Only in Los Angeles can you drive to an Assyrian palace to buy blue jeans and leather goods. The Citadel Outlets, Los Angeles' only outlet center, has the distinct honor to be located behind an Assryian Castle wall. The Citadel opened in November 1990 as a mixed-use project which includes a retail outlet center, a food court, five office buildings, and a 201-room Double Tree Hotel.

HISTORY OUTLINE

1918
Adolph Schleicher started his Samson Tire and Rubber Company in a tiny wood-frame factory in Compton, choosing "Samson" because it symbolized strength and endurance.

January 1928
Adolph Schleicher, owner of Samson Tire and Rubber Company, embarked on development of a new factory in East Los Angeles -- one that would become the largest manufacturing facility under one roof west of the Mississippi.

Schleicher wanted to include a Samson and Delilah motif. Thus the plant was modeled after a 7th Century B.C. ancient Assyrian palace including a 1,350-foot-long (later expanded to 1,750) crenulated concrete wall decorated with heraldic griffins and bas-reliefs of Babylonian princes carved into the stone between impressive pillars and towers. The design, dedicated to the civilizations of Sumeria, Akkadia and Babylonia, conveys strength and style.

January 23, 1929
Ground broke for the $8 million Samson Tire and Rubber Company plant, the largest tire manufacturing facility on the West Coast (attended by 12,000 people).

At the behest of Schleicher, the original architects (Morgan, Walls and Clements) designed the wall in the style of King Sargon II's palace. Sargon was a Babylonian King with a 23-acre palace and Schleicher's plant, coincidentally or by design, covered the same amount of land.

The portion of the wall that fronts the office building features genii, winged guardian figures protecting individuals from evil. The plant entrance featured another form of genii -- winged bulls with human heads -- also intended to guard the interior as those on Sargon's palace.

October 29, 1929
Stock market crashed

May, 1930
Samson Tire and Rubber Company plant opens with no public ceremony and with capacity to produce 6,000 tires and 10,000 tubes a day.

January, 1931
US Tire and Rubber Company purchases and takes over the newly completed Samson Tire Company.

September, 1960
Adolph Schleicher, owner of Samson Tire and Rubber Company dies.

1962
US Tire and Rubber Company becomes Uniroyal Tire.