The Town House | |
The Town House in May 2008 | |
Location | 2959-2973 Wilshire Blvd. and 607-643 S. Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, California |
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Coordinates | 34°3′44″N118°17′5″W / 34.06222°N 118.28472°W |
Built | 1929 |
Architect | Alpaugh, Norman W. |
Architectural style | Beaux Arts |
NRHP reference No. | 96000821 [1] |
LAHCM No. | 576 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | December 15, 1997 |
Designated LAHCM | 1994-04-07 [2] |
The Town House is a large former hotel property built in 1929 on Wilshire Boulevard, adjacent to Lafayette Park in the Westlake district of Los Angeles, California. After a long career as a hotel it operates today as low income housing.
The Town House was developed by oil magnate Edward Doheny [3] as one of the most luxurious apartment-hotels in Southern California. Designed by Norman W. Alpaugh, and built at a cost of $3 million, [4] it opened on September 11, 1929. [5] It is a very late example of the Beaux Arts style, with a brick and terra cotta facade with classical detailing. [3] The building was converted to operate exclusively as a hotel in 1937, featuring one of the most glamorous bars in the city, the Zebra Room, with interiors by noted designer Wayne McAllister.
Conrad Hilton bought the Town House in 1942, [3] paying owner Arnold Kirkeby $150,000 cash and assuming $830,000 of debt. [4] Elizabeth Taylor celebrated her first marriage, to Hilton heir Conrad Hilton, Jr., at the hotel in 1950. [3] The Town House was sold to Sheraton Hotels in 1954 [6] and became the Sheraton-Town House. In 1958, Sheraton renamed the hotel the Sheraton-West Hotel. Sheraton sold the hotel to the Kyo-Ya group in 1972, although Sheraton retained management. [7] In 1976, the hotel added four tennis courts at the rear of the enormous property, which covered nearly an entire city block. In 1978 the hotel's name reverted to the Sheraton-Town House. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the area around Lafayette Park became less desirable and more dangerous and after the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, the hotel finally closed in February 1993. [7]
Just as it was about to be demolished, the property was purchased by developer Rob MacLeod. [8] He enlisted the Santa Monica-based firm of Killefer Flammang Architects (KFA), noted for their renovations of historic buildings, [9] to convert the 255-room hotel into 142 units of low-income housing, under a 55-year covenant. The building reopened in December 2001. [8]
In 2017, [10] the north half of the massive 1.8 acre property, [11] containing the long-abandoned tennis courts and the hotel parking lot, was redeveloped by Century West Partners with the construction of a new 398-unit apartment complex, Next on Sixth, also designed by KFA. [12] The Town House is currently owned by the Central Valley Coalition for Affordable Housing. [13]
The Town House was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1994 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1997. Other registered historic sites within one block of the Town House include the Bryson Apartment Hotel, Bullocks Wilshire, the Felipe de Neve branch of the Los Angeles Public Library system, and the Granada Shoppes and Studios.
Koreatown is a neighborhood in central Los Angeles, California, centered near Eighth Street and Irolo Street.
Westlake, also known as the Westlake District, is a residential and commercial neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California, United States. It was developed in the 1920s. Many of its elegant mansions have been turned into apartments and many new multiple-occupancy buildings have been constructed.
Wilshire Boulevard (['wɪɫ.ʃɚ]) is a prominent 15.83 mi (25.48 km) boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the principal east–west arterial roads of Los Angeles, it is also one of the major city streets through the city of Beverly Hills. Wilshire Boulevard runs roughly parallel to Santa Monica Boulevard from Santa Monica to the west boundary of Beverly Hills. From the east boundary, it runs a block south of Sixth Street to its terminus.
Mid-Wilshire is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is known for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Petersen Automotive Museum, and the Miracle Mile shopping district.
Central Los Angeles is the historical urban region of Los Angeles, containing downtown Los Angeles, and several nearby regions in southwest Los Angeles County, California.
Wilshire Park is a neighborhood in the Central Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California.
Lafayette Recreation Center, also known as Lafayette Park, is a public park in the Westlake district of Los Angeles, California, United States.
Wilshire Center is a neighborhood in the Wilshire region of Los Angeles, California.
Felipe de Neve Branch Library is a branch library of the Los Angeles Public Library located in Lafayette Park in Westlake, Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Nurses' Club is a clubhouse and apartment building for nurses located in the Westlake district of Central Los Angeles, California.
Granada Shoppes and Studios, also known as the Granada Buildings, is an imaginative, Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style block-long complex consisting of four courtyard-connected structures, in Central Los Angeles, California. It was built immediately to the southeast of Lafayette Park in the Westlake District, in 1927.
The Bryson Apartment Hotel is a historic 110,000-square-foot (10,000 m2), ten-story apartment building on Wilshire Boulevard in the MacArthur Park section of Los Angeles, California. Built in 1913 in the Beaux Arts style, it was one of the most luxurious residential buildings in Los Angeles for many years. The building is also closely associated with the city's film noir history, having been featured in Raymond Chandler's works and the 1990 neo-noir The Grifters. The building's stone lions and large rooftop "Bryson" sign have become Los Angeles landmarks. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and designated a Historic Cultural Monument (#653) by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission in 1998.
The Los Altos Apartments is a Mission Revival-style apartment building on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.
The Petitfils-Boos House is an Italian Renaissance Revival mansion in the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles, California. It was designed by Charles F. Plummer and built in 1922.
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria.
Walker & Eisen (1919−1941) was an architectural partnership of architects Albert R. Walker and Percy A. Eisen in Los Angeles, California.
The Westlake Theatre is a historic theater located in the Westlake section of Los Angeles, California, United States, adjacent to MacArthur Park. The theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Media related to The Town House (Los Angeles, California) at Wikimedia Commons