AKA: Hotel Lankershim, Downtown, Los Angeles, CA

Structure Type: built works - dwellings -public accommodations - hotels

Designers: Young, Robert Brown, Architect (firm); Robert Brown Young (architect)

Dates: constructed 1902-1905

9 stories

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230 West 7th Street
Downtown, Los Angeles, CA 90014

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The Hotel Lankershim #2 stood on the southeast corner of West 7th Street and Broadway

Overview

James Boon Lankershim, one of Southern CA's largest landowners in the late 1890s, commissioned his trusted architect, R.B. Brown, to design this tri-partite hotel, completed in 1905.

Building History

Los Angeles architect Robert B. Young (1855-1914) designed this hotel for James Boon Lankershim (1850-1931) just after the turn of the century. The building consisted of three towers placed on a single-story base. Two light courts separated each tower, providing light, air and fire-escapes to each room.

In 1907, James B. Lankershim maintained his office in Room #716 of the Lankershim Hotel. He also resided in the hotel at the time. (See Los Angeles, California, City Directory, 1907, p. 853.) In that year, Cooper and Davis were the lessees and managers of the Lankershim Hotel. (See Los Angeles, California, City Directory, 1907, p. 720.)

William R. Flood managed the hotel c. 1920.

In 1922, William W. Whitecotton (1886-1933), President of the Whitecotton Hotel Company, owned the Lankershim Hotel in Los Angeles. Whitecotton also owned the Hotel Whitecotton (originally named the Hotel Shattuck) in Berkeley, CA, in 1922.

The Lankershim Hotel #2 suffered significant damage in the Sylmar Earthquake of 1971 forcing the closure of its upper seven floors.

Building Notes

The Hotel Lankershim contained 400 rooms and 200 baths in 1922.

Demolition

The majority of the Lankershim Hotel #2 was demolished. According to the blog, "History, Los Angeles County," the Sylmar Earthquake made the hotel's upper seven floors structurally dangerous to inhabit. As a result, all but the first floor of the building was razed in the mid-1980s. A parking garage was erected on the building's upper six floors, while the original first floor accommodated retail stores. (See History, Los Angeles County Blog.com, “Lankershim Hotel,” published 09/24/2007, accessed 11/18/2020.)

PCAD id: 2677