Hotel Normandie
The Hotel Normandie is a historic boutique hotel within what is now Koreatown, Los Angeles. It is located at 605 S. Normandie Ave. It has 94 guest rooms and suites. It was built in 1926 in the Wilshire district in the eclectic Renaissance Revival style, with design by Los Angeles architects Percy Eisen and Albert R. Walker.
Author Malcolm Lowry wrote a significant portion of the novel Under the Volcano (regarded by some as one of the greatest novels in the English language) while residing at the hotel.[1]
It was listed as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #1013 in 2012 by the Cultural Heritage Commission City of Los Angeles.[1]
History
In March of 1925, plans for the four story store and hotel building were prepared for Karl Elliot by Architects Walker & Eisen. It was projected to cost $200,000 and would have stores on the first floor, with a hundred rooms on the upper floors. In 1931, it was selected as the official hotel for Stanford University alumni, as well as University of Southern California and University of California Los Angeles.
In 1964, a $250,000 modernization took place, scheduled by Paul and Adelaide Stockhammer. They purchased the building from the Hotel Normandie Ltd for more than $750,000. The Stockhammers had operated hotels and motels in New York, Massachusetts and Florida, according to John Barbarey, a real estate broker who represented the purchasers.
In the late 1970s, the hotel became the Normandie Wilshire Retirement Hotel.