The Biggest Department Store in Town Opens at 8th and Broadway

CITY OFFICIALS (ALL MEN)
HEAD FOR THE RED-LIGHT DISTRICT

Dog-Catchers Arraigned, Charged With Beating Three Who Came to the Defense of a Young Woman;
the Mayor Calls for a Change in the Dog-Catching System

Los Angeles Herald, August 11, 1908

Attendance Put at Over Eighty Thousand

CROWDS VISIT HAMBURGER’S

Moving Stairway and Many Other Ingenious Innovations
Excite the Admiration of Vast Throng of Customers

The seasoned Angeleno has turned tourist this week, making the trip to the city of Hamburger at Broadway, 8th and Hill streets.

More than 80,000 persons visited the new location. . . .

The big building, with its 30.1 acres of floor space, is really 57 varieties of stores in one, for there are that many selling departments, in addition to 12 non-earning departments.

They make up a city of 2,000 employes, with every feature that might be called to make up a city, except, possibly, sleeping facilities. . . .

“Never in the history of Los Angeles have there been such crowds on Broadway as we had today,” said D.A. Hamburger. . . .

Mayor A.C. Harper . . . had introduced Mr. Hamburger, first calling Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants and Manufacturers Assn.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the speakers and audience went to the large roof garden for the flag raising.

The American flag, the California bear flag and those of the city of Los Angeles and of Hamburger’s were raised at the different corners of the building. . . .

The escalator, or moving stairway, leading from the main to the second floor, was a leading attraction, and its capacity of 34 a minute was the usual demand made upon it.

The moving stairway is the only one installed west of St. Louis, and, aside from its attraction as a novelty, is a great convenience to persons who may not wish to use an elevator, since it moves so smoothly that none of the elevator’s disagreeable effect is noticeable. . . .

New features . . . are apparent everywhere.

Not the least striking of these is the delivery system. . . . It does away with any handling of goods on the sidewalk and establishes the highest standards of cleanliness in handling stock.

Curious crowds gathered yesterday at the rear of the Hill Street side of the building to watch the delivery wagons drive up through a passageway from the basement.

All the wagons are loaded in the basement, where the great gravity package carriers bring purchases from all departments.

A special freight elevator system cares for deliveries too fragile or too bulky to permit handling through the gravity carriers.

. . . every detail of the opening moved off smoothly and without a hitch . . . without the loss of a minute’s time in business hour between the closing of the old store Saturday on Spring Street and the opening yesterday morning [on Broadway]. . . .

All departments were fully installed except those on the fourth floor, which will be given over to the restaurant, candy store, groceries, fruits and meat market. . . .

Additional departments, including a buggy and vehicle store and an automobile department, are under . . . consideration.

Customers With Enough Cash in Advance Can Say ‘Charge It’

Another innovation is the advance-credit department . . ., where a customer may leave on deposit any amount not in excess of $500, and then instruct the sales clerks to have purchases paid by the department.

The plan is as easy as saying “Charge it,” with the extra advantage that 4 percent is paid upon deposits, and 6 percent if the depositor agrees to make at least one purchase, no matter how small, once a week.

The officials of the firm have figured that it is worth 2 percent to get a customer into the store. . . .

The transfer-check system of making purchases has been greatly improved . . . and a transfer desk has been placed on the main floor.

Hamburger’s Interior in 1914

Robert Scheer writes in 1994 about the sad fate of this classic building

Los Angeles Herald, August 7, 1908

OFFICIALS VISIT THE RED-LIGHT DISTRICT

The police commissioners, with the mayor, City Attorney Hewitt and the chief of police, held an executive session yesterday afternoon, during which the social evil was the subject of discussion. [This kind of closed meeting would be illegal today under the Brown Act.]

After they had deliberated until they had reached a deadlock, they all piled into one of the city’s automobiles and went down to the questionable district. If any

The plan the mayor favors . . . is to appoint a committee of 100 reputable men and have them make a thorough investigation. . . .

The [Police] Commission would act of the advice of the committee, and the action would be permanent, so far as the present administration is concerned.

Even at the distance of almost one hundred years, this story is amusing!

Los Angeles Herald, August 2, 1908
HARPER SAYS CITY NEEDS NEW DOG SYSTEM

“The ordinance providing for catching dogs is obsolete, and something will have to be done, and done quickly. The city cannot afford to have these broils between dog catchers and private citizens or our streets every day or two.”

That was the opinion Mayor Harper gave yesterday morning when asked for his opinion on the agitation for a new system of dog catching.

“. . . the general public always hates a dog catcher any time and any place. This thing of fights every day or two between the deputy dog catchers and private citizens drives home forcibly the fact that the present system is wrong.

“. . . Mrs. L.E. Giese, who appears to be active in this movement, has been to me

“Mrs. Giese, I believe, will tell you my heart’s in the right place but I am more or less misguided. . . .”

Three dog catchers appeared in Police Justice Chambers’ court yesterday morning to answer to charges of disturbing the peace and battery [beating up another person].

Ernest Britt, E.J. Christopher and Mike Catalina were accused of having committed battery upon A.J. Harris, A. Coplan and Sam Hallner, because the latter men remonstrated with the canine chasers when they were using abusive and profane language to a young woman at First and Santa Fe Avenue Friday

Coplan, the aged expressman, who was badly beaten by the dog catchers, was in court when Britt and his assistants were being arraigned.

The brave old man, whose efforts to prevent a young woman from being insulted resulted in his being brutally beaten, had his head swathed in bandages. . . .

The unkempt appearance and insolent attitude of the three dog catchers did not create a favorable impression . . ., and more than one outside the court expressed the opinion that if such men had the power to capture dumb brutes it was reason enough for the abolition of the dog-catching system. . . .