In "Love Street," Jim Morrison called it "the store where creatures meet," as The Hollywood Reporter noted this spring. The same article reports that Cass Elliot slept in the basement, and that the store began stocking Cadbury Flakes because David Bowie kept asking for them. On October 15, 2026, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission took the building at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Kirkwood Drive under consideration as a Historic-Cultural Monument.
The vote moved the store's future from a private sale into a public process. The criteria in that process cover history, notable people and architecture, and the nomination's list of features is made up of brick, signage and a clock face.
A Building Older Than Its Famous Era
The music history gets most of the attention, but the city's staff report tells a longer story. Laurel Canyon was annexed by Los Angeles in 1923. That same year a fire destroyed the Laurel Tavern, the wooden building on the site, and the current two-story brick building replaced it in 1924. From 1925 to 1929, its storefronts housed real estate offices selling lots in the hills around it. Later tenants included a grocery, a drug store and a dry cleaner. Starting in 1937, it was headquarters for more than 30 years to "The Canyon Crier," the neighborhood newspaper.
The Canyon Country Store has occupied 2108 since 1956. Around 1965 it became a gathering place for the folk and rock scene that drew Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa, the members of the Byrds and the Mamas and the Papas, and dozens of others to the canyon. SurveyLA, the citywide survey of historic resources, had already found the property eligible on several grounds. It called the building an excellent and rare example of a 1920s Hollywood Hills neighborhood market, and also cited its role in the music scene of the 1960s and 1970s.
The building had been part of the canyon's commercial life for four decades before the music era began there. The nomination makes its case on that record as much as on the records made nearby.
What the Nomination Asks the City to Keep
The Los Angeles Conservancy's Daniela Velazco filed the application. Her co-applicants are Lisa Kerkhove Koers of Hollywood Unwrapped and Michael Sullivan. The case is CHC-2026-4816-HCM. It covers 2100 through 2108 North Laurel Canyon Boulevard, which takes in the market upstairs and the restaurant space on the lower level.
These are the features the staff report and application describe:
| Where | Feature |
|---|---|
| South facade | Hand-painted "Laurel Canyon" sign set just below the parapet |
| South facade | Centered clock between two triangular-profile stripe bands |
| South facade | Canyon Country Store Coca-Cola sign |
| South facade | Full-width cloth awning reading "Canyon Country Store / The Store" |
| East side | Wrought iron arched entry gates set into a brick pony wall |
| Exterior | Spike Stewart murals, the deck and its wrought iron fence |
| Interior | Open floor plan, exposed masonry, hand-painted wooden signs hanging over the aisles |
| Interior | Stairwell and conveyor belt linking basement storage to the sales floor |
The building has already changed many times. According to the staff report, the original storefront was replaced in 1937 and the surface parking lot on the west side arrived in 1951. The unreinforced masonry walls were seismically retrofitted between 1984 and 1991. A deli and café were added in 1991, and accessibility upgrades to the lower-level restaurant ran from 1998 to 2020. The coffee cart on the patio came in 2000, by The Hollywood Reporter's account. The deli counter and the coffee cart are now among the building's longer-running fixtures, yet neither appears in the list above.
Why the Nomination Came This Year
In March, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the store had been sold, that the co-owners disagreed over the sale, and that rumors had the new owners turning it into a liquor store. In the same piece, a longtime co-owner said not to believe the liquor store talk. In April, the San Fernando Valley News Portal reported that a new liquor license application had been filed on January 21, 2026, under the name Canyon Country Cousins Liquor Inc., and that it was pending. The outlet said it had no further detail on the transfer.
The Conservancy says it partnered with local advocates on the nomination after community members raised concerns about the ownership change and the store's future. The city's October report still lists the owner as Canyon Country Corp., care of a Shamsa at the store's address. No public account has yet named the buyers or described their plans.
The nomination puts the building's physical character into a public record with deadlines, while the ownership question stays unresolved.
The Clock, Date by Date
City Planning's info brief on the designation process sets out the sequence. Here is how it lines up for this case:
- September 16, 2026. The Director of Planning deemed the application complete. Under the city's process, that step starts a temporary stay on demolition or substantial alteration, which lasts while the Commission and City Council consider the nomination.
- October 15, 2026. At a hearing in City Hall Room 1010, the Commission took the nomination under consideration. That vote started a 75-day window for the Commission to act.
- Mid-November, typically. A two-member subcommittee of the Commission tours and inspects the building, usually within 30 days of the initial hearing. No date for the tour has been posted.
- By late December. Counting 75 days from October 15 lands on December 29, 2026. Before then, the Commission must hold a hearing and vote on whether the building meets the monument criteria. The ordinance allows an extension with the owner's written consent.
- After a recommendation to approve. The Council's five-member Planning and Land Use Management Committee holds a hearing, and then the full City Council votes. The Council has 90 days to act, and a Council motion can add 15 days.
If the Commission declines the nomination, the process ends and the stay lifts. Under the Cultural Heritage Ordinance, permits to demolish, substantially alter or remove the building cannot be issued while a final decision is pending. That means the awning, the clock and the gates have had formal standing since mid-September.
What the Review Covers
All three criteria the Commission applies concern history, notable people or architecture. The stay covers demolition and substantial alteration of the property. The liquor license application is on a separate track entirely. For anyone who stops in for a sandwich, the protected list is the building itself, from the hand-painted aisle signs to the conveyor belt.
The rest of the building is still operating. On October 16, the Conservancy described the store as a working neighborhood market and gathering place. Downstairs, Pace lists dinner seven nights a week, from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The case sits in Council District 4, and the local advisory body is the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council. The council's next board meeting is listed for November 18, 2026, with the venue still to be announced. The Commission holds hearings at City Hall with a teleconference option. When the determination hearing goes on an agenda, that agenda is where the date will first appear, ahead of the December deadline.
This post is general information about a city process, not legal advice. Owners of any older building should confirm how historic designation rules apply to them with a qualified land use attorney.
The Canyon Country Store shows how much of a property's value can rest in its history and how quickly that history can come under public review. If you own a Hollywood Hills home with a past worth protecting, or one that may draw the attention of preservation advocates, Joseph Babajian offers confidential consultations on how that history affects your plans and your price.
