Angelus Funeral Home distinguished itself as one of the most successful Black-owned businesses in LA. This lovely Paul R. Williams building was its home from 1934 through the 1960s – and it still bears his name today.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 17, 2009

The Angelus Funeral Home arose out of the tradition of Black burial societies, which were community groups dedicated to offering the deceased a dignified burial, and to help the living grieve. As the LA population grew, these societies gave way to businesses able to serve their communities with even greater professionalism. Black mortuaries were up there with churches and schools as the most important institutions associated with life cycle events, and funeral directors were respected as community leaders.

Racism was rampant in LA in the early 20th century, and white-owned mortuaries often discriminated against Black clients. So mortuaries like Angelus were doubly important, serving a marginalized clientele and also providing a source of pride for the Black community as they became successful. And Angelus Funeral Home was successful, in fact it would become one of the most successful Black-owned businesses in Los Angeles. And apparently the earliest: according to Angelus’s old website (archived on the Wayback Machine), it was the first Black-owned business to be incorporated in California. 

Angelus was formed in 1922, by co-partners Louis G. Robinson and Fred Shaw. As the superintendent of janitor and elevator service for LA County, Robinson was a powerful political figure, able to get out the Black vote. He was a successful investor, and per the Angels Walk stanchion posted next to the building, the first Black man to buy a lifetime membership in the NAACP. 

After early financial difficulty, Shaw and Robinson had to sell stock to other investors. Within a few years only three directors of the company were left: Robinson, Lorenzo Bowdoin (a philanthropist and special clerk for the US Postal Service), and John Lamar Hill Sr., a funeral director and embalmer from Georgia and a former Pullman porter. The three men soon turned the company around, and built a reputation for customer service that earned them the delightful title “Morticians of Distinction” by the local Black-owned paper of record, The California Eagle.

By the early 1930s the Angelus Funeral Home was in a financial position to commission a new building to house its growing business. They couldn’t have made a better choice for an architect than Paul Revere Williams. As an LA native, and the first Black man to earn his architecture license in California, Williams was a favorite of the South LA Black business community in the ‘20s through the ‘40s. He designed the 28th Street YMCA (visit #74), co-designed the Second Baptist Church (visit #69) and the second Golden State Mutual Life Insurance building in South LA; he also designed homes for elite white entertainers like Lucy & Desi, Frank Sinatra, Lon Chaney, Barbara Stanwyck and more.

Williams’s design for the Angelus Funeral Home showcases his dexterity with historical styles. You’ll see elements of Georgian revival in the doorframes of the entryways, and the elegant proportions of the interior (including a graceful circular staircase, a signature Williams move). There’s a touch of Spanish colonial revival in the clay tiles of the roof. On the narrow corner of the wedge-shaped property, Williams placed a fountain within a curved bay, with a bright neon sign advertising the business, viewable from Central Ave. 

The Paul R. Williams Project website describes it: 

Williams created a building described as “a tribute of farewell to those who pass through its doors on their last journey and a consolation to their loved ones who remain.” To accomplish this he created a tasteful, elegant drawing room, one of the largest and finest mortuary church chapels in the area, private “slumber” rooms, and a nursery for small children. Mindful of the living, Williams included many of his up-scale signature touches—banks of windows with views of patios, fountains, flowers and extensive landscaped areas. These were design elements not found in any other mortuary of that era.

Paul R. Williams Project website

Even after the Angelus Funeral Home outgrew the 1934 building, Williams continued his starring role in its story. The business hired him again to design the new, larger mortuary when it moved to Crenshaw Blvd. in the ‘60s. After years of vacancy, the original building on Jefferson turned into a community center in the early 2000s (named the Paul R. Williams Cultural and Historical Family Community Center). And in 2019, it was brought back to life as part of an affordable housing complex called – what else – the Paul R. Williams Apartments. 

Recommended Reading/Viewing

+Angelus Funeral Home’s NRHP nomination form

+Angelus Funeral Home, Los Angeles, CA (Paul R. Williams Project)

+Black Leadership in Los Angeles: John Lamar Hill II (Interviewed by Ranford B. Hopkins, UCLA Department of Special Collections, 1984)

+Angelus Funeral Home History (archived version of AFH website)

+Angeles Funeral Home website