Hotel Alexandria
| Hotel Alexandria | |
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The Alexandria under renovation in 2008.
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| General information | |
| Location | 501 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Coordinates | 34°02′50″N 118°14′59″W / 34.047222°N 118.249722°WCoordinates: 34°02′50″N 118°14′59″W / 34.047222°N 118.249722°W |
| Opening | February 12, 1906 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 12 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | John B. Parkinson (original building), Parkinson & Bergstrom (1911 addition) |
| Developer | Bilicke-Rowan Company |
The Hotel Alexandria is an historic building constructed as a luxury hotel at the beginning of the 20th century in what was then the heart of downtown Los Angeles. As the business center of the city moved gradually westward, the hotel decayed and gradually devolved into a single room occupancy (SRO) hotel housing long-term, low income residents and gained a reputation for crime and being unsafe. Due to its elegant design and the fact that its public rooms sat disused for decades, it has been the site of countless film shoots, and its iconic Palm Court ballroom is a protected Los Angeles landmark. As the area was revitalized in the first decade of the 21st century, the building found itself at the heart of this and has recently been remodeled as apartments.
The Hotel Alexandria, designed by architect John B. Parkinson of the firm of Parkinson & Bergstrom and constructed by developers Albert C. Bilicke and Robert A. Rowan, opened on February 12, 1906 as an 8-story luxury hotel at the southwest corner of Spring and 5th Streets in downtown Los Angeles. Its popularity resulted in Parkinson & Bergstrom designing a twelve-story addition, which was built behind the original building in 1911. Bilicke died in 1915 when he went down with the ocean liner RMS Lusitania. Rowan died not long after. Their widows sold the hotel in 1919 to the builders of the nearby Ambassador Hotel, and the Alexandria was for a time part of the Ambassador Hotels System.
The hotel was the most luxurious in Los Angeles for a number of years until the construction of the Biltmore Hotel three blocks west in 1923. The Ambassador Hotels System sold the hotel in 1927, and it was sold again in 1930, before going bankrupt and closing in 1932. The hotel's gold leaf ceilings, furniture, chandeliers and other fittings were sold in 1934 to pay off debts. The hotel was sold again in 1937, to film producer Phil Goldstone, who renovated and reopened it. At this point, the original two-story lobby was cut into two rooms, a mezzanine ballroom with the decorative ceiling from the original lobby and a modern art deco lobby below. The hotel changed hands multiple times after World War II. It was acquired by real estate developer S. Jon Kreedman in 1961, who renovated it in 1970 in a faux-Victorian style.
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