The Street Seen: Parkhurst Building
2940 Main Street @ Pier
The Parkhurst building was designated as a City Landmark on December 1977, and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978.
The building was built for Clinton Gordon Parkhurst. Parkhurst, a prominent realtor in the Ocean Park - Venice area and who became at the age of 20, ‘boy mayor’ of Venice in 1912, died at the age of 39 in Santa Monica 90 years ago yesterday (December 27,1931).
The Venetian Renaissance (?) style building has host of architectural features that somehow form a cohesive whole. It was constructed in 1927 from a design by prominent architects Marsh, Smith & Powell - although there is some disagreement about whether Herbert Powell or Norman F. Marsh was primarily responsible.
The building was built following the 1926 Main St widening from 40 ft to 80 ft.
The Red car right of way ran behind the building.
While the street address on the building is 2940 Main (and also 181 - 185 Pier), the official Los Angeles County Assessor (APN 4288-008-007) address is 2942 Main on a 70 ft x 78 ft lot (5,660 sq-ft).
The 2-story building has 11.200 sq-ft of building floor area. The wood floor on interior steel columns and perimeter brick masonry walls building had an extensive interior remodel in 1979 - fire sprinklers were added and the unreinforced masonry (URM) structure seismically strengthened. Additional seismic strengthening was performed in 1992 during the Armani Exchange interior remodel.