property does not appear to contribute to a potential historic district. CONCLUSION In summary, based on current research and the above assessment, the property located at 302 Colorado Avenue appears to meet many of the City of Santa Monica s Landmark Criteria. The property was evaluated according to statutory criteria as follows: Landmark Criteria: 9.36.100(a)(1) It exemplifies, symbolizes, or manifests elements of the cultural, social, economic, political or architectural history of the City. The subject property appears to satisfy this criterion. When constructed in 1947, the Sears Building became the largest and most prominent department store in the City of Santa Monica, strongly contributing to the economic development of the Central Business District in the postwar years. The Santa Monica Sears store competed directly with the existing national and local department stores in the City, including Henshey s Department Store, a prominent local retail establishment that, along with other department stores existing in 1947, eventually closed. The Sears Santa Monica building remains the sole surviving example of a large retail establishment of the early postwar years still located and operating in the City. Its presence manifests and exemplifies elements of the City s economic history. page 8
Although the service station (now the Sears Garden Center) operated at its prominent corner location for approximately 14 years, no evidence was found to suggest that the products and services provided by the service station had any noticeable impact on the economic history of the City. Similarly, its history as a Garden Center was not found to be noteworthy in meeting these criteria. However, both the Sears Building and the complementary Garden Center exemplify a particular and short-lived stylistic phase in the architectural history of the City, the Late Moderne. Character-defining features of the Sears Building that are indicative of the Late Moderne style include horizontally-patterned corner striations and elongated window bands, smooth concrete exterior surfaces incised with a grid-like pattern, curving canopies, and stylized decorative bas-relief sculptures. Key Late Moderne stylistic elements found in the Garden Center include the low building s broad horizontality, curving canopies, and grid-like patterns in exterior concrete walls. 9.36.100(a)(2) It has aesthetic or artistic interest or value, or other noteworthy interest or value. The Sears Building is aesthetically pleasing in its siting, decorative details, and form. Given its relative isolation from surrounding buildings, the Sears Building manifests a strong iconic presence and form reminiscent of classical temples, especially when approached from the west on Colorado Avenue. The subtlety of the Sears Building s decorative elements, such as the horizontal striations and grid-like patterns rendered in concrete, and the pair of stylized bas-relief sculptures gracing the north elevation, further emphasize the building as an aesthetic object. Therefore, as an excellent local example of the Late Moderne architectural style as applied to a commercial structure, the Sears Building possesses sufficient aesthetic and artistic value necessary for designation under this criterion. However, the Garden Center, though architecturally complementary to the Sears Building, is a much simplified companion to the main Sears store and, therefore, possesses insufficient artistic or aesthetic qualities necessary to meet this criterion. 9.36.100(a)(3) It is identified with historic personages or with important events in local, state or national history. Current research did not reveal that the property at is associated with any historic personages or with important event in local, state, or national history. Therefore, the subject property does not appear eligible for local landmark designation under this criterion. 9.36.100(a)(4) It embodies distinguishing architectural characteristics valuable to a study of a period, style, method of construction, or the use of indigenous materials or craftsmanship, or is a unique or rare example of an architectural design, detail or historical type valuable to such a study. The property appears to satisfy this criterion. The Sears Building and contributing Garden Center are excellent examples of the Late Moderne architectural style. The Sears Building embodies a number of distinguishing architectural characteristics of the style including a pronounced emphasis on horizontality expressed by the horizontally-patterned striations on the building's corners and parapets, the window bands of the third floor employee cafeteria, and the curving canopies that shade the customer entrances. Other character-defining features of the style include a grid of incised squares that center exterior elevations and page 9
