Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company Office

Project overview.

The former Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company headquarters is a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Founded in 1925 by William Nickerson Jr., Norman Oliver Houston and George Allen Beavers Jr., the company was among the first to offer life insurance to African Americans in Los Angeles when coverage was routinely denied. By 1945, it had become the largest Black-owned business west of the Mississippi River.

The restoration scope included repainting the building to recover its historic appearance, renovating the lobby and auditorium, and restoring the second-floor cafeteria as an employee lunchroom. Plans also called for contemporary open offices on the second through fourth floors and conversion of the fifth-floor executive suite into either SCLARC executive offices or a conference center.