The Main Street portion of the Italian Hall contained three commercial stores including an Italian tailor’s shop, a saloon, a hardware store and later, a billiard parlor and bicycle shop. In the early 1900s, the Italian Hall’s saloon, owned by Ettore Paggi and Luigi Issoglio, was the most elegant tavern in Los Angeles, popular among the city’s Italian and non-Italian residents. The saloon featured the longest bar in the city made of rich mahogany inset with ornate stained glass. The floor, which remains today, bears the proprietors’ surnames, arranged in mosaic tile, as well as a repeating fleur di lis pattern.
This is one of the thousands of rare and one-of-a-kind photographs in the Italian American Museum’s collection, the only of its kind in the region.
To learn more about our collection, donate photos or other artifacts, or support the collection’s preservation, visit www.italianhall.org or call 213.485.8432.
The mission of the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles is to foster understanding of Southern California’s diverse heritage through research, historic preservation, exhibitions and educational programs that examine the history and continuing contributions of Italian Americans in multi-ethnic Los Angeles and the United States.
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