Fire tore through the upper floors of the boarded-up Morrison Hotel Thursday in Downtown Los Angeles, destroying a large portion of the pop culture landmark that’s immortalized by The Doors’ 1970 album cover with the same name.
The blaze scuttles plans to redevelop the four-story building into affordable housing, at least for now.
Healthy Housing Foundation, the real estate arm of nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), bought the shuttered 111-key hotel last year for $11.9 million — about $107,000 per room — and was planning to convert it into affordable units after hotelier Grant King’s redevelopment plan fell apart months earlier.
AHF’s new plan was backed by John Densmore, drummer for The Doors, and photographer Henry Diltz, who snapped the surreptitious shot inside the hotel’s lobby that is featured on the cover.
Instead, investigators were left picking through the hotel’s charred remains at the corner of South Hope Street and West Pico Boulevard on Friday for evidence of possible arson, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
A spokesperson for AHF and the city’s Buildings and Safety department — which cited the Morrison Hotel for risk of building walls collapsing just three days before the fire — did not immediately respond to requests for comment
An unknown number of unhoused people had recently moved into the building, which has been vacant for 15 years and has no certificate of occupancy. “Dozens” were present on the morning of Dec. 26 when flames began engulfing the walls on the fourth floor, a LAFD spokesperson said.
It took firefighters from 17 fire companies 97 minutes to get the fire under control.
Several people escaped from the property unharmed and there were no injuries reported, a spokesperson for LAFD said Friday. The department is now investigating arson, and the spokesperson declined to share any of their findings so far.
But the vacant hotel at 1246 South Hope Street had clearly been on the city’s radar for some time.
Building inspectors cited the address for multiple violations beginning in July, code enforcement records show. There are open investigations at the property for major interior work taking place without a permit as well as nuisances like trash and graffiti.
Just three days earlier, a city code enforcement inspector cited the Morrison Hotel for “a building or wall that could fall down,” according to Buildings and Safety records. The case was still under investigation as of Friday morning.