LA History: Cross Roads of the World

LAist has a history expose on architectural original "Cross Roads of the World" (one of the first LA shopping malls). This Art Deco Icon still stands in Hollywood, one of few originals to LA that hasn't been torn down or remodeled into condos.

What I found interesting is how,(as reported by Lindsay Williams-Ross of LAist), the Cross Roads came into being from a murderous past:


"While the Cross Roads was a spectacular shopping complex and tourist attraction, how it came to be is very curious. Mrs. Crawford was the widow of an infamous man named Charles Crawford, known as anything from a prominent West Coast brothel and casino operator nicknamed "Goodtime Charlie", to "the Gray Wolf of Spring Street," to a prominent local politician, to an organized crime boss, or as the "model for some of Raymond Chandler's juicier villains" (Rasmussen). According to a detailed articled about Crawford by Cecilia Rasmussen published in 1999 in the LA Times, "[Charles Crawford's] notorious viciousness and cunning helped take public corruption to a new level in Los Angeles city government in the 1920s." Crawford, however, became most well known in 1931 as a corpse; he and newspaper man Herbert Spencer were shot and killed by former Deputy District Attorney David Clark. The incident took place in Crawford's real estate office, which just happened to be located at 6665 Sunset Boulevard."

READ THE WHOLE LAist ARTICLE