Los Angeles Fire Battalion Chief Ray Gomez could tell instantly that the two downtown buildings ablaze early Monday were old -- at least by Los Angeles standards. The mortar between bricks was soft, made before the 1933 introduction of reinforced concrete, making the buildings more vulnerable to heat and water -- and to collapsing on firefighters.
Most others, however, would have a hard time recognizing from appearances any historical value from the buildings at 4th Street and South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. A mix of bridal and \o7quinceanera \f7dress shops, shoe stores, fortune tellers and money repatriation services lined the first floor. Tattered brown shingles sheathed the upper floors, interspersed with placards that said "Watches" and "14 KT $10."
Until the fire, that is.
It took about 160 firefighters roughly 90 minutes to largely extinguish the blaze that lighted the downtown sky at 5 a.m. Monday. By late morning, as they tended to the smoldering remains and secured the site, they began to strip off the shingles. And like some architectural Cinderella turning into a beautiful princess, long-hidden details emerged, revealing the once-dignified buildings beneath.
Not only were there windows on the upper floors, but they were huge and arched. Fluted columns etched the facade.
A check with historical groups revealed that the adjacent buildings were probably built around the turn of the century. The one at 350-354 S. Broadway was designed by architect R.B. Young in about 1895, according to Mike Buhler, director of advocacy at the Los Angeles Conservancy.
Its neighbor at 356-364 S. Broadway had once been known as the O.T. Johnson Building, named after its financier-philanthropist owner. It was designed by well-known architect John Parkinson about 1900. Somewhere along the way, it lost five of its seven stories.
The building had once been sheathed in glazed brick, its ground floor made of iron and glass, with paired columns flanking its main entrance, according to an internal report by the Los Angeles Conservancy. It was one of dozens of buildings Parkinson's firm designed or co-designed in Los Angeles through the 1950s, including City Hall, Union Station, Bullocks Wilshire, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and several buildings on Broadway and Spring Street. About 60 survive in L.A., most of them listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
