The Coffee Pot Cafe (Long Beach, California)

USA / California / Long Beach / Long Beach, California / East Fourth Street, 955
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955 E 4th St.
Long Beach, CA 90802

This small building exemplifies a type of architecture known as "programmatic," in which the building form is based on a common object and serves as a large-scale sign advertising the business contained within. Such novelty buildings were popular in the `thirties, a kind of roadside vernacular architecture arising concurrently with the growing popularity of the automobile; the fantasy design was meant to be eye-catching at high speed. Other examples of this architecture are the Brown Derby Restaurant (Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles); I Scream ice-cream parlor in an ice-cream cone-shaped building. Such buildings flourished, particularly in Southern California, in association with our automobile culture. Today, most of these buildings have been destroyed for new development.

The coffee pot-shaped restaurant, with octagonal sides echoing the gigantic rooftop coffee pot, is a survivor of this period and reflects cultural attitudes of that time. Another Long Beach example, now gone, was Tee Pee's Barbecue, a Belmont Shore restaurant shaped like an Indian teepee.

Built in 1932, the unusual design of the building to resemble a coffee pot reflects a distinctive architectural style popular at a singular period of history. Programmatic architecture flourished in the `thirties as a novelty building to attract the attention of passing motorists. These buildings were small scale commercial buildings, each one of which was distinct and individual. Later they evolved into "theme" buildings, such as the Van De Kamp windmill, in which one design became a standardized product used in many different locations.

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Coordinates:   33°46'18"N   118°10'48"W

Comments

  • The I Scream Ice Cream place was actually an owl, with headlight from a Buick for eyes.
  • Hoot Owl Cafe is in the shape of an owl. The head rotated; the eyes, made from Buick headlamps, blinked; the sign: Hoot hoot, I scream, used elements of a theater marquee. For over 50 years, Tillie Hattrup ran this L.A.-area refreshment spot designed and built by her husband, Roy in 1926-27. It was demolished in 1979.
This article was last modified 17 years ago