When it opened in 1906, the Alexandria was heralded as one of America's grandest hotels, built for $2 million in the Beaux Arts revival style, with a 60-foot-high lobby of Italian and Egyptian marble and extravagant gold leaf ceilings.
Record-breaking crowds welcomed it. Soon the hotel was catering to presidents and celebrities. Within a few years, builders added a $2.5-million, 12-story annex and a second annex of about 60 rooms.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday May 25, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 33 words Type of Material: Correction
Alexandria Hotel -- An article in Sunday's Calendar section spelled the name of S. Jon Kreedman, the real estate developer responsible for a 1969 renovation of the Alexandria Hotel, as S. John Kreedman.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday May 29, 2005 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part E Page 2 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Alexandria Hotel -- An article last Sunday incorrectly spelled the name of the real estate developer responsible for a 1969 renovation of the Alexandria Hotel as S. John Kreedman. His name is S. Jon Kreedman.
But the Alexandria's heyday was short-lived. By the early 1920s, other more luxurious hotels around downtown had usurped its status. Then the Depression hit, forcing its closure for four years.
Since then, the hotel has changed owners more than a dozen times, undergone several renovations and lost a little prestige with each one. But the Alexandria's legends have grown rich with time.
Ghost hunters say the basement tunnels are haunted by the Mafioso who used them to transport liquor to speak-easies during Prohibition. Dancers haunt the ballrooms, they say, and Rudolph Valentino's spirit surfaces when mediums visit his bedroom.
The 60-room annex has been vacant since the 1940s when then-owner film producer Phil Goldstone sealed its adjoining hallways after the annex owners crashed his party and refused to leave. With no independent entrance or elevator, that section serves mainly as a pigeon roost; it's known today as the "ghost hotel."
During World War II, the Palm Court's Tiffany skylight was painted black and the lobby was divided into two floors to house U.S. soldiers in case of a Japanese attack. Now known as the Mezzanine, that second floor is beloved by film crews for its ornate ceiling and the ghostly cherubic faces -- said to be modeled on the death mask of the architect's young daughter -- that line its walls. Location scouts call it the "Lenny Kravitz Room" because the rock singer filmed a famous music video there.
Boxing fans took over the Alexandria in the late 1950s and 1960s when promoter George Parnassus staged bantamweight fights in the second-floor ballroom -- now known as the "Paula Abdul Room," thanks to a memorable 1980s shoot.
In 1969, banker and real estate developer S. John Kreedman spent $2 million renovating and redecorating the Alexandria in Victorian decor, 1970s style -- the hotel's last major overhaul.
