If the caption hadn’t told me where this photo was taken, I never would have guessed. This is the 122-room Dome Hotel, which stood on the corner of 2nd St and Grand Ave in downtown Los Angeles from the early 1900s until it burned down in 1964. That’s a pretty good run for a Victorian hotel, which were highly susceptible to fire. In the background, we can see the grainy outline of the Richfield Tower. It didn’t come down until 1969, so in 1960, when this photo was taken, it was still a iconic part of downtown’s cityscape. The Broad Museum now occupies the site of Dome Hotel, and that vacant lot is now home to the striking Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Here is a closer shot of the Dome Hotel from circa 1963, not long before it burned down. The sign reads: “Newly Decorated, $50 Per Month & Up.”
This is how the site of the Dome Hotel looked in May 2024.
The Dome was also known as The Minnewaska. I recall seeing a photo of it once taken from the opposite direction where the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was being constructed in the background. I can’t seem to find it, though.