Stuck in traffic, generations of commuters doubtless have let their irritated gazes wander off to the south side of the Santa Monica Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, across from Staples Center, and idly wondered how the curiously impressive and quaint-looking old building there came to bear the equally quaint name Patriotic Hall.
The building, an island of Los Angeles County property in the midst of the city of Los Angeles, was completed 75 years ago next Saturday, built as a gesture of civic appreciation to the doughboys of World War I.
Over succeeding decades, it became a monument to all veterans, a speaking site for U.S. presidents and military generals, a party hangout for police officers, a temporary courthouse, a hotel and nightspot for servicemen, and an armory and fortress where aging World War I veterans organized themselves as the Home Guard militia to defend Los Angeles against any Japanese invasion during World War II.
The spot on Figueroa Street near 18th Street was not chosen at random. Over the last 115 years, three Patriotic Halls have risen on the same site. In 1886, the Grand Army of the Republic--a Civil War veterans organization and one of the city's most powerful groups--built a three-story gabled Victorian house on part of a 30-acre bean field. The GAR kept strict records of the honorable Civil War veterans who became members. The group also allegedly kept a black book of those whose membership applications were rejected for dishonorable behavior such as desertion, womanizing, drunkenness and unpaid debts.
As the veteran population swelled from the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, the Victorian house came down, and in 1907 a larger, two-story building went up. More than a decade later, as veterans returned from World War I, this structure also became too small for the first American Legion post in Southern California, Post 8.
Former California Gov. Henry T. Gage, who owned several lots surrounding the hall, stepped in and deeded his land to Los Angeles County for the sole purpose of building a bigger and better facility for veterans. Buron Fitts, the state commander of the American Legion and soon to be Los Angeles County's district attorney, pulled strings to make sure the hall went up. On Sept. 1, 1926, the 10-story, neo-Italian Renaissance steel structure, built with county funds at a cost of $800,000, opened to the public, defining the area's skyline.
