Gentle reader,
For too many years, we’ve watched the handsome, vacant Phillips Hotel at Beverly and Vermont sink into dereliction and decay, with graffiti, squatters and repeated fires chipping away at the possibility that the modest apartments upstairs might again provide affordable housing to Angelenos and the fun bar downstairs buzz with good fellowship and bad decisions.
In 2019, Beverly Vermont Properties LLC bought the scorched and vacant Phillips, which came with an abate order dated 11/4/2017 for an abandoned or vacant building left open to the public, and finally in late 2023 proposed an 8-story, 60-unit housing development, which stalled.
When nonprofit housing developer Holos Communities bought the building for $4 Million in January 2026, we hoped they might preserve the 1925 brick facade and build up taller, while transforming the interior back into habitable space.
We also hoped that they would be open to including some reference to a very special person who was both a resident and employee of the Phillips Hotel in the early 1960s: Jane Cooney Baker, the brilliant, troubled and colorful alcoholic who was Charles Bukowski’s first love, his muse, and the inspiration for the unforgettable Wanda character in his autobiographical film Barfly (1987).
So we asked them. They didn’t get back to us right us right away, but we’re persistent, and here’s where it stands:
• The historic building, damaged by repeated fires and left open for a decade-plus, is coming down now; no part of it will be retained in the newly proposed 12-story, 113-unit affordable housing project. So if you want to pay your respects or see the demolition, visit soon.
• The desirable Simons bricks are being salvaged for reuse in other projects.
• And most importantly: Holos says they are open to honoring Jane Cooney Baker and Charles Bukowski in some capacity in the project!
We’ll be meeting with the development team to share the story of this literary love affair forged in the dive bars and residency hotels of the Westlake District, the profound importance that dignified, affordable housing played in their lives and in Bukowski’s work, and to discuss how Hank and Jane can be honored at Goody Square, named after the New Goody Goody bar, whose jazzy back-lit plastic sign remained for many years on the abandoned building, a reminder of when it was still alive.
Why do we advocate for civic and private recognition for deceased Angelenos in places where they lived, worked and played? Do signs and tributes really matter?
We think they do. Especially now, when the city feels so unmoored, it helps to look back to the past, to learn about the troubles that earlier Angelenos faced and how they made it through.
Walking through MacArthur Park, seeing young people strung out and lost, we think about Charles Bukowski when he was around their age and living in this neighborhood, a mean drunk who deliberately picked fights with strangers because he didn’t have the guts to go home to Longwood Avenue and punch his abusive father in the snoot.
But he found Jane in a bar—Jane who was pretty crazy and who hurt even more than he did, but who was smart and funny and liked him and made him feel like a human being with something to say to the world.
It wasn’t easy or quick, and there were fights and broken windows and trauma and trouble along the way, but eventually Bukowski got his act together and wrote some fine poems, columns, novels and one terrific screenplay.
And our hope is that, as more vacant and derelict Los Angeles residential buildings return to use—ideally through restoration—that we’ll see more creative, troubled people find their way out of the darkness and start to shine.
And that tough but beautiful process is what we’ll be talking about on tomorrow’s walking tour. Meet us at the historic Olympic Hotel behind Langer’s Deli as we gather to celebrate the poetry, prose and pugnacious persona of Charles Bukowski on a walking tour about his barfly true love Jane. Join us, do!
And afterwards, go see the Phillips Hotel, while there’s still something to see! Access is from the alley, in the back.
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
Are you on social media? We’re on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, Substack Notes, TikTok, Nextdoor and Reddit sharing preservation news as it happens. New: some of these newsletters are on Medium, too.
Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles’ past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city’s soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING WALKING TOURS
• Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (5/7) • The Run: Gay Downtown History (5/23) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (5/30) • The Real Black Dahlia (6/6) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (6/13) • Know Your Downtown LA: Bradbury Building, Basements of Yore and the Dutch Chocolate Shop (6/20) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (Sunday, 6/21) • Westlake Park (6/27) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (7/11) • Hollywood Noir (7/18) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (7/25) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown L.A. (8/1) • Film Noir / Real Noir (8/8) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (8/29)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
Help save a great piece of public art: email eabrown@calhfa.ca.gov at the CA Housing Finance Agency by 5/13 and say “I care about Tony Sheets’ History of World Commerce and pedway access and want them preserved and accessible in the Sky Tower Project!”
