Desmond's

Desmond's was a Los Angeles-based department store, during its existence second only to Harris & Frank as the oldest Los Angeles retail chain, founded in 1862 as a hat shop by Daniel Desmond near the Los Angeles Plaza. The chain as a whole went out of business in 1981 but Desmond's, Inc. continued as a company that went in to other chains to liquidate them. Desmond's stores in Northridge and West Covina were liquidated only in 1986 and survived in Palm Springs into the first years of the 21st century. Origins as a hat store In 1862, the second year of the American Civil War and the 16th year that the US ruled California, Daniel Desmond arrived in the state via clipper ship via Cape Horn, Chile, as there was no transcontinental railroad. Los Angeles had a population of less than 4,500 and Desmond opened a hat shop on the Los Angeles Plaza. It measured only a few square feet and he was the only employee. Popular styles included tall, plush "toppers" that dandies wore, and wide-brimmed, flat-crowned "fiesta" hats popular with the Californio dones (gentlemen). Desmond was a member of the volunteer fire department. Locations as a single store In 1870 Desmond and other leading retailers moved to the Temple Block (Los Angeles) on Main Street. In 1882, Desmond moved to no. 4 North Spring St., leading other retailers in moving to a new central business district around First and Spring streets, which was, according to the Los Angeles Times in 1937, "the rendezvous for socialites from San Francisco to Baja California". Desmond's opened in the Nadeau Block there.