Robinsons-May was a chain of department stores operating in Southern California , Arizona , and Nevada , from 1993 until 2006. It was created when May Department Stores combined two of its chains, May Company California and J. W. Robinson's chains. Its headquarters was at the former May Company California headquarters at its Laurel Plaza store in North Hollywood, Los Angeles . When Federated took over May Department Stores Company on August 30, 2005, Robinsons-May was dissolved, with some stores becoming branches of Macy's , while others were closed, sold, or transformed into branches of Bloomingdale's . Robinsons-May had 45 stores.
28-413: The double-barreled Robinsons-May name was created in 1993 when the former May Company California was consolidated with their corporate sibling JW Robinson's . May Department Stores had acquired Robinson's with its 1986 acquisition of Associated Dry Goods Corp. J. W. Robinson's had been acquired by Associated Dry Goods in 1957, while May Company California had been established in 1923 when May acquired
56-500: A city of 50,000 inhabitants, a private volunteer 120 men fire brigade, 13 acres of retail space (482,475 sq.ft., larger than all the department, clothing and dry goods stores in the city), and 1200 employees. The Los Angeles Public Library was also located on the third floor from 1908 until it was forced to move to a larger location when it outgrew the Hamburger space by 1913. For a short time, Woodbury Business College briefly
84-538: A much larger store at the southeast corner of Broadway and Eighth, a location that was outside of then current retail district. Construction started in 1905, with a grand opening held in 1908. This location, which was also known as the Great White Store, was the largest department store building west of Chicago at the time and would eventually become the flagship location for the May Company California. At
112-540: A space of 46 by 100 feet. Later, it expanded into the north half of the ground floor of the newly built Phillips Block , northwest corner of Spring and Franklin, then in 1887 into the south half. In April 1899 it added the Ponet store 20 feet to the north of the Bumiller Block. In 1899, Hamburger's renovated and took over the entire Phillips Block , all four floors plus the cellar. The space officially opened June 1, 1899, and
140-663: Is a major north–south thoroughfare in Los Angeles , measuring 4.8 miles (7.7 km) in length. It starts on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard near the campus of USC , and passes north through Downtown Los Angeles , past such landmarks as Pershing Square , the Subway Terminal Building , Angels Flight , Fort Moore and Chinatown . Hill Street merges with the Arroyo Seco Parkway near Dodger Stadium . Hill Street
168-532: The Broadway -anchored Crenshaw Plaza directly across the street to the south. A proposed store in Hollywood that was planned at the same time was never built. From 1952 to 1992 May opened stores across suburban Los Angeles and Southern California (see table below). May Company-Lakewood opened at Lakewood Center on February 18, 1952, the four-level, 346,700-square-foot (32,210 m ) May Company-Lakewood
196-597: The Civic Center and Pershing Square stations along the way. Metro Local lines 2, 4, 10, 28, 81, and 94 run along the surface. The Angels Flight funicular climbs west up Bunker Hill from Hill between 3rd and 4th streets. Between 1909 and 1955, Hill Street Tunnel carried both local rail and automotive traffic under the eponymous hill. It was largely demolished when the hill was removed. Number of schools are located at or nearby Hill Street. They include Cathedral High School , Castelar Elementary School, High School for
224-517: The flagship Downtown store on 8th Street between Broadway and Hill streets, and the May Company Wilshire at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue . The 1926 garage building at 9th and Hill Streets was one of the nation's first parking structures ( Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1001). The Wilshire location has been featured in several vintage films, including Behave Yourself! May Company California can trace its roots to
252-462: The 1980s, the parent corporation tried to replace the iconic Wilshire store for several years by getting involved with mall development at Farmers Market. However the development that eventually became The Grove at Farmers Market was delayed for nearly two decades. The St. Louis-based parent company eventually withdrew from the project and the Wilshire store was never replaced when May Company California
280-663: The May Company in 1925. To keep pace with the extreme growth in population within Southern California during the Great Depression, May Company opened the first branch store in 1939 on Wilshire at Fairfax at a cost of $ 2 million (~$ 34.4 million in 2023). After World War II, a second branch store was opened on October 10, 1947 along Crenshaw Boulevard at the northeast corner of Santa Barbara St. (now M. L. King, Jr. Blvd.). The store would later be integrated into
308-628: The Robinsons-May stores was assumed by Macy's West (the Meier & Frank stores were transferred to Macy's Northwest ). Fifteen of its California stores were offered for sale under an agreement with the California State Attorney General, though Federated has retained several of the stores covered by the agreement since satisfactory offers from competitors were not received (including stores at Woodland Hills and Northridge). During 2006,
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#1732852347036336-512: The Tucson-area locations of sister division Foley's , which were themselves the remains of the former Levy's and Sanger-Harris stores. Robinsons-May was further consolidated with Portland, Oregon -based Meier & Frank in 2002, which retained its individual nameplate, but merged its primary headquarters into Robinsons-May's in North Hollywood. On August 30, 2005, operational control of
364-576: The addition of a new nine-story, 250,000 sq ft (23,000 m ) building in 1930 it then measured over 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m ) of floor space. In the mid-1920s May Company also built a warehouse at Grand and Jefferson and in 1927 a nine-story parking garage at 9th and Hill streets. On March 31, 1923, the Hamburgers sold their store to the May family of St. Louis for $ 8.5 million (~$ 118 million in 2023). Thomas and Wilbur May, sons of
392-466: The building was primary used by small clothing manufacturing companies. In 2013, the then current owners were trying to sell the building since the surrounding area is being actively redeveloped. It was announced in April 2014 that Waterbridge Capital agreed to purchase the property, but had not given out too many details on how they might go about to develop it, except to state it would be mixed-use. During
