Building History

Architect Robert Brown Young (1855-1914) had a loyal and beneficent client in the Lankershim Family, for whom he designed many buildings during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth. Young designed a 20-room, wood-frame hotel for James Boon Lankershim (1850–1931) in 1886. the Los Angeles Herald stated of the plans: "Mr. R.B. Young is erecting a large building on the corner of Sixth and Fort streets for James B. Lankershim. It is leased for three years by M. Robbins for a first-class boarding house. The rooms are in suites, with large grates, wooden mantels, mirrors, etc., for each suite. All the rooms will be highly decorated. The contract for decorating will be one thousand dollars. The house contains twenty suites of rooms." (See "More Building Movements," Los Angeles Herald, vol. 26, no. 57, 12/08/1886, p. 4.) This article in the Herald also note two other projects that Brown had with the Lankershims, including a 15,000-square-foot showroom for Annis Lydia Moore Lankershim (1818-1901), James's mother, and a group of 20 speculative cottages for James.

Brown would also design another highrise Hotel Lankershim, at 7th and Broadway, completed in 1905.

PCAD id: 22631