The Bullocks Wilshire department store opened at 3050 Wilshire Blvd in September 1929 (a month before the stock market crashed—timing is everything!) It was the first store of its type to intentionally cater to what was then called “the carriage trade” which meant “shoppers with their own cars” (as against “shoppers who rode on streetcars.”) This 1938 photo from Life magazine shows us three Bullocks shoppers lining up to part with their cash. The store had a wonderful system whereby when customers bought an item, they didn’t have to lug it around the store with them; it would be taken directly to their car. How civilized!
You can’t see the incredible mural on the underside of the portico in the vintage photo, so here are the photos I took when I was there in June 2018.
Brilliant photos of that amazing portico ceiling! So it’s still there?!
Yep, it’s all still there and very well preserved, too.
Back in the 1990s, when I was working for the personnel office of Public Works Department with the City of Los Angeles, one of my co-workers liked to tell me stories of when he parked the cars of customers who drove into the portico shown here. One time he got to park Spencer Tracy’s car.
My dad used to park cars for one of the nightclubs on Sunset back in the 30s. Once he parked Cole Porter’s Dusenberg.
I’d pay good money to see Cole Porter’s Dusenberg!