Weatherby-Kayser

The Weatherby-Kayser Shoe Company was a chain of footwear retailers with origins in Los Angeles in the early 1900s. It was founded in 1884 by Bruce Weatherby and Emil Kayser (d. August 26, 1948).^[1]

On December 1, 1902, the store moved to 215 S. Broadway in the B. F. Coulter Building (Potomac Block),^[2] then in 1911 to the Grant Building at 4th and Broadway, following the gradual migration of upscale stores ever further south and west from the Los Angeles Plaza before suburbanization. In 1924, the store had opened branches in Pasadena and Hollywood.^[3] By 1925, the main store was at 416-8 W. Seventh Street, between Olive and Hill, about 17,000 sq ft (1,600 m²) in size, in addition to the 4th & Broadway store and a store at the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard.^[4] In 1925 it opened a 12,000 sq ft (1,100 m²) store at 715–7–9 S. Flower St., in the new upscale shopping area around J. W. Robinson's and Barker Brothers' new stores, which a newspaper at the time called the "Fifth Avenue of the West".^[5]