Music photographer Henry Dilts first laid eyes on the lobby of the Morrison Hotel 55 years ago.
In December 1969, he and business partner Gary Burden, along with Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and lead singer Jim Morrison, rode in the VW band’s van to a hotel on Hope Street. The Doors approached Dilts and Baden about working together on an unnamed album cover.
An impromptu photo of the legendary band inside the lobby ended up on the cover of one of the Doors’ best-selling albums.
A printed photo of Henry Dilts photographing with The Doors at the Morrison Hotel. (Courtesy of Henry Dilts)
A visit to this four-story building showed that this dilapidated downtown building is etched into rock and roll history.
Over the next five decades, the hotel was subject to lawsuits, tenant complaints and unfulfilled multimillion-dollar renovation plans, culminating last month in a devastating fire that destroyed the 111-year-old building the day after Christmas. Preservationists are pushing the city to save the rock-and-roll-inspired brick building, but its future remains uncertain and the end appears to be near.
“When you become emotionally attached to something, all of a sudden the whole world becomes interested in preserving it,” preservationist Kim Cooper said. “They have no emotional attachment to 111 affordable units in an area they’ve never been to that has been boarded up for 20 years, but they know about the Morrison Hotel. It has ruby powder like celebrity fame.”
The Morrison Hotel was set on fire on December 26th.
(Michael Nohan Morales)
For the Doors’ album cover, Manzarek suggested filming at the Morrison Hotel, and when he, Morrison, Dilts, and Baden arrived at Hope Street, they stood in the iconic window with bold lettering. I noticed. But Dilts wasn’t immediately impressed by the hotel lobby.
“It was really a temporary failure,” Dilts told the Times.
The modest lobby had little character, and when the full band arrived a week later, the clerk behind the counter told Dilts that he wasn’t allowed to take photos inside. The band wandered through the lobby, and Dilts planned to take photos of them on the sidewalk outside.
But then they got lucky. Dilts saw a bright light coming from inside the lobby. It indicated that the hotel attendant had taken the elevator to another floor.
“The guy has left his desk, so everyone run there — hurry,” Dilts told The Doors. “They hit the nail on the head. It was perfect.”
Henry Dilts, photographer of the original “Morrison Hotel” album cover, was photographed at the Day of the・Attended the Doors pop-up event.
(Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
Diltz first shot with a Nikon camera equipped with a wide-angle lens. Baden told him to back up and take the whole window, and Dilts eventually positioned himself across the street with a medium telephoto lens, giving him the shot that graced the band’s album cover.
He shot a roll of film in about five minutes, and the photo shoot was over before hotel employees knew what had happened. The band came out onto the sidewalk, and by then it was late afternoon.
“I think Jim is saying, ‘Let’s go have a beer,'” Dilts said.
They piled into the band’s van and drove to Fifth Avenue, where they had drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe. Dilts took a photo of the bar’s entrance, which became the photo on the back of the album “Morrison Hotel.” The album, the band’s fifth studio album, sold over 1 million copies in the United States.
A few years later, Dilts drove by the Morrison Hotel, but the iconic windows had been replaced by a new business. The first floor housed numerous retail stores, while the top three floors were used as hotel rooms and, a few years later, as affordable housing.
The Morrison Hotel on South Hope Street has seen better days. A fire in late 2024 marked the climate-induced end of the hotel immortalized on the cover of The Doors’ 1970 album of the same name.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Since then, conditions at the Morrison residence have not significantly improved.
According to court records, in 2005, long-term residents of the building complained of a lack of heat and plumbing. The city attorney’s office has filed criminal charges against hotel owner Hope Pico and four individuals for misdemeanor violations of several city ordinances for failing to operate the emergency exits. Broken doors, windows, floors and walls. and pest infestation.
One year later, the tenants reached a relocation settlement agreement and the building was vacated. It has remained vacant ever since.
In 2017, hotel developer Relevant Group announced it would redevelop the site as part of a luxury hotel project. Three years later, Rhino Records recreated the iconic Morrison Hotel window.
However, in December 2023, Relevant Group sold the property for $12.4 million to the nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which had plans to convert the building into 111 units of affordable housing. .
A spokesperson for the nonprofit organization said it is awaiting a report from a structural engineer to “inform next steps to determine the extent, if any, to which the Morrison Hotel can be restored.” He said there was.
The interior was destroyed in the aftermath of a fire at the Morrison Hotel on December 26th. The exterior remained intact.
(Michael Nohan Morales)
The interior of the Morrison Hotel on South Hope Street was destroyed by the fire, with scorch marks and graffiti visible.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Many complaints filed with the Los Angeles Department of Building Safety cite unauthorized construction. Abandoned buildings and other issues that are left open to the public.
Local traders say people without shelter are often sleeping inside buildings. The Los Angeles Fire Department has received at least six calls for service to buildings since December 2023, including garbage fires, smoke, and follow-up investigations.
On December 23, 2024, three days before the fire broke out, the city placed red tags around the building warning that buildings and walls could collapse. The Los Angeles Department of Building Safety did not respond to requests for comment.
Michael Norjan Morales, who lived in the apartment next door on the day of the fire, said his St. Bernard dog named Sally knew something was wrong before he saw the first flames. The dog yelled out to the community deck overlooking the Morrison River and scrutinized the building.
“He’s just the type of dog that notices those kinds of things before anyone else,” Morales said.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames more than 90 minutes after the fire started. The building still exists, but the wooden interior has been severely damaged and the cause is currently under investigation. Arson investigators and Los Angeles Police Department major crimes investigators are working on the case.
Although the building survived and no one was injured, it remains unclear whether the Morrison Hotel will be revived as an affordable housing project.
Huey Larsen hung posters for Luther Vandross’ new album releases in the old Morrison Hotel on South Hope Street and was immortalized on the cover of the Doors’ 1970 album of the same name.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Preservationists say the city should work with building owners to preserve existing structures and give them the same consideration that the city gave Marilyn Monroe’s Brentwood home as a historic and cultural monument. I hope. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the building’s future.
Cooper and her partner and fellow preservationist Richard Shave are on a historical tour of Los Angeles, hoping to pressure city officials to repurpose the building as affordable housing.Morrison -Created an online petition to keep the hotel in the public eye.
“This Morrison building shows that the world is paying attention,” Shave said.
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