Stars and Gripes

Today ought to be the most spectacular day of the year in downtown Los Angeles.

Nearly every building, it seems, has a flagpole on its roof. And today is Flag Day.

But don’t look for red, white and blue to be waving from the hundreds of abandoned flagpoles that crown office buildings along Broadway or Spring Street or that top off commercial buildings in the Wilshire district or Hollywood.

Changing architectural tastes--not to mention changing ideas about patriotism and the sluggish economy--are to blame, according to historians, steeplejacks and others for whom Flag Day sets the heart aflutter.

Rooftop flagpoles were as common as window awnings and fire escapes on office buildings constructed in Los Angeles during the first half of this century. The poles were usually positioned dead center at the front of the buildings. Sometimes two of them were erected to anchor a building’s front corners.

National holidays brought the buildings to life as the Stars and Stripes were hoisted on 30- or 50-foot poles topped by basketball-size decorative balls. The fancier buildings--particularly those owned by banks--flew the flag every day.

These days Broadway has a duller look. Accountants and lawyers who once worked there have moved to nearby high-rises.

The street’s mostly 70-year-old buildings have retail shops at street level. But most upper floors are closed. And Thursday the 30 rusting flagpoles counted along a six-block stretch were abandoned.

It’s a shame, said Cathy Gearon, a state and local leader of the American Legion in Los Angeles. Her legion post is planning a ceremony at a Woodland Hills school today to mark Flag Day--first observed in 1877 and declared a national holiday in 1949.

But it’s understandable, said John Alle, a downtown leasing executive whose properties include the half-occupied 1926 Standard Oil Building at Hope Street and Olympic Boulevard. There, he hoists flags at 6 a.m. each day as a way of conveying both “a sense of activity” and of patriotism.

“A lot of older buildings are empty and understaffed. The person in charge just doesn’t have time to deal with a flag,” Alle said.

Flags could give the city a boost, said David G. Cameron, head of the Los Angeles County Historical Landmarks Commission and a downtown preservation activist.

“If they would utilize these things that are just sitting there, it would give these buildings a more occupied look and give downtown a brighter look,” he said. “A flagpole doesn’t require much maintenance. Just a new rope from time to time.”

But Iron Mountain records storage company executive Jeff Bailey discovered that flag-raising was more difficult than he expected when he tried to use a 40-foot pole atop a 14-story tower his company owns on Highland Avenue.

Bailey said it would take a steeplejack to attach a new rope to his hard-to-reach pole. “Architecturally it’s a beautiful building, built in the ‘20s. But why they put the flagpole up there I couldn’t answer.”

It takes steady nerves and a boatswain’s chair to replace a flagpole’s missing rope. Only two steeplejacks are listed in Los Angeles phone books.

One of them is Paul Gavlak, 73, of Woodland Hills. He charges about $200 per pole. “Most people just don’t want to spend the money,” he said.

Pole owners can often easily replace frayed ropes themselves that are still attached to the pulley. That’s what John Piro, building engineer for the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood, was planning to do Thursday. His pole is a mere 4 years old--erected as a promotional event for a recording artist.

You may see more new flagpoles on buildings in the future, said Christopher C. Martin, managing architect for the 90-year-old Los Angeles engineering design firm of A.C. Martin and Associates.

“Flags started to go out of fashion in the late ‘60s, but I think they’re coming back,” Martin said. “Clients are asking for flagpoles.”