To spot Blackstone's Department Store Building, look for a grand six-story structure on the corner with striking Beaux Arts features-lots of elegant terra cotta decoration, tall rows of windows, and a chunky cornice topped with little decorative details-right where Broadway crosses 9th Street.
Alright, step right up! Imagine it’s 1917, and the brand-new Blackstone’s Department Store just opened its doors here on this bustling corner. The crisp clatter of trolley cars along Broadway splashes against the grand facade, and sunlight bounces off all that delicate terra cotta-this building wants you to notice it. Nathaniel Blackstone, the man behind it all, was on a mission to outshine his brother-in-law, the legendary J. W. Robinson. He spared no expense-over half a million dollars (that’s more than fourteen million today!) for the biggest, fanciest shopping experience around.
Look up and you’ll see the details that made shoppers gasp a century ago: broad windows with multi-paned glass, crisscrossed with beams of sunlight, fluted panels connecting the third through sixth floors, and a cornice wrapped with rows of intricate antefixes. Down at street level, the building shouts “modern” with a facelift it got in 1939-Streamline Moderne style, all smooth curves and shiny surfaces, thanks to Stiles O. Clements. By then, Blackstone’s was gone, but the new owners added everything a good Angeleno might need: more shopping, a lunch counter, and a beauty shop, so you could get a sandwich and a haircut before you ran out to catch the bus.
But wait-this building isn’t just for shoppers and beauty queens. In 1923, you could’ve caught a glimpse of it as daring Harold Lloyd dangled from a clock in “Safety Last!” Pretty glamorous to be a movie star’s backdrop, right? Over the years, the crowds shifted, the fashions changed, and eventually, in 2010, the six stories of retail were reborn as 82 sparkly new apartments-complete with chic shops below and even parking for everyone’s cars. Now, as you stand at its feet, you’re in the middle of a living time machine-once the nerve center of Los Angeles shopping, now a stylish home in the heart of the city.
