When financier Bart Lytton, bought the Garden of Allah Hotel in 1959, he acquired it for the land. He promptly tore the hotel down, and in its place put up a saving-and-loan bank that stood on the northwest corner of Lytton Savings Plaza, which also included the Museum of Motion Pictures and auditorium. As we can see from this 1966 photo, the rest of the plaza was a rather bleak space, so thank goodness Lytton also put up that domed white pergola (is that the right word for it?) on the Sunset/Crescent Heights corner. For a number of years it housed a scale model of the Garden of Allah, so that people didn’t forget that the hotel once existed. Eventually the model was moved into the bank. It now resides in a West Hollywood apartment. I was able to visit it back in 2013, and you can see my photos here.
Here is a close up of the model which was set up under plexiglass to protect it from the elements:
This photo was taken a couple of days ago (October 7, 2021) by Dave DeCaro, who was staying at the Chateau Marmont Hotel across the street from the site. His hotel room looked out over the plaza, which is currently being cleared to make way for a planned redevelopment for a mixed use project known as 8150Sunset.
I’ve always hated that the Garden of Allah was destroyed. I only remember driving by with my family when I was very little, and my dad saying his dad had worked on it. If so, it must have been almost immediately after his family had moved to California. The dates work, so I don’t have reason to doubt it. Thanks for including the link to your visit to the model! So very cool that someone who cares purchased it and spent so much effort on getting it back in tiptop shape.
I saw the model when it was upstairs in the bank, maybe in the 90s. It should be acquired by the 8150 people for a historic display.
That would be idea as long as (a) the Townscape people are into that sort of thing, and (b) the guy who currently owns is lowers his asking price. He has a completely unrealistic idea of its monetary worth.
What a coincidence to see this post today; I just finished
The Garden on Sunset and really enjoyed it!! Hope to read
more ?
Hi Sharon, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed “The Garden on Sunset.” There’s lots more where that came from!
Moved to la in the 50s. Lived not to far from the garden. Spent many nights in there bar. Great music and interesting beautifully people. Then it was gone. And Lytton built his bank. What a loss ,so much Hollywood history gone. Great to see the model again. Thanks for great memories. Manly shore.
Supposedly, in the basement of the bank was some of the original black bottom of what was the pool.
Any chance that any of that was saved?
As far as I know, there are tiles down there, but not pool tiles. They looked to me like bathroom tiles. I can’t imagine anybody would save them. Also, I don’t know that the pool was ever black. I’ve never seen a photo showing that.
I’ll see if I can find the attribution.