Quote:
Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger
Recently the building at the southeast corner of La Brea and Edgewood underwent a major overhaul, and for a time the renovation work exposed a fascinating peek at the building's distant past. I don't know if anyone else took photos and shared them here, so I'll risk it and post mine. I don't know what years it existed as Calers Food Center, but I'll risk a guess at the 1930s/1940s. I love the sunburst design at the top, and I'm really curious about what might have been mounted in those two large horizontal areas...Coca-Cola signs, perhaps?
Sadly, the renovations are done now and the Calers imprint is no longer visible. |
Great pictures,
Handsome Stranger. I always find it fascinating when old signs are revealed during renovations - I'd love to find a vintage picture of the store. You were right with your guess about the age. The property websites list a build date of 1933 for 1150 S La Brea Avenue, and the Caler Grocery Co include that address in their City Directory listings for 1936 (below), 1938 and 1939. Although the company still had nine stores listed in 1942, the one on La Brea wasn't among them.
LAPL
Those signs have done well to survive. I've found at least four companies at that address since Calers closed their doors. These dates are based upon their appearances in the City Directories.
1956-63 Nash La Brea Autos
1965 Hi Performance Motors
1967-73 General Bottle Supply Co
1987 Erecter Set Inc
It's the 1965 company that interests me most. From
'Shelby Cobra Fifty Years' by Colin Comer, "Hi-Performance Motors (HPM) was essentially the Shelby American factory outlet store and owned by Caroll Shelby, Lew Spencer, Peyton Cramer, Al Dowd and Tom Reese. Most factory demonstrators and PR cars were sold at HPM. The dealership operated from 1964 through 1967 and is really
the Shelby dealership."
A post on saacforum.com says the company was at the 1150 South La Brea address until October 1965, when they moved to 901 North Sepulveda Boulevard, El Segundo.
According to
'Shelby Mustang' by Tom Corcoran, the company was still at the La Brea location when Peyton Cramer closed the deal with Hertz for the (in)famous 1966 GT-350H models.
books.google.com
I also found this advert for Hi-Performance Motors.
www.classictiger.com