This 1940 aerial view gives us a whole different perspective of the Ambassador Hotel which stood on Wilshire Blvd at Alexandria Ave. The hotel opened in 1921, when the land along that part of Wilshire Blvd was cheap and plentiful, but I’m surprised by that huge chunk to the left of it is still empty. The apartment block in the center of the photo is the Gaylord, which is still there. The small dome to its left is the Brown Derby, which is long gone. To the left of it is the Chapman Park Hotel, with its large grounds and bungalows. Farther to the left we can see a large white tower which is now the Oasis Church. The grounds of the Ambassador is now the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools. So, 80 years after this photo was taken, some buildings are still around and some, inevitably, have gone the way of the wrecking ball.
This is a satellite image of the same area from 2021:
An acquaintance of mine lived in the penthouse apartment of the building directly across the street from the Ambassador. (It might be the building about a third of the way up from the bottom on the left edge of the photo, but I’m not certain.) I got to attend a party there many years ago, while the Ambassador was still standing, though long closed. It was glorious to look out the window at that grand building and imagine what it might have looked like in, say, the 1930s.
Oh wow, Bill, I’d love to have been at that party!