Building History

The Alvarado Hotel was one of several to open in the Westlake area of Los Angeles, as a strong push of development flowed westward, away from Downtown, in the early twentieth century. As noted by Ruth Wallach, Linda McCann, Dace Taube, Claude Zachary, and Curtis C. Roseman in their book, Historic Hotels of Los Angeles and Hollywood: "Due to increasing property values, exclusive hotel and apartment complexes were built around Westlake Park beginning at the turn of the century, starting with the Hershey Arms Hotel (1902), the Hotel Leighton (1904) north of Westlake on Sixth Street, the Alvarado Hotel (1902), and Hotel Pepper (1904). The hotel district grew slowly and extended westward with hotel apartments such as the Bryson (1913), until the Ambassador Hotel opened in 1921 and initiated a spurt of building for the rest of the decade along the boulevard." (See Ruth Wallach, Linda McCann, Dace Taube, Claude Zachary, Curtis C. Roseman, Historic Hotels of Los Angeles and Hollywood, [Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2008], p. 81)

PCAD id: 23009