Before phone numbers became arcane strings of changing area codes attached to hard-to-remember numbers, there were telephone operators who made the connections and there were telephone numbers whose prefixes were distinctive sounding names like Capitol, Metropolitan, Main and Beacon. Humbolt 4241 was the number for the Los Angeles Down Town Shopping News Corporation at 3440 South Hope Street, currently known as USC's East Library. Oral histories tell us that the building was built in 1929 specifically for the printing establishment, which specialized in producing advertising for businesses. One can read in its own advertisement which appeared in the journal Southern California Business that a wide range of services were offered, many of which are no longer employed in this age of computer generated graphics.
Advertisment from the Southwest Business Review,
July 1929
Advertisment from the Southwest Business Review,
August 1929
To re-create the history of the building from printing press to USC library unit one has to rely on mere snippets of textual and verbal information. Articles from the Los Angeles Examiner reveal that from the 1940s and at least through the early 1960s it was the headquarters of the 40th Armored Division of the National Guard. The 40th has a long history reaching back to 1917 when it was formed out of National Guard units of California, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s the building housed local administrative offices and workshops of the California Conservation Corps, a program established to promote the development and maintenance of California's natural resources and environment while providing employment and training to young people.
When USC acquired the building, which was located just south of the May Company warehouse (pictured in 1961) which now serves as USC's Parking Center, in the mid-1980s it was to be used only as library storage. However, over the years staff from various library units have also moved in, some to tend to the repair of materials and others to provide researchers access to various special collections. Currently the building is home to the Library's Bindery and Preservation Office, University Archives, Regional History Collection, and the AIDS Social Policy Archives. It has become part of the complex lovingly known as the "East Campus," which now includes East Library, the Grand Street Depository, University Mailing Services, and the Parking Center and Central Receiving.Readers are invited to contribute to the re-creation of the history of the building if only as local lore. For instance, how many library faculty and staff remember attending Christmas parties at East, how many still refer to the building as the Armory, how many have actually been to East? Please send your reminiscences to taube@usc.edu.
Photo credits: [2nd paragraph] Los Angeles Examiner collecton, circa 1931 ; [3rd paragraph] "Dick" Whittington collection, circa 1961.
