May's Department Store (Previously Hamburger's Department Store) 1881-1986

Originally founded in 1881 as the People's Store, this retail outlet grew to become A. Hamburger and Sons and eventually Hamburger's Department Store. This building was constructed from 1905 to 1908 and was the largest department store building west of Chicago at the time. In 1925, the Hamburgers sold their store to the May family of St. Louis. The May Department Store was operated at this location until 1986. The building was vacant for years and was renamed the Broadway Trade Center. Recent plans called for renovations to create a 150-room hotel, office space for creatives, restaurants, a food court, and shops. Redevelopment plans were put on hold by 2025.

The May Company in California can trace its roots back to the store that Asher Hamburger and his sons Moses, David and Solomon established in Los Angeles after moving from Sacramento. This store first opened on October 29, 1881, at Main and Requena, and was known as the People's Store. In a short time, the store expanded into adjacent storefronts and within three years the store had moved to a larger location on Spring Street. By the start of the 20th century, A. Hamburger & Sons had even outgrown the Spring Street location, which had 520 employees working on five floors. The Hamburger family decided to build a much larger store at the southeast corner of Broadway and Eighth, a location that was outside of the then current retail district. Construction started in 1905 and took three years; architect A. F. Rosenheim directed the project. The steel-framed, reinforced concrete structure with brick walls was clad in white glazed terra cotta.

Over 80,000 attended the grand opening held on August 9th, 1908, and marveled at the "moving stairway" (escalator, one of the first on the West Coast).This location was known as the Great White Store and was the largest department store building west of Chicago at the time. The Hamburger's store contained many amenities including: several restaurants, a drug store, grocery store, bakery, fruit store, meat market, U.S. post office, telegraph office, barber shop, a dentist, a chiropractor, a medical doctor, an auditorium, an electricity and steam power plant in the basement that was large enough to support a city of 50,000 inhabitants, a private volunteer 120-man fire brigade, 13 acres of retail space (482,475 sq. ft., larger than all the department, clothing and dry goods stores in the city), and 1200 employees. The Los Angeles Public Library opened in 1908 on the third floor of Hamburgers; it moved elsewhere nearby (the Metropolitan Building) to space rented by the city in 1913.

In 1923, the Hamburgers sold their store to the May family of St. Louis for $8.5 million. The May Company began in Colorado in 1877, selling goods to miners. Thomas and Wilbur May, sons of the May Company's founder, were sent to manage the former Hamburger store. One of the first things they did was expand the store by building adjacent additions on the other parts of the city block. After several more years, the May Company store eventually occupied almost the entire block between Broadway and Hill and 8th and 9th Streets. 

Throughout the 20th century, the May Company opened up a handful of branches in Fairfax (1939), Crenshaw (1947), Lakewood (1952), North Hollywood (1955), West Covina (1957), and Redondo Beach (1959). After this, they expanded into San Diego and Northern California during the 60s, 70s, and 80s. This original downtown flagship store was closed in 1986 and was replaced by a smaller store at Seventh Market Place. Despite this, other branch stores continued to open throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, often in suburban areas.

The former department store building on Eighth and Broadway was renamed the Broadway Trade Center in the 1980s but has mostly been vacant. In 2014, Waterbridge Capital, a New York-based real estate development and investment group helmed by Joel Schreiber, acquired the building for about $130 million. The company announced plans to turn the historic building into a creative campus to attract tech companies and rent office space. The exterior was restored from 2016 to 2017; target date for completion of the transformation initially was given as 2018. Broadbridge LA's recent plans included a 150-room hotel plus 500,000 square feet of office space for creatives and 200,000 square feet for restaurants, a food court, and shops. An interior courtyard and a new rooftop penthouse with a public park space and gardens are part of the proposed project, but redevelopment plans were put on hold by 2025.

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