I saw this Flickr image on a page about motel postcards, but this probably isn't a postcard of the Sunset Pacific Motel at 4301 Sunset Blvd. in Silverlake, as it's decidedly in disrepair. I love the little red antennae!
Looking further I couldn't find any information about when it was built, or a postcard or matchbook
cover or anything, perhaps someone can find something from the 60's or earlier? But..the motel
has been on the community's radar for other reasons it appears.
This 2002
L.A. Times article says the owner of the motel, open at the time, could lose it's
operating permit: "the police describe the three-story, 37-room building at 4301 Sunset Blvd. as one
of the city's most dangerous properties."
Yikes! The article goes on to say that "neighborhood residents have been trying to get city officials to shut down the place for about 20 years." That would've been since 1982 when the article was written!
The owner, Edward Eng, owned the place since the mid-1960's and had a different view.
He denies that anything improper happens there. He contends that the Los Angeles Police Department pays homeless people to linger around to make him look bad. "I'm telling you this is a frame-up," said Eng, who lives in Los Feliz. "The people standing in the stairwell, they're not selling drugs, they're just standing there."
This article seems to be the culmination of legal troubles for Eng, with mutilple fines levied against him for code violations being ignored and repairs never happening. Eng seemed to be willing to give it up at this point with a potential buyer offering $1.5 million for the property.
A resident recalls happier days:
For Rebecca Acuna, who moved to the area in the 1960s, the conditions are disappointing. She remembers when the motel was well-maintained and even had a pool, which has since been cemented over. "Families from out of state stayed there," she said. "When nearby residents had no room in their homes for guests, they would direct them to the motel. You could walk by there and nobody bothered you," Acuna said.
The motel shut down, but this is a recent aerial of the property in question and it's still vacant.
The aerial is from Loop Net, showcasing two areas for property development near Sunset Junction.
The 4301 address of the motel property is outlined in yellow on the left. The other property address is 4100 Sunset Blvd.
L.A. Weekly
The abandoned property has been vacant for years. Since before that 2002 article, and to the present day, the motel has been called by neighborhood residents "The Bates Motel." One reason is that the motel is at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Bates Avenue. The other reason is that the place is creepy, evoking images of "Psycho." [And the Bates Motel series, I'd guess.]
Ceratainly sounds like prime noir material.
Flickr
Even though it's been abandoned, a group was allowed to have a Halloween party there
at one time where various rooms had local artwork and admittance fees went to a charity.
The event was called "Norman's Mother's Halloween Party @ Bates Motel."
(There was no date on the website's blog entry as to when the above were taken.)
A 2009 photo. Locals tagged the artwork at top right "Fire Monkey."
Joshua Malbin
In 2010 a photographer photographed some of the graffiti artwork that had been painted on the motel:
Alan M. Pavlik
Alan M. Pavlik
And at present, while the property is still being argued about and trying to be sold and developed, an
artist named Vincent Lamouroux, got permission to cover the building from top to bottom in lime wash.
The result is a piece of art he calls "Projection L.A."
http://projectionla.org/
L.A. Weekly
Even a billboard and the adjacent palm trees got the white-out treatment.
As desribed by the artist:
The urban space is disrupted. An abandoned space is transfigured and enhanced, perhaps eluding its last glory. The motel's intriguing aspect is accommodating an imagery drive away from our habitual quest for sameness.
The official public unveiling of the artwork is slated for this Sunday, April 26th, but, as you can see, it's hard to avoid getting a stunning eyeful before its proper debut.
Eastsider L.A.
Vincent Lamouroux:
Just as the Silver Lake neighborhood itself has transformed radically in recent years, and continues to evolve, so to will the artist’s iteration of the motel embody a transformation, surrendering and passage; the white surface of its facade will be a symbolic invitation to project our ideas about both its mythic past and its indeterminate future.
I'd like to see some photos of this at night, but haven't come across any yet.
"I'm ready for my close-up."
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