Longtime Deli Downtown to Move a Block

Europa Grocery Co., a family-owned delicatessen that has operated in downtown’s Spring Street area for 75 years, will relocate to the northwest corner of 3rd and Spring streets, adjoining another downtown landmark--Eagleson’s Big & Tall men’s clothing store.

The move is expected by mid-August, said Albert Mansour, the deli’s present owner.

The new location, a six-story building owned by L & R Development, has been occupied by Eagleson’s as its primary tenant for as long as anyone can remember. But in spite of a banner proclaiming the store’s founding in 1867, its newest generation of shopkeepers has kept no records that could assist in tracking either the history of the building or the year of its firm’s arrival on the Los Angeles business scene.

Formerly occupied by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the building’s upper floors have remained empty since the utility’s personnel left in the mid-’60s.

Early newspaper clippings reveal that Eagleson’s was founded by three brothers, John, Robert and Frank Eagleson, who had been tailor’s apprentices in their native Ireland. Expansion of Eagleson’s services from San Francisco to the Los Angeles area apparently occurred in the late 1920s at a previous address at 112-116 S. Spring St.

Europa Grocery, which has had two previous locations, at 321 and 263 S. Spring St., has been located on 4th Street, around the corner from Spring, for the last two years, with a deadline to vacate by the end of this month.

This property, also owned by L & R Development, is targeted for a parking structure that will service planned new state offices across the street and also spaces for public parking.