Broadway Hollywood Building
| Industry | Retail (historically department store), Commercial offices, Residential condominiums |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | B. H. Dyas Building |
| Founded | 1927 |
| Founder | Frank R. Strong (original builder) |
| Fate | Converted from department store to commercial offices and residential condominiums |
| Headquarters | Hollywood, Los Angeles , United States |
Area served | Hollywood neighborhood, Los Angeles |
| Products | Department store (historically), commercial office space, residential condominiums |
| Parent | The Broadway (tenant until 1982) |
Broadway Hollywood Building—also known as the Broadway Building or Broadway Department Store Building—is located in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Positioned at the southwest corner of the well-known junction called Hollywood and Vine, where Hollywood Boulevard intersects with Vine Street, it lies within the Hollywood Walk of Fame area. Originally constructed in 1927 as the B. H. Dyas Building,[1] this structure is identified by its primary address at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard as well as its secondary address at 1645 Vine Street.
This building contributes to the historic fabric of the National Register of Historic Places-designated Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District. It holds recognition both as a contributing property within this historic district and as an individual historic site acknowledged by the city of Los Angeles and the state of California. A distinctive neon sign crowns the building, regarded as both iconic and historically significant.
Initially serving as a department store, the Broadway Hollywood Building has since been renovated to accommodate commercial offices alongside residential condominiums. It was home to The Broadway department store for many years. An annex was added to the west side in 1939, associated with the address 6316 Hollywood Boulevard. The residential units have been owned by several notable individuals over time.
Details
While some references list the building as having ten stories,[1] official documentation from the 1985 National Register of Historic Places nomination for Hollywood Boulevard describes it as a nine-story structure.[2] Above these floors sits a two-level penthouse that supports the metal neon sign displaying "The Broadway Hollywood".[3] The original department store, designed by Frederick Rice Dorn in 1927, was later expanded with an annex crafted by local architects John Parkinson and Donald B. Parkinson in 1938.[3] Constructed primarily in the neoclassical architecture style, it features reinforced concrete with brick on the upper floors, where most of the architectural detailing is concentrated along with the street-level facade. Key elements include a classical entablature resting atop pilasters adorned with Corinthian capitals, creating a colonnade-like appearance that is echoed on higher floors.[2] The building is finished with a substantial cornice.[1] Its richly decorated facade incorporates ornamental cornices and terra cotta pilasters, while Corinthian columns on the upper two stories sit above a projecting beltcourse.[3]
Regarding the annex, some sources identify it as eight stories tall,[1] but the nomination form refers to it as a "six story International Style addition".[2] This section is distinguished by banded windows and a minimalist exterior design. At the time of nomination, several display windows had been modified.[2] According to Los Angeles’ Office of Economic Development, this annex exemplifies "Streamline Moderne Style," characterized by unornamented surfaces, smooth walls, rounded corners, flat roofs, and horizontal linear elements.[3] The ground-level colonnades serve as an architectural link uniting both the original building and its annex.[3]
Recognition
This structure is part of the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District, a U.S. Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places, spanning from 6200 to 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, with its official designation dating back to April 4, 1985. Both façades facing Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street fall within the City of Los Angeles Monument area LA-194, recognized as the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which received its designation on July 5, 1978. The building itself, along with its iconic neon signage, was separately designated as a City monument (LA-664) on September 29, 1999. On April 4, 1985, the California Office of Historic Preservation assigned status code 1D to this building and the entire Hollywood Boulevard Commercial & Entertainment District under designations 0053-4680-0054 and 0053-4680-9999, respectively. Additionally, the property benefits from protections under the Mills Act, documented by Contract Number 53175873 and Case Number CHC-2005-5690-MA.
History
In 1922, as the Hollywood Boulevard regional shopping area—ranked second only to Downtown Los Angeles—was emerging, shares were issued to fund a four-story edifice at the corner of Hollywood and Vine intended for a branch of Boadway Bros., a modest department store chain based in Pasadena. However, Boadway Bros. ceased operations in 1923, leading B. H. Dyas to take over the location instead.
The Classical Revival Style building was erected in 1927 by local entrepreneur Frank R. Strong to serve as a B. H. Dyas Company Department Store. Construction extended into 1928 and marked the first department store branch outside Downtown Los Angeles’s central business district, paving the way for comparable large-scale commercial projects beyond downtown. The economic challenges of the Great Depression forced B. H. Dyas to revert operations back to its original location. Consequently, in 1931 The Broadway acquired a 30-year lease for this prime property at $2 million. The Broadway Hollywood Building quickly adapted to cater to Hollywood’s film and finance sectors by offering luxury goods.
With revenues from its retail success, an expansion added approximately 52,000 square feet (4,800 m2) of sales floor space in 1938. The following year, an eight-story modern annex designed by Parkinson and Parkinson was constructed directly west of the original structure. The Broadway continued as a tenant until 1982, after which the building was converted for office use.
Following a prolonged vacancy period, renovations began in 2005 to transform the ten-story building into 96 loft-style condominiums while also adding two additional floors to the annex. In July 2008, residents initiated legal action against a first-floor bar due to noise disturbances, leading to the bar’s relocation in February 2009. Notable current and former loft owners include Dave Navarro, Jason Statham, Danny Masterson, and Charlize Theron.
The property changed hands in 2016 with a sale price of $14.2 million.
In popular culture
The Broadway Hollywood building made an appearance in Modern Times, a film starring Charlie Chaplin.
See also
- List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Hollywood
- List of contributing properties in the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District
Notes
External links
- Pages with reference errors
- Articles with short description
- Articles with hatnote templates targeting a nonexistent page
- Pages with broken file links
- 1928 establishments in California
- Buildings and structures in Hollywood, Los Angeles
- Buildings and structures in Los Angeles
- Commercial buildings completed in 1928
- Commercial buildings completed in 1939
- Hollywood Boulevard
- Neoclassical architecture in California
- The Broadway
- Department store buildings in the United States
- Defunct department stores based in Hollywood
- Historic district contributing properties in California
- Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments