The Mayfair Hotel is a historic hotel in the Westlake neighborhood of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California. The Sun Realty Company commissioned the building in 1926 and architectural firm

Curlett & Beelman William F. Curlett (County Down, Ireland, March 3, 1846 – January 21, 1914, San Francisco) and Alexander Edward Curlett (called Aleck) (San Francisco, February 6, 1881 – September 5, 1942) were a father-and-son pair of architects. They wor ...

designed it in the

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

style. The hotel opened on February 1, 1927. It closed in 2020 and was converted to homeless housing.

History

The Sun Realty Company commissioned the Mayfair Hotel on 7th Street in the Westlake neighborhood in Los Angeles in 1926, designed by

and built at a cost of (). The company constructed the Mayfair at the same time as two of its other projects, the

Roosevelt Building The Roosevelt Building is a high-rise residential building located along 7th Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It was completed in 1926 and was designed by Claude Beelman and Alexander Curlett in an Italian Renaissance Revival style. It was la ...

at 7th and Flower and the Chester Williams Building at 5th and Broadway. At 15 stories tall, promoters advertised the building as the tallest west of the Mississippi. The hotel opened on February 1, 1927, with a banquet for hotel industry members. The dinner event featured live music from the Rainbow Isle Orchestra and inaugural manager J. J. Hernan hosted the preview event for local journalists. The ''

Los Angeles Daily Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...

'' described the Mayfair as "commanding an unusually beautiful view of the city, the mountains and the

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

area" and noted that it was located "only a short ride from Broadway, yet out of the congested traffic district". On May 16, 1929, the Mayfair hosted the afterparty of the

1st Academy Awards The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and hosted by AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks, honored the best 1927 in film, films from 1 August 1927 to 1928 in film, 31 July 1928 a ...

. In 2014, property owner ICO Group of Companies began a renovation of the Mayfair Hotel, with architect Gulla Jonsdottir providing designs for the project. On July 10, 2018, the hotel reopened under the management of Crescent Hotels and Resorts with nightly rates starting at $185. The renovated hotel also featured several new restaurants. The hotel closed in 2020, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and was converted to a homeless shelter, through Project Roomkey, which placed unhoused residents in hotels left empty due to the pandemic. On August 18, 2023, the

Los Angeles City Council The Los Angeles City Council is the Legislature, lawmaking body for the Government of Los Angeles, city government of Los Angeles, California, the second largest city in the United States. It has 15 members who each represent the 15 city council ...

voted 12 to 2 in favor of Mayor

Karen Bass Karen Ruth Bass (; born October 3, 1953) is an American politician who has served as the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles since 2022. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Bass previously served in the United States House ...

's proposal to purchase the Mayfair Hotel and use it as interim housing for homeless people in the city. The city's plan included $60 million in funds for the purchase of the property and an additional $23 million for upgrades.

References

{{coord, 34.052178681085564, -118.26763283498705, format=dms, type:landmark, display=title 1926 establishments in California Buildings and structures in Los Angeles Hotel buildings completed in 1926 Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles Hotels established in 1926 Hotels in Los Angeles Renaissance Revival architecture in California

History

See also

References