The Donut Hole in La Puente is an example of one of my favorite subjects, programmatic architecture, where a building is made to look like what’s sold in side or illustrates the name or theme of the business. The Donut Hole was actually a small chain, The first Donut Hole was built in 1963 by John Tyndall, Ed McCreany, and Jesse Hood, they actually received a patent for a building with two giant donuts through which customers drove thru, but I haven’t been able to find any evidence that the building from that patent was ever built in Covina.
In 1968 they opened their 2nd location in La Puente, again receiving a patent for a donut drive thru building, but this time the building was actually constructed. As the L.A. Conservancy describes it, “the shop is a wood-and-stucco one story commercial building split into two halves with a driveway in the middle, bracketed at each end by an enormous fiberglass donut.”
Eventually, the chain grew to 5 locations all over Southern California, the only other locations that I’ve been able to find any information on are the Long Beach and a Covina location and while they all were drive thrus, none of them replicated the giant donut drive thru of the La Puente Location.
The Donut Hole chain went out of business in 1979, it appears that the Covina location may have been turned into a mexican restaurant, as the design of this building is unmistakable as a Donut Hole drive-thru, but this one doesn’t appear to have ever had the giant donuts of the La Puente one or as illustrated in the patent design.
The building of the Long Beach location is still there, but it’s now a Roundtable Pizza. As for the other 2 locations, I couldn’t even begin to tell you where they were located or if they still exist in any form.
The La Puente location seems to be the only one to continuously operate as a donut shop, it was purchased in 1979 by the Lopez family, who ran it for decades and kept the programmatic elements, which I’m sure played a huge role in its longevity. I’m not the only one that loves this building or this style of architecture; The Donut Hole is *one of* the most photographed donuts shops* in the country and it’s made cameos in films, including “Calendar Girl,” “Dragnet,” and “Moving Violations.”
When you visit The Donut Hole, you pull up the driveway, nicknamed, “Donut Ave” and drive thru the hole of the giant chocolate donut, on one side of the tunnel is a display case with an assortment of glazed, filled, and sprinkled donuts, while the other side gives you a view into how the donuts are made. You order at the window and then drive out the through another donut. It’s said that newlyweds drive thru The Donut Hole on the way to their honeymoon for good luck, cuz driving through a donut kinda looks like, well you know.
So if you’re ever in need of good fortune for your nuptials or just a sweet circular treat, there’s nothing better than grabbing a donut from a giant donut drive thru and helping to keep this business, an excellent example of Programatic Architecture, alive.
References:
“An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles” by David Gebhard and Robert Winter Pg. 461
“Roadside Giants” by Brian and Sarah Butko Pg. 38-40
“California Crazy: American Pop Architecture” by Jim Heimann Pg. 285-312
“California Babylon” by Kristan Lawson and Anneli Rufus Pg. 165
“San Gabriel Valley Offers Many Landmarks of Kitsch” by Craig Quintana, The L.A. Times. Dec. 23, 1988.
“The Story of California’s Bizarre Novelty Architecture” by Jonathan Griffin, The Economist. June 14, 2018.
The Donut Hole | L.A. Conservancy
Early Los Angeles Programmatic-Style Buildings | Water and Power Associates