several stylized bas-relief sculptures. The Garden Center also exemplifies several of these characteristics including horizontality, curved canopies, and incised squares on concrete exterior walls. The Late Moderne was a short-lived architectural style from the early postwar years of which few highly intact examples exist in the City of Santa Monica. Therefore, the subject property is valuable to a study of the architectural history of the early postwar period and the Late Moderne style. 9.36.100(a)(5) It is a significant or a representative example of the work or product of a notable builder, designer or architect. Rowland H. Crawford is acknowledged as one of the few architects closely identified with the Late Moderne architectural style in the Los Angeles area, as expressed in several key buildings designed by Crawford including the subject property (1947) and the Mirror Building (1948). Crawford was identified by noted architectural historian Paul Gleye for his achievements in the Late Moderne architectural style, citing the Mirror Building as one of the style s most important local examples. The subject property, constructed one year earlier than the Mirror Building, is a significant example of Crawford s work and of his mastery of interpreting the Late Moderne style in the built environment. Therefore, the subject property appears eligible for local landmark designation under this criterion. 9.36.100(a)(6) It has a unique location, a singular physical characteristic, or is an established and familiar visual feature of a neighborhood, community or the City. The subject property is uniquely located on a large, triangular "island" of land adjacent to the Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10) and the Civic Center to the south, Fourth Street to the east, Colorado Avenue (and Santa Monica Place) to the north, and Main Street to the west. In addition to the thousands of automobiles that can view the site while driving west on the Santa Monica freeway, the Sears Building is visible by pedestrians and automobiles approaching the site on surface streets from virtually every direction. Due to the property's high visibility from many vantage points in the City both historically and today, it has become an established and familiar visual feature of the City. Therefore, the subject property appears eligible for local landmark designation under this criterion. page 10
CITY DIRECTORY RESEARCH Year Entry 1940 Patten-Blinn Lumber Company (originally Patten and Davies Lumber Company) (listed at 330 Colorado Avenue) 1947-48 Sears, Roebuck & Co., Robert M. Stern, Store Manager Service station not listed. 1952-53 Sears, Roebuck & Co., Robert M. Stern, Store Manager Service station not listed. 1958-59 Sears, Roebuck & Co., Robert M. Stern, Store Manager Service station not listed. 1960-61 Sears, Roebuck & Co., Robert M. Stern, Store Manager; Al Gantsweg, Parts Manager Service station not listed. page 11
BIBLIOGRAPHY Basten, Fred E. Santa Monica Bay The First 100 Years. Los Angeles: Douglas-West Publishers, 1974. Basten, Fred E. Santa Monica Bay: Paradise By the Sea. Santa Monica: Hennessey + Ingalls, 2001. City of Santa Monica. Existing Conditions Report, prepared by Historic Resources Group and PCR Services Corporation, 2000. City of Santa Monica Building and Safety Department. Building Permits. City of Santa Monica Building. Santa Monica Historic Resources Inventory. Gebhard, David and Robert Winter. Architecture in Los Angeles. Salt Lake City, Utah: Peregrine Smith Books, 1985. Gleye, Paul. The Architecture of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Rosebud Books, 1981. Koyl, George S., ed. American Architects Directory: 1956. New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1955. Longstreth, Richard. City Center to Regional Mall: Architecture, the Automobile, and Retailing in Los Angeles, 1920-1950. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1997. Los Angeles County Tax Assessor s Information. Los Angeles Times. April 9, 1933, p. 17. Los Angeles Times. October 14, 1945, p. A1. Los Angeles Times. July 10, 1947, p. 12. Los Angeles Times. October 23, 1957, p. 26. McAlester, Virginia & Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. National Park Service. National Register Bulletin 15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation. Washington DC: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Interagency Resources Division, 1990. Newmark, Harris. Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853-1913. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1916. Polk s City Directories, City of Santa Monica. page 12
Robinson, W.W. Santa Monica: A Calendar of Events in the Making of a City. California Title Insurance and Trust Company, 1959. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, City of Santa Monica. Santa Monica Public Library. On-line Historical and Image Archives. Sears Archives: www.searsarchives.com/history Storrs, Les. Santa Monica, Portrait of a City, 1875-1975. Santa Monica: Santa Monica Bank, 1874. Ward, Elva. Building A City: Life in Santa Monica From 1872. A Social Studies Resource Reader for Third Grade. Santa Monica: Santa Monica Unified School District, 1962. Warren, Charles S. ed. History of the Santa Monica Bay Region. Santa Monica: Cawston, 1934. Warren, Charles S. ed. Santa Monica Blue Book. Santa Monica: Cawston, 1941. Warren, Charles S. ed. Santa Monica Community Book. Santa Monica: Cawston, 1944. page 13
PHOTOGRAPHS Sears Building: north and west elevations, looking southeast across Main Street from the intersection of Colorado Avenue and Main Street. Sears Building: west elevation with basement loading dock, looking northeast. Santa Monica Freeway in foreground. page 14
Sears Building: south elevation, looking north across rear parking lot. Sears Building: east elevation, looking southwest. page 15
Sears Building: north elevation, northwest corner, looking southwest. Sears Building: north (front) entrance and foyer, looking south. page 16
Sears Building: east elevation, third floor cafeteria, looking west. Sears Building: east elevation detail, looking west. page 17
Sears Garden Center: west and south elevations, looking northeast. Sears Garden Center: east and north elevations, looking southwest from the intersection of Colorado Avenue and Fourth Street. page 18
MISCELLENOUS ATTACHMENTS page 19