INTRODUCTION

This is the story of Larchmont Boulevard, a quaint neighborhood street located in the middle of the city of Los Angeles between Melrose Avenue and Third Street. Surrounded by historic neighborhoods that grew up around it, Larchmont has been described as an island of small town in an ocean of urban sprawl. Known as the “village” by locals, Larchmont has easy-angle parking and charming, tree-lined sidewalks that offer the opportunity to shop and stroll and meet and greet as much today as 95 years ago. The result is an enduring sense of neighborhood and community, provoking profound affection for this historic district among newcomers and old-timers alike.

Larchmont was originally named Glenwood according to Los Angeles city archives. The name was changed to Larchmont in 1912, most likely after the residential village on Long Island Sound. Los Angelenos were mostly transplants from the East Coast and imported much of that ethos to their new home, creating a better, sunnier version of where they left. Los Angeles city records show improvements to the street, including sewers and street curbs constructed around that time. Between 1900 and 1920, the population of Los Angeles exploded. In 1900, the Los Angeles city population was 102,479; by 1910, it had tripled to 310,198; and by 1920, it swelled to 576,673. That five-fold increase is central to understanding the nature of Los Angeles and the neighborhoods built by these newcomers that would create the city of today.

Julius J. La Bonte and his business associate Charles Ramson were among those newcomers. They were successful businessmen who came to Los Angeles with their families to retire and enjoy the Southern California climate.

Born in Traverse City, Michigan, in 1879, La Bonte married the former Pauline Leitelt of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1910. He sold his general store in Traverse City to manage the Leitelt Iron Works and Foundry in Grand Rapids for his wife’s family. La Bonte was ready when World War I increased the demand for metal. The family business was so successful, he sold it to his employees in 1919 and retired to Los Angeles in 1920. The La Bonte family wintered in Los Angeles and knew it well. They bought a house at 340 South Arden Boulevard. “It was a huge house, built by the Stanton Lumber heirs,” recalled their only daughter, Charlotte La Bonte Lipson, in an interview with the Larchmont Chronicle in November 1991. “When he arrived in Los Angeles, my father wanted something to do. He walked all around this area and met with a number of city planners and decided that commercial real estate was the way to go,” explains Lipson. La Bonte bought lots along the boulevard when the streetcar line was extended to run north on Larchmont from Third Street up Melrose Avenue to the Hollywood Mineral Hot Springs.

In September 1921, The Los Angeles Times reported that Julius La Bonte and Charles Ramson purchased seven lots on Larchmont Boulevard to create a business district of 30 stores between First Street and Beverly Boulevard. He was credited with building 70 percent of the structures on the street as well as having the vision to create the first neighborhood shopping street in the city of Los Angeles that catered to the adjacent new neighborhoods of Larchmont Heights (now known as Larchmont Village), New Windsor Square (now known as Windsor Square), and Hancock Park. According to the Times, every store was leased before the buildings were finished. Streetlights fitted to railway power poles makes this “one of the best illuminated sections of the city.”

“My father always had a very clear idea of what Larchmont Boulevard should be,” Charlotte Lipson recalls. “He always saw it as a service street for the carriage trade of Windsor Square and Hancock Park. It was the first neighborhood shopping center in Los Angeles.”

La Bonte’s original buildings were Mission Revival–style architecture with clay tile roofs. Early shops and businesses included the Windsor Square Pharmacy, Larchmont Cafe, Larchmont Electric Company, AA Carpet Company, and Larchmont Motor Service Station, which sold ARCO gasoline at the corner of First Street and Larchmont Boulevard.

“J.J. La Bonte was the one who put the money together with the dream,” says Lipson. “Except for one building at 124 North Larchmont, which he built as an investment for his family. He financed the other buildings by selling their mortgages to his contacts in Michigan. His main contractor was Clarence Bean.”

She further recalls, “My father stipulated that his buildings be constructed of brick, because that was the material he was familiar with in the Midwest. He planned for a theater, bank, grocery store, drugstore, bakery, dry cleaners, and candy store and always looked for continuity in the business of his tenants. He knew customers would come back to the same locations.”

Fortunately, La Bonte got out of the stock market six months before it crashed, but when the government closed all the savings and loans during the Depression, the real estate bubble burst. La Bonte sold all his properties except for the one he owned outright and the one his daughter (who married Jack Lipson, a plumber who rented office space from her father) still holds today. In 1982, Lipson chose to save the building, renovate it, and bring it up to seismic code at great expense rather than tear it down. “I didn’t have the heart to demolish it,” she told the Larchmont Chronicle in November 1991. “I owed it to Larchmont not to.”

After the Depression, life changed for the well-healed residents surrounding Larchmont; however, the next generation, no longer able to afford their own houses, returned to their family homes to raise their children. This brought life back to Larchmont. By 1940, there were over 40,000 people employed in the film industry, many at the movie studios located next door to Larchmont. The population of Los Angeles was 1.5 million.

Despite the tumult surrounding Larchmont, La Bonte’s legacy of continuity among businesses remained. While stores would come and go, they were generally operated by the same kind of owner, usually a small businessperson who lived nearby. By all accounts, it was the personalized service offered by these shops that gave the street its appeal. The notion that everyone knew everyone was real and lasted until well after La Bonte died in 1968.

The railway tracks were removed in 1955, and the 1960s brought innovations to the street like parking meters and street trees, which were heralded at the time but now pose a hazard, pulling up the concrete sidewalks. However, Larchmont retained much charm and quaintness thanks to the efforts of business owners who formed the Larchmont Boulevard Association in 1965 to beautify and promote the street. Early events included art shows, pet shows, parades, and holiday decorations along the street. The annual Larchmont Family Fair continues, as does the Taste of Larchmont, a fundraiser supporting efforts to end homelessness that highlights restaurants and food establishments and reflects another evolution in the composition of businesses on the street.

As real estate values and affluence increased in the sounding neighborhoods so did the value of Larchmont. The 1980s marked the disappearance of old-time, family-owned businesses. Increased rents priced out the wide variety of small businesses that offered typewriter ribbon, sewing needles, and screws.

In a 1990s effort to preserve the neighborhood and the stores residents used regularly, zoning restrictions were passed to limit the number of banks, escrow companies, real estate offices, and restaurants on the street. To some extent it has worked, but to a large degree change has come. Still, Larchmont remains quaint, charming, and beloved by residents and newcomers alike.