Harris & Frank flagship store at 635-9 S. Hill St. in Downtown Los Angeles, opened in 1925.

Harris & Frank was a clothing retailer and major chain in the history of retail in Southern California, which at its peak had around 40 stores across Southern California and in neighboring states and regions. Its history dates back to a clothing store founded by Leopold Harris in Los Angeles in 1856 near the city's central plaza, only eight years after the city had passed from Mexican to American control. Herman W. Frank joined Harris in partnership 32 years later in 1888.^[1]

Leopold Harris

Harris was born in 1836, Löbau, then in the Province of Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia, now Lubawa, Poland, brother of Morris Herschkowitz. The town was also the birthplace of prominent Los Angeles businessman Harris Newmark and of the Jacoby Brothers, who also founded a major Los Angeles department store. Harris' original name was Lewin Herschkowitz. He arrived in the United States, in 1852 or 1853, spent time in Kentucky, then traveled via Nicaragua together with fellow Löbauer Harris Newmark, to California, arriving in October 1853. Leopold Harris decided to enter business in the new Mormon colony of San Bernardino, California. After several months there and some time outside the U.S., he returned to Los Angeles and founded the London Clothing Company.^[2]

He became a U.S. citizen two years later. In 1868 he married Minna Jastrowitz, sister of his business partner Benno Jastrowitz.^[3] He died in 1910 on Long Island, New York on his way back to Los Angeles after falling ill on a trip to Europe.

Historic photos

• 
  Sign for "Harris & Jacoby, successors to H. W. Hellman", forerunner to both Harris & Frank and Jacoby Bros., in the Old Downey Block around 1870. At right are signs for M. Kremer’s and S. Lazard’s stores, both forerunners of the City of Paris department store
• 
  1878 ad for Quincy Hall in city directory
• 
  At far right, "L. Harris" sign is visible, when Harris' Quincy Hall store was located at 54 N. Main St. (old numbering, loc. approx. 308 N. Main today), c.1878
• 
  Harris & Frank's London Clothing Co., with its landmark clock, visible at far right in Allen Block. View south on Spring St. from Temple, c.1883–1894. The towers in the background are the Phillips Block; the two larger buildings to its right are the Jones Block and (with turrets) City of Paris.
• 
  London Clothing Co., 119–125 N. Spring, c.1894-1900
• 
  Another view of the 119–125 N. Spring store. Roofline sign: "SEE US FOR OVERCOATS"
• 
  Inside the 119–125 N. Spring store, 1903
• 
  Leopold Harris late 1800s
• 
  Herman W. Frank in 1888
• 
  Herman W. Frank in 1902

History

Harris's first store, then called The London Clothing Co., was on the Los Angeles Plaza. Harris, alone and with partners, operated a succession of locations, each time further southwest from the Plaza, as the main shopping district moved in tandem.

By 1870,^[4] Harris joined Isaac, Nathan, Charles, Abraham, and Lessor Jacoby to buy out Herman W. Hellman's store, to form Harris & Jacoby, which was not only a forerunner of Harris & Frank but of Jacoby Bros., which would grow into a department store that would do business in Los Angeles through the 1930s.^[5] The Jacoby brothers, also came from Löbau.^[5]

From 1876 to 1882 the store operated as the Quincy Hall Clothing House, at 63 Main St., (pre-1890 numbering), in the Downey Block.^[6] (at the time, Commercial St. ran eastward from Main St. just north of Temple St.)^[7]

In January 1883, Harris entered into partnership with Benno Jastrowitz (born 1852, like Harris in Löbau, West Prussia),^[8] brother of his wife Minna Jastrowitz, as L. Harris & Co..^[9]

By February 1883, the Quincy House store had closed and the new L. Harris & Co. store was doing business on the south side of Temple Street in a building that stretched the short distance between Spring and New High streets: 129–131 Spring and 5-7-9 New High streets, in the pre-1890 numbering.^[10] This is currently the north end of the Los Angeles City Hall block.

In July 1886, Harris and Jastrowitz re-added the moniker London Clothing Co.^[11]

On June 4, 1888, Jastrowitz sold his part of the business partnership to Herman W. Frank (b. 1860, Walla Walla, Washington), who started as a clerk in Harris' store and married Harris' daughter Sarah.^[12] Thus, the business came to have the name it would bear for over a century: Harris & Frank.^[1]

By 1894, the store was at 119–125 N. Spring at the southwest corner of Franklin St.^[13][14]

By 1905, the store moved further south to 337–341 S. Spring St., between Third and Fourth streets.^[15] For a few months operated concurrently with the Spring and Franklin store.^[16]

In 1907, the store moved just a block south to 447–443 S. Spring St., between Fourth and Fifth streets.^[17]

In 1925, Harris & Frank moved further south and west to 635–639 S. Hill St.,^[18] one block west of Broadway, which had become the main shopping thoroughfare. The building now houses the Wholesale Jewelry Mart.^[19]

In 1947, Harris & Frank merged with Brooks Clothing Co. which was located at 644 S. Broadway.^[18][20] By doing so, Harris & Frank added a second downtown location at the former Brooks store at the Joseph E. Carr Building, 644 S. Broadway.^[20]

In 1950, they closed the Hill Street store which had was only a block west of the Broadway store.

In 1980, they closed their final downtown location at 644 S. Broadway.^[21]

Locations

Locations over the decades included:

• Downtown Los Angeles, final two locations:
  • 635–639 Hill St., 1929-1950 (currently Wholesale Jewelry Mart)
  • 644 S. Broadway, 1947-1980 (originally W. & J. Sloane)
• Buena Park Mall^[26]
• Chula Vista Center, opened 1962
• Culver City: Fox Hills Mall
• Downey, Stonewood Shopping Center^[26]
• East Los Angeles^[27]
• Glendale^[27]
• Hollywood Boulevard at Vine^[27]
• Huntington Park, Downtown on Pacific Blvd. at Gage^[26]
• Lakewood Center
• Long Beach,^[27] 240 Pine
• Northridge Fashion Center
• City of Orange, Mall of Orange
• Pasadena:
  • Downtown (390 E. Colorado Blvd.),^[28] razed^[29]
  • Hastings Ranch Shopping Center, Foothill at Rosemead blvds. (opened 1959)^[30]
• Pomona^[28]
• Santa Ana: Honer Plaza
• San Bernardino,^[27] Court and E streets
• San Diego^[27]
• San Jose^[27]
• Santa Ana^[27]
• Santa Barbara^[27]
• Santa Monica^[27]
• Van Nuys: 6723 Van Nuys Blvd.,^[31] as of 2023 Crunch Fitness
• West Covina: Eastland Center^[28]

Notes

1^ Photographic evidence in Wilson's book shows Harris & Jacoby in the Old Downey Block which was torn down in c. 1870. Also, advertisements for seeds sold at the Hellman store at No. 2 Downey Block, Los Angeles, cease in January 1870^[32] while an ad for the Harris & Jacoby store at No. 2, Downey Block, started appearing in the same newspaper in December 1870.^[33] It is currently difficult to establish the exact date in 1870, that the business changed hands from Hellman to Harris and Jacoby, as online archives for Los Angeles newspapers have a gap between the 1864 (for the Star) and 1873 (when the Herald archives commence).

References