Ville de Paris (department store) explained

Ville de Paris was a department store in Downtown Los Angeles from 1893 through 1919.

A. Fusenot's Ville de Paris Los Angeles store should not be confused with the unrelated City of Paris store operating in Los Angeles through 1897 operated by Eugene Meyer & Co., then by Stern, Cahn & Loeb; nor with the much more famous City of Paris Dry Goods Co. of San Francisco.

History

French emigre Auguste Fusenot (French Consul in Los Angeles 1898–1907)^[1] arrived in the U.S. in 1873 and soon became a partner in San Francisco's City of Paris store. After learning the business, he founded the Ville de Paris in Los Angeles in 1893. It was operated by the A. Fusenot Co. as a dry goods store. It was located in the Potomac Block at 221–223 S. Broadway between 2nd and 3rd streets^[2] at a time when most stores were located in the Central Business District around Spring, Main, First and Temple streets. The original store measured 3000square feet.

In the latter half of 1905, the store relocated to a space 32 times larger, (96000square feet), formerly the premises of Coulter's, a block away in the Homer Laughlin Building, at 317–325 S. Broadway, extending all the way back through to 314–322 Hill Street.^{[3] [4]} This is the current site of Grand Central Market.

In 1907, Auguste Fusenot died and brother Georges took over management of the store.^[5] In 1915, Fusenot sold his business to the owners of The Emporium (San Francisco),^[5] and in 1917 the Ville de Paris removed to 7th and Olive streets, after J. W. Robinson's opened their flagship store on 7th Street, many blocks to the west of Broadway. The area would become the downtown's upscale shopping district for several decades. The space on Broadway has since been occupied by the Grand Central Market.^[6]

In 1919 the owners sold the 7th and Olive store to B. H. Dyas,^[7] and that the store became B. H. Dyas Co., which itself closed around 1930. The Seventh and Olive building was then occupied by the Los Angeles Jewelry Mart, a constituent of what is now the Jewelry District, part of the Historic Core district.^{[8] [9]}

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Grizzly Bear. 1917.
2. Web site: Ville de Paris 1901 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180909073954/https://calisphere.org/item/3642f24e8a3dd0b0ae47330ae7026e3f/ . dead . 9 September 2018 . Calisphere, University of California Library . 9 Sep 2018.
3. News: Advertisement for Ville de Paris . 17 May 2019 . Los Angeles Herald . August 15, 1907.
4. Web site: Ville de Paris 1904 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180909112104/https://calisphere.org/item/2cf0b63f03454e6af9e6fd1ccbf4086c/ . Image is dated 1904 but it is impossible that the Ville de Paris was in the Homer Laughlin Building that early, since Coulter's left only on May 31, 1905. dead . 9 September 2018 . Calisphere, University of California Library . 9 Sep 2018.
5. https://www.fusenotfoundation.org/georges-fusenot "Georges Fusenot", Fusenot Foundation
6. Web site: Ville de Paris 1916 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180908130434/https://calisphere.org/item/5e939bca64e960773226d8dea4677fff/ . dead . 8 September 2018 . Calisphere, University of California Library . 9 Sep 2018.
7. https://www.berkeleysquarelosangeles.com/2011_08_01_archive.html?m=1 "The Ville de Paris in the Homer Laughlin Building at 317 South Broadway, ca. 1910 … After the Fusenots sold the store in 1915, new owners, with an interest in San Francisco's Emporium, moved it to Olive and Seventh streets across from Coulter's; the business was taken over by the B. H. Dyas Company in 1919 and the name Ville de Paris disappeared from the Ville de Los Angeles a decade later." in Berkeley Square: Resurrecting a West Adams Street Lost to the Freeway, Duncan Maginnis, 2015
8. News: Ville de Paris, 19 years ago and today . 17 May 2019 . Los Angeles Herald . November 9, 1912.
9. Web site: Ville de Paris (Los Angeles) . SkyscraperPage Forum . 8 Sep 2018.