You are cordially invited to join historian and preservationist Richard Schave (on his birthday!) and the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission (agenda) [PDF] for a tour of two potential Downtown landmarks: the Hotel Cecil [PDF] (Loy Lester Smith, 1924) and the Catalina Swimwear Building [PDF] (William Douglas Lee, 1923).

We encourage you to register for this free event by following the “buy ticket” link above.

The program begins with a 9am presentation in the CHC meeting room #1010 at City Hall. At around 10am, the commissioners and public will walk to the Hotel Cecil (640 South Main Street) and tour the building, then continue on to Catalina Swimwear (443 South San Pedro Street) for the second building tour. We estimate each building tour to take an hour or less.

Following the building tours, you may choose to join Richard at historic Saint Vincent’s Court (just west of 7th and Broadway) for a no-host lunch and informal birthday celebration. We recommend Arto’s lebneh sandwich and lentil soup.

Please join us for a rare opportunity to tour two important early Los Angeles commercial buildings and spend time with like-minded people in great spaces.

To learn more about the dark history of the Hotel Cecil, join us on Esotouric’s Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice tour, the final crime bus tour of 2017, on December 10.