The Music Center at the top end of downtown Los Angeles (or the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County, as it’s officially known) is where a lot of theater happens: musicals, plays, opera, ballet, and in the 70s and 80s, the Academy Awards. But until I came across this photo, I never gave a thought about what once stood in its site. I don’t know if the St. Angelo Hotel was still standing in April 1955, when Dorothy Chandler began fundraising for a permanent home for the L.A. Philharmonic, but I’d say chances are good that it was. This photo was taken in 1928, and it was a fairly typical type of hotel of its era. I love the big, wide balcony where guests could sit and catch a cool evening breeze as there would have been no air conditioning for these people.
Here are a couple of photos later in its life:
The same site in December 2020:
Yes, it was there in 1955. The St. Angelo was one of the last to withstand the clearing of the site where the Music Center, Grand Park and the Court House is now located.
Thanks, Gordon. I figured someone would know!
The St Angelo made it till at least 1956
https://imgur.com/hvq6ZKW
Ah! Thanks, Yuma. In that case it was there until the bulldozers arrived.
I think based on the slope of the street, more accurately the hotel was where the Ahmanson is on The Music Center campus–Temple not Grand.
But I could be wrong.
Hi Michael, if you google map that address, it’s actually closer to the Mark Taper. It’s challenging to pinpoint a location on Bunker Hill because so much dirt was removed when the City of LA decided to bring the hill’s elevation way down.