420-495: The developer of some other early shopping centers and malls which grew around the initially stand-alone stores, with the Crenshaw location being the first example. The first May Company store, the original Hamburger's, at Broadway and 8th in downtown Los Angeles was closed when it was replaced by the just opened 7th Market Place store in 1986. This building is designated as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 459. After its sale,
448-417: The founder of the May Company, were sent to manage the former Hamburger store. One of the first things that they did was to expand the store again by building adjacent additions on the other parts of the city block. After several more years, the May Company store eventually occupied almost the entire block between Broadway and Hill and between 8th and 9th Streets. The old Hamburger store was officially renamed
476-709: The majority of the Robinsons-May stores were converted to the Macy's or Bloomingdale's nameplate, either as replacements for existing stores, new locations or as expansions of existing locations. Prime locations at South Coast Plaza , Costa Mesa and Fashion Valley Mall , San Diego where Macy's already had stores were shuttered in early 2006 and refurbished as Bloomingdale's locations. The change of store signs occurred on September 9, 2006. Already existing Macy's locations in Arizona and Inland Empire regions relocated from their existing spots to Robinsons-May. The trademark for Robinsons-May
504-459: The merger of May Company California with its sister company J.W. Robinson's to form Robinsons-May , thus ending the May Company California existence. It was also announced that the Wilshire store along with the stores in West Covina, Buena Park, Santa Ana, and San Bernardino were scheduled to close by the end of January 1993. During the early part of this division existence, May Company was also
532-536: The store claimed at that time to have 3.5 acres (150,000 sq ft; 14,000 m ) of floor space and to be the largest retail store in the Western United States . Later Hamburger's added an additional 2,500 square feet (230 m ) onto its back side on New High Street By the start of the 20th century, A. Hamburger & Sons had outgrown its Spring Street location, which had 520 employees working on five floors. The Hamburger family decided to build
560-681: The store that Asher Hamburger and his sons Moses, David and Solomon had established in Los Angeles after their recent move from Sacramento. This store first opened on October 29, 1881, in a 20-by-75-foot room on Main Street near Requena Street and was original known as The People's Store featuring clearly printed "One Price" tags. In 1882, only one year later, Hamburger's moved to the Ponet-Bumiller Block at 45 North Spring Street (post-1890 numbering: 145 North Spring), southwest corner of Temple, in
588-541: The then-named A. Hamburger & Sons (founded in 1881 by Asher Hamburger). Both chains had operated exclusively in Southern California until 1989 when May Department Stores had dissolved its Goldwaters division, based in Scottsdale, Arizona , and apportioned its Phoenix metropolitan and Las Vegas, Nevada , stores between the still separate J. W. Robinson's and May Company California. In 1997 Robinsons-May absorbed
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#1732852347036616-458: The time that the Great White Store was opened, the store could boast of having one of the first escalators on the West Coast, several restaurants, a drug store, grocery store, bakery, fruit store, meat market, U.S. post office, telegraph office, barber shop, a dentist, a chiropractor, a medical doctor, an auditorium, an electricity and steam power plant in the basement that was large enough to support
644-557: Was a subsidiary of May Department Stores and merged with May's other Southern California subsidiary, J. W. Robinson's , in 1993 to form Robinsons-May . May Company California was established in 1923 when May acquired A. Hamburger & Sons Inc. . (founded in 1881 by Asher Hamburger ). The company operated exclusively in Southern California until 1989 when May Department Stores had dissolved Goldwater's , based in Scottsdale, Arizona , and transferred its Las Vegas, Nevada store to May Company California. Two well-known stores were
672-422: Was also located on the fifth floor. Circa 1912, there was a temporary free public menagerie on the fourth floor of 50 animals including a cassowary , a sun bear , an orangutan , a 28 ft (8.5 m)-long python, monkeys and iridescent birds. The store continued to expand until it took up the entire block bounded by Broadway, Hill, 8th and 9th. In 1923, a nine-story addition was built on Hill Street. With
700-574: Was bought by Strategic Marks in 2012 and is currently owned by them to this day, with plans to revive the brand in the future. Strawbridge's added to division in 1996 Meier & Frank added to division in 2002 ; Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution (2001, to Meier & Frank) May Company California May Company California was an American chain of department stores operating in Southern California and Nevada , with headquarters at its flagship Downtown Los Angeles store until 1983 when it moved them to North Hollywood . It
728-607: Was later merged with Robinson in 1993. After closing, the Streamline Moderne style building was sold to Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1994 and is currently slated to house The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures . The store is now the site of Nordstrom Rack (level M1), Target (level M2), and H&M (level M3). Strawbridge's added to division in 1996 Meier & Frank added to division in 2002 ; Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution (2001, to Meier & Frank) Hill Street (Los Angeles) Hill Street
756-433: Was originally laid out in 1849 by Edward Ord . At that time, the street ended in the north at 1st Street, where the foot of Fort Hill sat. The stretch of modern Hill Street north of the old hill was originally named Calle del Toro (Bull Street), was renamed Castelar in 1874, and finally renamed North Hill in 1960. The Metro B Line and Metro D Line run underneath Hill Street between 1st and 4th Streets and operate
784-524: Was the largest suburban department store in the world. The North Hollywood store, opened in 1955 and originally marketed as part of the Valley Plaza shopping district, was a very large at 452,000 square feet (42,000 m ), and claimed to be the second-largest suburban branch department store in the country, outsized only by a branch of Hudson's in suburban Detroit. On October 17, 1992, May Company California's parent, May Department Stores , announced
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