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Building History

In 1897, the East Liverpool, OH, ceramics tycoon, Homer Laughlin (1843-1913), sold minority interests in his company, the Homer Laughlin China Company, to two other investors and retired to Los Angeles, CA. For Laughlin, the architect John Parkinson (1861-1935) designed an office building billed as Los Angeles's first steel-reinforce concrete "fireproof building." The Homer Laughlin Building was the first office building west of the Mississippi to employ concrete floors for fire resistance.

Building Notes

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) operated a Los Angeles office in the Homer Laughlin Building in the early part of the 20th century.

Alteration

Architect Harrison Albright (1866-1932) supervised a building addition, known as the "Homer Laughlin Annex," in 1905. Albright's addition extended the building to cover the full width between Broadway and Hill Street.

Shortly after this 1905 addition was made, the Los Angeles Public Library moved into the new annex, in 03/1906; the library occupied two floors with a roof garden. (See Eighteenth Annual Report, Los Angeles Public Library, for the Year Ending November 30, 1906, [Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles, CA, 1907], p. 1-4.)