THE HOLLYWOOD CENTER MOTEL

The Hollywood Center Motel was destroyed by a fire. It was up for landmark consideration to protect the property from demolition.

This was one of the coolest sites to see in Hollywood. It was a look into the past as it’s surrounded by new development and constant change. 

Another irreplaceable piece of Los Angeles history was destroyed. 

For those who would like to see what the Hollywood Center Motel looked like before part of it burned down in a fire today….   

The site originally featured a large Victorian-era house built around 1905 (sometimes cited as 1901), known as “El Nido.” This pre-Hollywood residence dates to when Hollywood was still a separate city before it was consolidated into Los Angeles in 1910, making it one of the few surviving early middle-class homes in Hollywood.

 @beforethe101 on Instagram shared the following …. 

“Hollywood Center Motel has seen murder, prostitution, rockstars… and a wife-swapping scandal.

Edmund and Blanche Scholtz bought the two-story home at 6720 Sunset Boulevard in 1921 and added a bungalow court of duplexes. Their 17-year-old daughter Jane enjoyed the Hollywood socialite scene.

The next year, she married actor Walter Emerson; however, as he struggled to find work, her parents bankrolled the marriage. They also gave Jane access to the motel for her extramarital affairs, one of which made national news in 1935.

As the Emerson divorce played out in court, Walter accused Jane of cheating with his friend, Beverly Hills millionaire Barton Sewell. She countered that her husband had been carrying on with Leah Clampitt, Barton’s wife … because the foursome decided to swap partners.

The judge in the case deemed their behavior “evil” and awarded custody of the three Emerson kids to Jane’s elderly parents, who vowed to “leave their apartment-hotel life and obtain a home for the boys.”

In the 1950s, the new owner added a pool and a name: Hollywood Center Motel. Advertised as family-friendly, it offered furnished units to rent for the day ($5), week ($37.50), or month ($140)-opening the door to all kinds of characters.

Neil Young and Buffalo Springfield rehearsed for their first tour in the back house in 1966. Later that year, Janis Joplin’s Big Brother and the Holding Company paid $14-a-night for a room with five beds.

Two unsolved murders brought darkness to 6720 Sunset. In 1976, a sex worker was killed while out turning a trick. In the room she shared with three others, police found her three-week-old baby in a dresser drawer, snuggled between socks and t-shirts.

In 1986, a stench wafting from Room 304 led to the discovery of a decomposed body in a steamer trunk. Despite overwhelming evidence, all charges were dropped against the suspect, an LAPD informant in the Billionaire Boys Club.” 

I see a screenplay in the works! 

lt can also be seen in the “Fun With Dick & Jane” released in 1977, and “LA Confidential” released in 1997 – plus several 1960s & 70s TV shows filmed on location such as Mannix, Cannon, & The Rockford Files

And according to Mark Lindsay just now… “A part of Raider history, and our home when we first got on Where The Action Is. From an interview I did a few years ago: “We were staying at a place called the Hollywood Center Motel, which was the pits.” The fact that it lasted until now is amazing!”