Young Again : Historic Market Building, Damaged in Riots, Is Back in Business

When the Pico-Union neighborhood was rocked by rioting last year, one of the hardest hit buildings was historic Young’s Market, a sort of Jurgensen’s of the Jazz Age, which in recent times had housed a more plebeian shopping arcade.

A blaze set by looters gutted the retail booths inside the 68-year-old Italian Renaissance Revival structure and left its sturdy outer walls smoky and pockmarked. Later, other looters broke in and walked off with valuable tiles and architectural metals.

After extensive repairs, the city’s historic-cultural monument has reopened.

A gleaming red banner outside screaming “Union Swapmeet” looks a bit jarring tucked between the building’s imposing granite columns and della Robbia-style friezes. And inside, neon has replaced the chandeliers. But what matters, say merchants and preservationists, is that a piece of the city’s history remains alive.

“You can almost feel the people who have been in here before,” said Lily Choe, whose family’s jewelry shop recently returned to the building. “And it’s wonderful to know . . . it’s still standing.”

According to a survey sponsored by the state Office of Historic Preservation, more than 100 of the nearly 1,200 buildings damaged or destroyed in the 1992 civil unrest were historically, architecturally or culturally significant. Among them were 42 buildings eligible for consideration for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, either separately or as part of historic districts.

Most of these mainly pre-1945 structures suffered little more than shattered windows or looted storefronts and have reopened.

The five-story Bradbury Building at Broadway and 3rd Street, a national historic landmark, escaped with broken windows and fire damage to street-level retail interiors. And the venerable Art Deco-style former Bullocks Wilshire department store suffered looting rather than structural harm. It reopened after the riots but later closed because of the recession and the business woes of its parent company, R.H. Macy & Co.

“Overall, in looking at the damaged buildings and the degree of damage to significant structures, we fared fairly well,” said Christy J. McAvoy, a Hollywood-based historical architecture specialist who helped supervise the state survey.

Moreover, some buildings deemed significant, such as an Adray’s appliance outlet on Wilshire Boulevard with minor damage, or a Tru Value Hardware at Western Avenue and 48th Street that was destroyed by fire, might seem questionable calls to all but the most ardent preservationist.

Arguably the worst structural loss in the riots was the main headquarters of Broadway Federal Savings at Broadway and 45th Street, which burned to the ground.

Architecturally, the 62-year-old building’s streamline Moderne facade and interior were designed, during a 1954 alteration, by prominent black architect Paul R. Williams. Culturally, the thrift office, which originally housed a five-and-dime store, stood out as the home base of the oldest African-American-owned banking institution west of the Mississippi. Historically, the fire destroyed an art collection, the civil rights-related papers of thrift founder Claude Hudson, and the office records of architect Williams.

A 3,600-square-foot modular office opened last year as a temporary replacement for the gutted structure. But no groundbreaking date has been set for a new building.

In recent months, extensive renovations have been undertaken at two of the hardest-hit structures of significance--the Young’s Market building at 7th Street and Union Avenue and the old Schaber’s Cafeteria (more recently a Carl’s Jr.) on Broadway near 6th Street--both designed in the 1920s by architect Charles F. Plummer.

Despite pronouncements from City Hall that the rebuilding process would be streamlined for riot victims, managers of the buildings complain that their efforts were hindered by city permit officers.

In the case of Young’s, the city and the building manager agree that delays stemmed from city officials’ concerns that original mosaic and tile work be catalogued and preserved. On the other hand, the owner of Schaber’s contends that the permit process bogged down in his case precisely because he sought to maintain the historical integrity of his building.

“Notwithstanding all the public pronouncements of help and expedited permitting and so forth, they’ve been really putting constant obstacles in my way,” said Walter Thomson , owner of the two-story Spanish Colonial Revival cafeteria building.

The Schaber’s building, located in the midst of the Broadway theater and commercial district that is included in the National Register, fell victim to arson on the second day of rioting.

Little could be saved except for the terra cotta facade. But Thomson, in memory of his wife, who died three weeks before the riots, decided to preserve the facade and rebuild the interior with “the flavor of the old building.”

“You might say it’s a labor of love,” Thomson said. Unfortunately, he added, the decision has proven costly and time-consuming.

Negotiations for a building permit took four months, with city building officials raising objections to flourishes including a circular staircase and the facade itself.

“The process wasn’t streamlined at all,” said Thomas Michali, of M2A Architects in Hollywood. “The only thing they did was tag our file ‘riot-damaged.’ From there on, it took as long if not longer (than usual).”

Nick Delli Quadri, a supervisor with the city Building and Safety Department, said that safety considerations played a role in any delays. “The problem is we’re not going to allow someone to go in and put up a building that’s unsafe--they have to comply with current codes.”

If anything, Delli Quadri said, the building’s historic status helped win final approval of building plans, which did not fully meet today’s tougher building standards. “A number of items were appealed and then approved of,” Della Quadri said. “It requires haggling and negotiations.”

Thomson had planned to reopen last month, but now is shooting for October. He estimates that the city’s demands have cost him at least $200,000, including nearly $10,000 a month for security guards to protect the downtown building site, which borders on a passageway referred to as “Crack Alley.”

Los Angeles officials say it took Young’s Market two months to win a building permit because the owners, Norman and Miriam Gabay of Beverly Hills, were required to comply with city Cultural Heritage Commission preservation guidelines.

“Basically, we were looking to see no further damage was done by removal of any of the historic fabric of the building during the reconstruction,” said Jay Oren, the commission’s staff architect.

McAvoy, whose firm was hired by the commission to supervise the cataloguing, said: “The goal (of the current owners) was not restoration. It was to get a business back up and running.”

Young’s, an elegant gourmet food and housewares shop when it opened in 1925, later was turned into a hardware store. For the past decade, it has housed dozens of booths stocked with jewelry, children’s clothes and toys, shoes and 3-for-$10 T-shirts.

Most booths are run by first-generation immigrants born in Korea, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras or Mexico who are trying to eke out a living by opening their first small business.

Unfortunately, few of those who owned booths before the riots have returned, said swap meet manager Steve Lackey, because they had no insurance or received little or no government aid for their losses.

Since starting up a few weeks ago, business has been extremely slow, merchants say. Some blame the economy and others, an inadequate promotional effort by the building’s management.

“Maybe people don’t know we’re open yet,” said Alba Vasquez, a former housekeeper who sells merchandise ranging from food storage containers to men’s underwear in her mezzanine booth.