On top of These Days Gallery, Snoopy and Woodstock sun their tums in old Skid Row.
A feature about our friend Evan Chambers, who lost a year of his art nouveau glassblowing practice to help his West Altadena community fight for accountability, move a demo threatened Craftsman house from Hollywood to his burned lot and otherwise inspire.
We checked in on the Moreton Bay fig tree sapling that Dr. Don Hodel grew from seed and donated to the Carthay Circle community for Earth Day 2025 and found this future giant looking fine! If you’re on San Vicente west of LACMA, look for it in the median.
With planned demolition of Taix, the Venice Room (est. 1955) is even more precious, and it’s for sale for the second time since the Lombardo family let it go in 2018. Viva the V-Room and the regulars!
Ross Cutlery is L.A’s best knife shop, est. 1930. Ross became infamous after a customer was charged with double murder after buying a German-made Kissing Crane horn-handled stiletto. An identical knife and a tight black glove are still on view, but N.F.S.
What a sad story about Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch, caring for vulnerable folk art environments in harsh conditions and grief. We hope someone can help Elliott Long carry the weight.
On Meghan Daum’s podcast, Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt proposes replacing abandoned Skid Row warehouses with art deco high rises and elevated bike tubes. The most notable Angeleno to pitch such multi modal futuristic concepts was Ray Bradbury with Bunker Hill’s pedways.
If you stop by Johnie’s, the landmarked Googie diner where Community Solidarity Project did such great work for ten years, you’ll find workers prepping for Gary Baseman’s “Off the Menu” exhibit, opening today. But why are the booths all akimbo? Are they going back in?
The gem of southern MacArthur Park, the 7th & Grandview Building (Morgan Walls & Clements, 1922), which was most recently the surrealist art gallery Chez Max et Dorothea, is available for lease. More about the block here.
At Ingraham and Valencia in the Westlake District, we gasped to see the original plaster medallion for the Cummings Apartments (E.B. Rust, 1921) still installed at the back of the pretty courtyard. Shame about the chunky gate, but it’s reversible, should peace ever come to L.A.
And just down the street: It’s thrilling to think about Harold Lloyd filming Speedy (1928) in front of the Prince Rupert Apartments (Frank M. Tyler, 1914) and seeing these lovely fire escape brackets and tiles. Then we remember we can’t share the photos with John Bengtson.
Yesterday, Nithya Raman was taking questions on Reddit and her first long answer was about building more housing, so we asked if she was urged to get in the race by California Yimby. She ignored the question. The answer matters, because big tech and real estate is a lobby, not an organic movement.
We have serious reservations about Raman’s ability to lead and to protect places that matter to Angelenos after the debacles of the Griffith Park Pony Rides, Boney Island Treehouse and the natural artesian spring at the Kuromi-Ito Residence on Alexandria Street. These were all relatively complex policy challenges that a trained urban planner should have relished, and she failed to act and failed to help her constituents. These places matter to us, and the citizens who suffered due to these policy failures matter more.
The Route 66 Centennial postage stamp sheet is out now, and for unknown reasons, the highway’s terminus in Southern California is represented, not by Santa Monica pier, or the Aztec Hotel, or Clifton’s Cafeteria, but by... Beverly Hills City Hall. Huh?!
El Corazón Art Park drama! On May 7, the Rec and Parks Commission heard from DTLA residents who object to Karen Bass’ back room deal with AltaMed to turn Jose Huizar’s abandoned FAB Park into corporate art space. Of course, the commission decided it was fine. These commissions are really in the bag for the Mayor’s agenda, and it’s extremely troubling how little they care about sticking up for the community.
Architectural historian Antonio Gonzalez tours the Paul R. Williams residence near USC, saved from likely demolition for a big box co-living dorm by West Adams preservationists sounding the alarm, heard by architect John Arnold, who bought it to restore.
Happy early centennial to the brightest star in the sky. Judge “No Mercy” Percy Anderson dismisses the case seeking Marilyn Monroe house demolition permits, giving the property owners until 5/26/2026 to file an amended complaint. They can seek to move the landmark and we hope they will. More here.
