Venue: Bumiller Building
Town: Los Angeles, US

The Bumiller Building is a residential building in the Los Angeles Historic Broadway Theater District. Built in 1906 and designed by the architects Morgan & Walls, the Bumiller Building was constructed of reinforced concrete in Renaissance Revival style. Historically the building has been a department store and a theater. In 1906, the Bumiller Building was the home of a department store, the Bon Marché, owned by the Le Sage Brothers. Le Bon Marché occupied the first three floors and basement. Two freight elevators at the back of the building ran from the basement to the third floor for use of the store. The department store liquidated its goods to the J. M. Hale (Hale's) department store in September 1907 and closed, after which the freight elevators fell into disuse and were eliminated. Two Otis passenger elevators in the lobby ran from the basement to the sixth floor. The next month the building became a branch of The Hub, a large clothier that started up in 1896 whose main store was at 157 N. Spring Street. As the Broadway Theater District evolved, New York-based Eden Musée, a theater for motion pictures and vaudeville acts, moved in. With "a show on every floor," Eden Musée attracted audiences with afternoon and evening performances. After Eden Musée left, the Bumiller Building was home to the Wonderland Theater, then the Jade Theater, named for the jade hue of the building's facade. During Prohibition in 1921, firemen were called to the building to put out a blaze caused by a whiskey still, under which a gas fire had been lit. Tenants heard an explosion and when firemen arrived, one room was in flames. Firemen found sour mash and the ten gallon still blown to bits. The man who rented the room had already disappeared. The Bumiller Building, after extensive renovation, is now the Broadway Lofts, a residential rental with 58 apartments. Adaptive Reuse and architecture was completed by Los Angeles architecture firm Omgivning. Caroline Bumiller Hickey (née Gerstenbe