Los Angeles Athletic Club

The Los Angeles Athletic Club (LAAC) was founded on September 8, 1880. By the end of its first month of existence the fledgling club counted 60 enlisted members and was able to rent its first facility, two halls located in Stearns Hall on Los Angeles Street in downtown Los Angeles.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7149322/los_angeles_athletic_club_leases/ "Los Angeles Athletic Club Leases Gymnasium,"] Los Angeles Herald, Sept. 26, 1880, pg. 3. A 19th Century history indicates that the club had the dual purposes of "providing its members with the means of physical development" along with "the advantages of a gentlemen's club.Charles F. Lummis (ed.), [https://archive.org/details/9608LosAngelesAthleticClub "Los Angeles Athletic Club,"] The Land of Sunshine [Los Angeles], vol. 5, no. 3 (Aug. 1896). pg. 134.

File:LAAC-ReadingRoom-1896.jpg

The club relocated for the first time in 1881, moving to more commodious accommodations in the Downey Block, before moving again a few years later to a still-larger home in the Stowell Block. A fire in 1893 required moving to temporary quarters in the Workman Block, next door to the previous Stowell Block location. Membership in this latter location soon topped the 400 mark, prompting the construction of the club's own permanent building, a four-story structure with a cavernous gymnasium located on an enlarged third floor. It was located on the east side of Spring Street between 5th and 6th, architects were McCarthy & Mendel.{{Cite news|date=1895-12-28|title=Sporting Budget|pages=16|work=Los Angeles Evening Express|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63036648/los-angeles-athletic-club-new-building/|access-date=2020-11-11}}

The club provided a venue for gymnastics, athletic training, and team sports, including organization of a civic football team which played the inaugural intercity match with San Francisco in January 1892.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7149013/los_angeles_athletic_club_football_team/ "World of Sport: The First Great Ball Game of the Year,"] Los Angeles Herald, Jan. 1, 1892, pg. 5. During its first two decades of existence the club also established an outdoors athletic park, which included a running track and path for bicycling, a baseball diamond, tennis courts, and facilities for croquet.Lummis (ed.), "Los Angeles Athletic Club," pg. 135. It also provided rooms designed for socialization, including an expansive reading room, as well as designated areas for billiards and cards.Lummis (ed.), "Los Angeles Athletic Club," pg. 136.

In 1912 it moved into its own new Los Angeles Athletic Club Building at 431 West Seventh Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The twelve-story Beaux-Arts style clubhouse was designed for the LAAC by John Parkinson and George Bergstrom, and is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The building was notable for being the first in Southern California to have an interior swimming pool built on an upper floor.

Due to its position in the growth and development of Los Angeles, the LAAC had significant success during its first 60 years, with membership reflecting its position in Los Angeles society and early Hollywood culture. During its heyday, the LAAC founded a number of other institutions, including the California Yacht Club (1922) and Riviera Country Club (1926). They are now separate entities.

The club faced significant financial burdens due to World War II and the subsequent growth of suburbs.

Athletes from the LAAC have earned numerous medals in the Summer Olympics, with a particularly high number during the 1932 Los Angeles Olympiad. The total Olympic medal tally for the LAAC is 97 medals, including 47 gold.[https://web.archive.org/web/20161024001124/http://laac.com/about/history/laac-1951-1969/ "LAAC History: 1951-1969,"] Los Angeles Athletic Club web site, www.laac.com/

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• Arthur Alber, Los Angeles City Council member, 1927–29
• L. Frank Baum
• Glenn Berry, Olympic gymnast
• Richard Bishop, Olympic gymnast
• Dallas Bixler, gymnast and Olympic gold medalist
• Ed Carmichael, gymnast and Olympic bronze medalist
• Charlie Chaplin
• Lillian Copeland (1904–1964), Olympic discus champion; set world records in discus, javelin, and shot put
• Reginaldo Francisco del Valle, California State Senator who was instrumental in forming UCLA. California Water Commissioner responsible for bringing water from the Sierras to the city. His wife Helen co-owned the Los Angeles Times. Del Valle was an Attorney.
• George P. Cronk, Los Angeles City Council member, 1945–52
• Vesey Alfred Davoren was the founder and commodore of the Topanga Yacht Club, and was given the sobriquet of "Captain."{{cite news |url=https://www.malibutimes.com/news/article_d90ad6c8-f93b-11eb-97d5-63c07fdbe30c.html |title=Topanga History: The Topanga Yacht Club |first1=Pablo |last1=Capra |newspaper=The Malibu Times |date=August 9, 2021 |quote=In 1924, the Los Angeles Athletic Club bought Topanga Beach with the intention of building a yacht harbor.To promote the cause, British actor Captain Vesey O’Davoren (1888-1989) founded the Topanga Yacht Club in 1928.}}
• Edward L. Doheny
• Mayor Fred Eaton
• Philip "Phil" Erenberg (1909–1992), gymnast and Olympic silver medalist
• Caroline Estes Smith
• Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
• Robert Frederick Foster
• Louis F. Gottschalk
• A. E. Henning, Los Angeles City Council member, 1929–33
• Henry Huntington
• Duke Kahanamoku, member of LAAC swimming and water polo teams, also club's lifeguard
• Georgia Thatcher Kemp (November 22, 1868 – March 9, 1945){{cite book|last1=Binheim|first1=Max|last2=Elvin|first2=Charles A|title=Women of the West; a series of biographical sketches of living eminent women in the eleven western states of the United States of America|date=1928|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenofwestserie00binh/page/58 58]|url=https://archive.org/details/womenofwestserie00binh|accessdate=8 August 2017}}{{PD-notice}}
• Paul Krempel, two-time Olympian in gymnastics
• Harold Lloyd
• Parry O'Brien, Olympic shot put champion
• Colonel Harrison Otis
• Mary Pickford
• George Roth, Olympic Indian clubs gold medalist
• Moses Sherman
• William Desmond Taylor, movie directorhttp://www.silentera.com/taylorology/issues/Taylor40.txt {{Bare URL plain text|date=March 2022}}
• Rudolph Valentino
• Johnny Weissmuller
• Senator Stephen White
• Esther Williams

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• List of American gentlemen's clubs
• List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Downtown Los Angeles

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• Sandi Hemmerlein, [http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/blog/los-angeles-athletic-club-story-la-icon "The Los Angeles Athletic Club: The Story of an LA Icon"], Discover Los Angeles, Aug. 3, 2015.
• Charles F. Lummis (ed.), [https://archive.org/details/9608LosAngelesAthleticClub "Los Angeles Athletic Club"], The Land of Sunshine [Los Angeles], vol. 5, no. 3 (Aug. 1896). pp. 134–138.
• Henry Winfred Splitter, "Los Angeles Recreation, 1846–1900: Part 1," Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 1 (March 1961), pp. 35–68. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41169501 In JSTOR]
• Henry Winfred Splitter, "Los Angeles Recreation, 1846–1900: Part 2", Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly, vol. 43, No. 2 (June 1961), pp. 166–199. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41169519 In JSTOR]

• [http://www.laac.com/ Los Angeles Athletic Club website]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=RnIwCgAAQBAJ&dq=william+desmond+taylor+los+angeles+athletic+club&pg=PA19 List of actors who listed LAAC as their residence]

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Category:Clubs and societies in California

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Category:Sports clubs and teams established in 1880

Category:1880 establishments in California

Category:Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments

Category:1910s architecture in the United States

Category:John and Donald Parkinson buildings