Ralphs Grocery Store, Historic grocery store in Westwood Village, Los Angeles, US.
Ralphs Grocery Store is a retail building with Mediterranean design in Westwood Village, Los Angeles. The structure features a cylindrical rotunda topped with a saucer dome, extending through covered walkways that connect to northern and eastern sections.
Built in 1929, it was one of the six original buildings anchoring Westwood Village when the area first developed alongside the UCLA campus. The store served as a foundational business in establishing the neighborhood's commercial character.
The corner rotunda and its dome became landmarks of Westwood Village, and early advertising for the development used images of the Ralphs tower and the Janss dome. The store opened in fall 1929 with a free food show; Ralphs advertised uniformed boys who wrapped each purchase at the cashier's stand and carried it to the customer's car. The corner space later held Daphne's Greek Cafe and Togo's, then a Peet's Coffee & Tea from 2008 to 2020, and Alfred Coffee from 2021.
The building stands at the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Lindbrook Drive, one block north of Wilshire Boulevard. The corner rotunda is the easiest landmark to orient by; the arcaded wings run north along Westwood and east along Lindbrook. The ground floor is occupied by shops and eateries, so the corner space changes tenants from time to time.
Photographer Ansel Adams documented the building through photographs in 1940, capturing its role in Los Angeles's early commercial development. These images remain an important visual record of how the structure appeared during a formative period of the city.
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