Michael Weinstein describes what’s next for the King Edward Hotel

Yesterday, we attended an event at the stately King Edward Hotel (John Parkinson, 1906) in the heart of historic Skid Row, where Michael Weinstein of AIDS Healthcare Foundation introduced the new Healthy Housing Foundation model of housing L.A.’s homeless and chronically ill population quickly in historic hotels and motels.

Izek Shomof, the previous owner of the King Edward, was keeping about 110 of the 150 rooms vacant, as we learned when a longtime tenant posted a disturbing video last summer. The HHF plan is to fix the empty rooms up and have the building fully inhabited by summer. The cost per unit at the King Edward is about $70,000 for the purchase of the building and simple upgrades, as opposed to the Measure HHH budget of $434,000/unit for brand new construction.

Weinstein asked why the County isn’t housing people in County General Hospital, and why the City of LA plans to demolish Parker Center rather than using it as desperately needed housing. These are good questions.

It was an interesting and inspiring press conference, in one of the most beautiful, though neglected, landmarks of old Skid Row. We’re looking forward to the King Edward’s new life as a place people call home, and to some much needed preservation of the historic features. (But sorry, Presidential history buffs, Teddy Roosevelt didn’t really sleep here!)

We hope you enjoy this photo tour, including the grand lobby with its faux marble columns and Grecian mosaic floor, and a trip upstairs to see one of the newly renovated rooms (simple but dignified, with terrific views), the long, haunting hallways with their shared baths, and some doors still showing the bright blue seal of the Coroner’s Office. How sad and stupid to think that a person died, and their room was left empty, while tens of thousands sleep in the streets of Los Angeles.

Old buildings need new ideas, and we’re glad to see the great King Edward is where they’re being hatched.

Update: we returned a week later, and found an entire empty wing on the second floor being readied for residents.

A time capsule view of 5th & Main Streets

We remember when a truck did this bit of damage to the stained glass, which somehow hangs on

The view from Strada cafe, which occupies part of the historic lobby.

Desk clerk’s elegant station

The view from the mezzanine before the press conference

Vintage image tucked beneath the “Teddy Roosevelt” (in quotes because it’s a mythic association) clock

Archeological exploration on the mezzanine

Archeological exploration on the mezzanine

Purple glass shows a high percentage of magnesium and dates to pre-1920

Back stairs

Mezzanine view from the stairs

Upstairs

Viewing an upgraded sample room, first floor corner site

This sample room has a small bathroom with a clawfoot tub

The view from the upgraded sample room, south onto the Hoff Building

View from upgraded sample room, southwest to the Charnock Block and Rosslyn Hotel

View from upgraded sample room, onto Indian Alley

Higher up, a better view of the twin Rosslyns

Moody light in the long halls

Glimpse of old tile under a locked door

Looking east out into the Toy District

Old elevator cage doors

Looking north towards City Hall

Please…

Mysterious imprint on a stair riser

Moody light in a shared hall bath

Hall

Coroner’s tape

Hall

Transom and shadows

Fire protection

Fire escape rhythms

Shared bath for the ladies

Swinging wooden door in the ladies bath

A century’s paint in the shared ladies bath

Hall

Coroner’s tape and superhero stickers

The big sleep

The dignity of a room of ones own

Hall

Mosaic carpet behind the desk

Lobby arch from the speakeasy stairs

In search of the basement speakeasy

Peeping into the basement speakeasy (locked)