“American Horror Story” hotel gets landmark status

Los Angeles City Council voted to approve the landmark status of Hotel Cecil in the Historic Core on Tuesday.

Cecil is being converted into a boutique hotel and a 301-unit micro apartment by developer Matthew Baron of Simon Baron Development, who applied for the designation. 

Renovations are expected to cost $100 million, Curbed reported. The hotel opened in 1924. While it has been altered over the years, a city report said it “continues to maintain a high level of integrity,” in terms of its design and materials.

Cecil opened with the hopes of catering to business travelers but the Great Depression hit the hotel hard, resulting in more transient visitors. It became famous for housing serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as the Nightstalker, who lived there for two years and killed 13 people in that time.

It was renamed Stay on Main in 2011, but that did little to keep sordid associations at bay.

In 2013, the hotel found itself in the spotlight again when the body of 21-year-old Canadian tourist Elisa Lam was found floating inside a water tank on the hotel’s roof. Her death was ruled as an accident but elevator security footage of Lam hours before her death coupled with her odd disappearance inspired “American Horror Story: Hotel.” [Curbed] — Subrina Hudson