Former ‘feminist mecca’ in Chinatown could become Los Angeles landmark
A low-key Chinatown building that for nearly two decades housed a groundbreaking women’s cultural center is queuing up for city landmark status, a city planning filing shows.
The Los Angeles Conservancy filed an application for historic-cultural monument status in July for the structure at 1727 North Spring Street, at the foot of the Spring Street Bridge. Built for the Standard Oil Company in 1914, the three-story structure is designed in the Beaux Arts style by noted architect Myron Hunt.
Cultural commission documents say the Standard Oil building changed hands a couple of times before being leased in 1975 to the Feminist Studio Workshop, “an independent school for women artists” founded by artist Judy Chicago, art historian Arlene Raven, and graphic designer Sheila de Bretteville.
The FSW had been based in Westlake, in a building they had dubbed The Woman’s Building. When the women moved to Spring Street, they kept the name.
Over the next 16 years, “the Woman’s Building provided a space for feminist art education and expression, and played a critical role in establishing women artists in the mainstream art movement,” according to the conservancy.