It was a building immortalized as the album art and title for the Doors’ fifth album.
But on Thursday, the former Morrison Hotel — most recently slated to be used for affordable housing — went up in flames.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the blaze around 11 a.m. on South Hope Street, arriving to find the four-story vacant building on fire, according to a department news release.
Several dozen people had already evacuated the building and as firefighters made their way inside, they found three more people on the third floor. It took fire crews one hour and 37 minutes to extinguish the fire, with no injuries reported.
The roof of the building had partially collapsed, making it difficult for firefighters to put out the remaining pockets of fire. The cause of the blaze is also under investigation.
Firefighters pry open the metal screen door of a boarded up building as they mop up after a major alarm fire in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
The former hotel was vacant for more than 15 years and served as a training site for Los Angeles Fire Department crews, according to the LAFD.
The 50,000-square-foot building was built in 1914 and had already been red-tagged by Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety before the fire broke out, the LAFD said.
The future of the building will be determined by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety.
The building has a checkered but colorful past.
Music photographer Henry Diltz, who shot the iconic image of the Los Angeles rock band the Doors at the Morrison Hotel for the band’s 1970 album, recounted in a 2020 Facebook post how he got the famous shot.
Diltz said that a hotel clerk told them no photography was allowed at the hotel but when the clerk stepped away for a moment, Diltz was able to shoot one roll of film.
In the resulting album art, the band’s frontman, Jim Morrison, stood beneath the Morrison Hotel sign.
Henry Diltz, photographer of the original Morrison Hotel album cover, attends the Day of the Doors pop-up event on Jan. 4, 2020, at the Original Morrison Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
(Scott Dudelson / Getty Images)
In 2004, around 40 tenants of the building sued the owners, claiming they were exposed to mold and mildew, exposed electrical wiring, as well as leaky windows.
The building was used for low-income housing before it was vacated in 2008. It was then supposed to be transformed into a hotel with 136 luxury residential units but the developer defaulted on a $13-million loan in 2022.
The building was then purchased by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation last year, with the purpose of converting it into affordable housing.
The nonprofit tried to stop homeless people from trespassing in the building during the past few months by covering doors and installing fencing. The building was slated to undergo construction when the fire broke out.
Firefighters enter a building as they mop up and investigate a major alarm fire at the former Morrison Hotel on Thursday in downtown Los Angeles.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
“As soon as we secure the building, the homeless come up with power tools within hours and just cut the locks off,” Mark Dyer, vice president of operations for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, told KCAL-TV.
