The Legendary Sears Building:
How it was assembled, packaged, and delivered the American Dream
By Lilly Morcos
Boyle Heights Sears building with Sears gas station in foreground. Image, Courtesy of Water & Power Archives
Among the many landmarks found in East Los Angeles the former Sears, Roebuck & Co. Mail Order Building in the Boyle Heights district, has been a national treasure in a local neighborhood for many generations for nearly a century.
Situated on Olympic and Soto streets, with over 11 acres of warehouse space, it is one of the earliest Art Deco masterpieces in Los Angeles and was designed by architectural firm George Nimmens & Company. The 9-story skyscraper was constructed in 1927 at a record speed of six months and completed just one year before City Hall. The building’s crowning tower stands at over 200 feet, and the Sears signage spelled out in cursive greeted onlookers in a neon green reminder of a prominent new symbol of national commerce and ingenuity. Decades later motorists on the freeway always knew how soon they would arrive home when passing the crowning tower as a compass. There was quite a dazzling opening celebration event and the newly inaugurated Sears was projected to be an economic catalyst for East Los Angeles and beyond. Sears continued to develop its store brands, manufacture products, textiles, and machinery helping to contribute to the industry explosion in the Pacific region and not just on the consumer level.
The East Los Angeles location served as one of the retail chain’s distribution facilities set up in major cities across the United States to help deliver catalog orders faster and more efficiently. The fulfillment center brought hundreds of jobs to the area upon opening its doors. Throughout the years, residents found many employment options and career growth opportunities at what was known as their neighborhood Sears. The company was known for competitive wages and strong retirement packages. The local employees directly contributed to the success of this location and played a strong role in Sears’ reputation for high-level quality customer service with their connections to the neighborhood.
Sears had a legendary impact on American consumerism as well as on Angelenos who came to depend on it for small appliances, general household goods, and auto services to support the emerging car culture. Its innovative spirit and catalog marketing prowess made it the original disruptor of its day. The Boyle Heights distribution center was no different. It was fitted with state-of-the-art features such as networks of conveyor belts and pneumatic tubes to transport merchandise throughout the massive building for loading onto freight elevators and delivery trucks. Employees on roller skates were a common sight to travel through the complex. Angelenos could flip through the catalog and place an order for nearly any product imaginable such as apparel, tools, furniture, and appliances (some issues were 1,500 printed pages!). Until the 1940’s pre-cut kit homes were available nationwide from catalog selections and shipped on rail boxcars redefining and expanding homeownership possibilities.
The Sears Building has soared over East Los Angeles and miraculously survived the Great Depression. Sears was known for being a practical and utilitarian outlet, so when it came time to forgo glamour and focus on necessities, this pragmatic brand had a strong presence and remained standing firm in East L.A. This Sears location preceded two harrowing world wars and with the later advent of every modern convenience imaginable afterwards, Sears and its employees were ready to provide them to customers.
Sears began as a small watch company in the Midwest, and then as a catalog mail-order company, eventually becoming one of the country’s greatest retail success stories. It seemed there was nothing that could stop its growth until the nationwide chain began filing for bankruptcy during the last decade due to corporate restructuring, new consumer tastes and fierce digital competition.
The mail-order center on the upper floors of Sears in East Los Angeles ceased operations in 1992 and most of the features were removed. The retail store on the ground floor remained and was a fixture for residents within the surrounding community to continue to shop and work. But on April of 2021 the doors were locked for good. Sears was forced to have a liquidation sale after a 94-year run. The fate of the building’s future has been tangled in various controversial redevelopment proposals for many years. Developers first sought to convert the beloved building into a mixed- use commercial enterprise with luxury living condos which was met with resistance at many community hearings. The building was later sold and purchased by a new owner and their current proposal is for it to serve as a homeless housing for 5,500 residents along with a rehabilitation campus with various services.
Many who grew up in the area have been posting their stories online of how Sears has been a household name since childhood and share fond personal memories of shopping with parents or grandparents who worked at the retail giant. While it is not clear what the outcome of redevelopment will become, East Los Angeles and greater Los Angeles are very active in trying to preserve the building’s rich legacy and ensure that its new iteration will also serve the nearby community in which it has had close ties with for nearly a century. In 2004, the building was listed as a Historic-Cultural monument and afterwards, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
Despite being deserted while the next chapter is being determined, the Sears building is very much a priority for those who live nearby and hope to see its new life managed by a proper caretaker who honors the legacy of the many people whose lives were impacted by our neighborhood Sears. Many people local and not-so-local will surely be keeping an eye on what the future holds for Sears and East Los Angeles.