It was the building immortalized as the album art and title of The Doors’ fifth album.
But on Thursday, the former Morrison Hotel, which had recently been slated for use as affordable housing, went up in flames.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the fire on South Hope Street around 11 a.m. and arrived to find a vacant four-story building on fire, according to a news release from the department.
Dozens of people had already been evacuated from the building, and when firefighters entered the building they found three more people on the third floor. It took firefighters one hour and 37 minutes to extinguish the fire, but no one was injured.
The building’s roof partially collapsed, making it difficult for firefighters to extinguish the remaining mass of fire. The cause of the fire is also under investigation.
Firefighters pried open the metal screen door of a boarded-up building during a mop-up after a major alarm fire broke out in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
The original hotel has been vacant for more than 15 years and was used as a training area for members of the Los Angeles Fire Department, according to LAFD.
The 50,000-square-foot building was built in 1914 and had already been red-tagged by the Los Angeles Department of Building Safety before the fire broke out, LAFD said.
The building’s future will be determined by the Los Angeles Department of Building Safety.
The building has a checkered but colorful history.
Music photographer Henry Dilts, who captured the iconic image at the Morrison Hotel for Los Angeles rock band The Doors’ 1970 album, captured the famous shot in a 2020 Facebook post. He talked about how he took the picture.
Dilts said hotel staff told her that photography was not allowed inside the hotel, but when the staff moved away, she was able to take a roll of film.
The resulting album art featured the band’s frontman Jim Morrison standing under the Morrison Hotel sign.
Original Morrison Hotel album cover photographer Henry Dilts attends the Day of the Doors pop-up event at the Original Morrison Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on January 4, 2020.
(Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
In 2004, about 40 tenants in the building sued the owner, claiming they were exposed to mold, exposed electrical wiring and leaking windows.
The building was used as low-income housing until vacated in 2008. It was then scheduled to be converted into a hotel with 136 luxury residential units, but the developer defaulted on a $13 million loan in 2022.
The building was then purchased by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation last year with the intention of converting it into affordable housing.
The nonprofit group has spent the past few months trying to stop homeless people from entering the building by covering doors and installing fencing. The building was under construction at the time of the fire.
Firefighters are inside the building cleaning up and investigating a large alarm fire that broke out Thursday at the former Morrison Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
“As soon as we secure the building, the homeless are taking power tools and picking the locks within hours,” Mark Dyer, vice president of operations for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, told KCAL-TV.
