Hacienda Arms Apartments
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Hacienda Arms Apartments
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Piazza del Sol, 2008
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| Location | 8439 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, California |
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| Coordinates | 34°5′42″N 118°22′24″W / 34.09500°N 118.37333°WCoordinates: 34°5′42″N 118°22′24″W / 34.09500°N 118.37333°W |
| Built | 1927 |
| Architect | Charles Sherman Cobb; Bard,Arthur, & Co. |
| Architectural style | Italian Renaissance Revival-Mediterranean Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 83003531 |
| Added to NRHP | December 15, 1983 |
Hacienda Arms Apartments, also known as Coronet Apartments and Piazza del Sol, is a historic building located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. The four-story, 52,000-square-foot (4,800 m2) Italian Renaissance Revival sourced Mediterranean Revival style structure was built in 1927 and operated initially as a luxury apartment building catering to the entertainment business. In the 1930s, it became the "most famous brothel in California." The building declined in prestige in the 1950s and 1960 and was acquired by rock star Rod Stewart in the 1970s. After Stewart's plans to redevelop the building as a luxury hotel ended in a legal dispute, the building was nearly destroyed in a 1983 fire that was found to be of suspicious origin. Since 1986, it has been known as the Piazza del Sol, and it now houses the offices of several production companies, including Miramax Films. The restaurant Katana, co-owned by Ryan Seacrest and Tori Spelling and described by Newsweek as "so hip it hurts," also operates at the building.
Built in 1927 for $382,000, the building was originally known as Hacienda Arms Apartments and became the home of wealthy Hollywood families. Located next door to the famed Ciro's night club, the Hacienda Arms was the home to motion picture actors, including Marie Dressler,James Dunn, Grant Withers, Loretta Young, Jeanette MacDonald, US child star Leon Janney, and the film composers Josiah Zuro and Oscar Potoker.
During the 1930s, the building gained notoriety as the site of the "House of Francis," described as the "most famous brothel in California," and the "classiest brothel on the Sunset Strip" The "House of Francis" was featured in a 2005 book about Hollywood's "fixers," the men who worked to shield Hollywood's Golden Age stars from public scandal. The fixers reportedly had their "hands full" trying to cover for events at the high-class brothel. The establishment was run by famed madam Lee Francis, who wrote the book Ladies on Call. The brothel was staffed largely by young women who had come to Hollywood to become movie stars but ended up as highly paid prostitutes, making as much as $1,000 a week—a fortune in the Depression era.
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