May Company Building (Broadway, Los Angeles)

May Company Building
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Exterior view of The Hamburger's Store building (later became the May Company) on the corner of Eighth Street and Broadway, Los Angeles, ca.1912
Location in Downtown Los Angeles
Location	801 S. Broadway Los Angeles
Coordinates	34°02′37″N 118°15′18″W / 34.043728°N 118.2548894°W / 34.043728; -118.2548894Coordinates: 34°02′37″N 118°15′18″W / 34.043728°N 118.2548894°W / 34.043728; -118.2548894
Area	1,100,000 square feet (100,000 m2)
Built	1906
Architect	Alfred F. Rosenheim
Architectural style	Beaux-Arts
Part of	Broadway Theater and Commercial District (#79000484)

The May Company Building on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles, a.k.a. Hamburgers/May Company Department Store and the May Department Store Building, currently named the California Broadway Trade Center, was the flagship store of the May Company California department store chain. It is a contributing property to the NRHP-listed Broadway Theater and Commercial District.

By the start of the twentieth century, A. Hamburger & Sons had even outgrown their 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 then current retail district. Construction started in 1905 with a grand opening held in 1908. This location, which was also known as The Great White Store, was the largest department store building west of Chicago at that time and would eventually become the flagship location for the May Company California. At the time that the Great White Store was opened, the store could boast of having one of the first escalators on the West Coast, several restaurants, a drug store with an 80-foot-long soda fountain, grocery store, bakery, fruit store, meat market, U.S. post office, telegraph office, barber shop, a dentist, a chiropractor, a physician's office with a fully equipped operating room, a 1,000-seat 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 men fire brigade, 13 acres of retail space, and 1200 employees. The Los Angeles Public Library was also located on the third floor from 1908 until it was forced to move to a larger location when it outgrew the Hamburger space by 1913. For a short time, Woodbury Business College briefly was also located on the fifth floor.

In 1925, the Hamburgers sold their store to the May family of St. Louis for $8.5 million. Thomas and Wilbur Mays, sons of the founder of the May Company, were sent to manage the former Hamburger store. One of the first things that they did was to expand the store again by building adjacent additions on the other parts of the city block.ain 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 between Eighth and Ninth Streets. The old Hamburger store was officially rename The May Company in 1927.