It's the first thing you see on your left from the water as you enter the main channel of the Port of Los Angeles, right after passing the Angles Gate Lighthouse.
That massive building with the water tower on top is Warehouse No. 1, and it was crucial to the establishment of the Port as an international facility.
Construction began in 1915, and the half-million square-foot building was completed in 1917.
Warehouse No. 1 under construction in 1916. Port of Los Angeles photo.
Its location was ideal, with wharfs on its west side where ships could dock, and railroad tracks just on the other side of Signal Street running down its left side.
Railroad tracks can be seen on the west side of Warehouse No. 1 in this 1917 photo taken shortly after the facility opened. Port of Los Angeles photo.
The six-story structure cost $476,000 to build. It was constructed out of reinforced concrete, and equipped with elevators and roof-mounted hoists for handling all types of cargo.
The distinctive water tank on its roof was part of the original building, and was built for fire prevention.
In the 1920s, the roof of Warehouse No. 1 also became the home of the Marine Exchange, the agency that monitors ships leaving and entering the port. In 1928, the Marine Exchange completed a new building offering panoramic views of the port, with a distinctive red beacon on top. The Exchange operated there until the 1980s. The warehouse roof also was the site of a weather station for many years.
The building was a key player in port activities from the moment it opened in 1917 up through the 1970s, when the arrival of containerized cargo lessened the need for warehousing. For years, it was the Port's only bonded warehouse.
It is still a working warehouse more than 90 years after it was built. On April 21, 2000, Warehouse No. 1 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Warehouse No. 1 dominates the landscape as you enter the main channel of the Port of Los Angeles.
Sources:
Port of Los Angeles: An Illustrated History From 1850 To 1945, by Ernest Marquez and Veronique De Turenne, Angel City Press, 2008.
"Port of Los Angeles Virtual History Tour: Warehouse No. 1," Port of Los Angeles website,
http://www.laporthistory.org/level3/warehouse_2.html.
Leave a comment