OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Overview

This grand office building, warehouse and showroom covered about 11.5 acres of land in Downtown Los Angeles, and was easily one of the largest (if not the largest) facility of its kind in the world in 1925. The architects Curlett and Beelman modeled the Barker Brothers headquarters on a Renaissance Italian palazzo. The building had a variety of uses--showroom, warehouse, factory, art gallery, tea room--and covered about a quarter of a city block bounded by Flower Street (southeast) West 7th Street (northeast), Figueroa Street (northwest), West 8th Street (southwest).

Building History

The Los Angeles architectural firm of Curlett and Beelman designed this huge office building-factory-warehouse for the Barker Brothers Furniture Company in Downtown Los Angeles, CA. By the time of its completion in 1925, Barker Brothers claimed to be the largest furniture retailer in the world. (See "Barker Brothers," California Commercial Digest, 10/1926, p. 1-2.) It resembled an Italian palazzo in its general form, most notably in its use of rusticated masonry and arched windows of its lower floors. Its model was reputedly the Strozzi Palace in Florence, Italy, (1489-1538).

An early postcard of the building indicated it to be the "largest building of its kind in the entire world devoted exclusively to furniture and home furnishings." The building contained the Ainslie Art Gallery, an auditorium, a galleria on the first floor, a shop devoted to Asian furnishings and a tea room. The building also possessed three pipe organs originally. (See "The New Home of Barker Bros.," Neuner Corporation postcard, c. 1926, author's collection.)

Building Notes

In 2023, the Miami, FL-based architectural firm of Arquitectonica International Corporation occupied space on the 8th floor 0f 818 West 7th Street.

The Los Angeles architectural firm of Steinberg Hart maintained its headquarters in space on the 11th floor of this building in 2023.

Alteration

The Barker Brothers Office Building was renovated for office use in 1984-1985 and during the 1990s.