The Hollywood Center Motel was Originally Housing
For as long as I can remember, the Hollywood Center Motel has been empty and neglected.
Oh, and it wasn’t always a motel.
Look carefully at the property through the closed gates. Is that a dilapidated Victorian house in the center of the lot?
Yes. Yes it is. The historic home, a country house known as “El Nido” to its original owners, dates to 1905 or thereabouts - back when Hollywood was a quiet village and not yet part of Los Angeles.
The lengthy history of the property has been detailed thoroughly by J.H. Graham, so I will defer to his blog post on that. However, I would like to highlight one aspect of Graham’s findings:
Schultz had three 2-family 1-story bungalows and 1 2-story single-family cottage built on the east side of the parcel, facing west. The first duplex unit, closest to the street, was addressed at that time as 6712/6712-1/2 Sunset; south of that unit was 6614/6614-1/2 Sunset; south of that was 6616/6616-1/2. At the end of the row was 6618 Sunset, the single-family cottage. The auto garage (addressed then as 6722) were at the east-rear corner of the parcel. Along the east property line was a fourth duplex, addressed as 6722-6724 Sunset.
The bungalows were rented as homes, not for transient guests.
(The bolding is mine.)
The house was later converted into apartments as well, adding more units to the parcel.
The 1922 bungalow court was a motel by the 1950s, but it didn’t start off that way - and those homes have been going to waste for years.
Oddly, ZIMAS says that the property has been used for housing in the past five years. Given the state of the place, I’m finding that hard to believe.
The current owner has applied for demolition permits, but there is no replacement project planned for the site.
Altadena and the Palisades lost a lot of historic homes in the fires, and some homeowners would like to save (and if necessary, move) another historic home. Surely El Nido and the bungalows could be moved, separately or together, and serve as badly needed housing once again?
Call (213-473-7013) or email (councilmember.soto-martinez@lacity.org) Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez’s office if you, like me, think these buildings are worth saving and turning back into housing (whether on Sunset Boulevard or moved elsewhere).
Having said that, Hugo doesn’t seem to care, so I for one will not be getting my hopes up.