Gallery

Paul R. Williams served as the architect for the five-story Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company Headquarters Building, erected on the corner of Western and Adams Boulevards in Los Angeles in 1948. David Alexander Wallace acted as Williams’ supervising architect. Founded on July 23, 1925, Golden State Mutual was the largest black-owned insurance company west of the Mississippi. The new home office was officially dedicated in 1949 and the most influential African Americans in Los Angeles attended the dedication including Charlotta Bass, owner/publisher of the California Eagle, shown here with Golden State cofounders Norman O. Houston and George A. Beavers, Jr. (images 7, 8)