Dennis RomeroIf you're looking west from New York and other East Coast cities, L.A. is just a baby of city, a metropolis that didn't really learn to walk with the big boys until after World War II.
But, technically speaking, we've been around 233 years. And we do have some fairly amazing old buildings. Some dazzle with architecture while others speak through patina and all the history that happened inside.
This week analysts at the real estate website PropertyShark came up with a list of our town's spookiest buildings.
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They also “dug into their property report to see what is the current status” of these creepy structures, a rep told us.
Here are the top 5 and some of the stories behind them:
5. The Metropolitan Courthouse. PropertyShark says it's scary because “it looks like it was taken straight out of George Orwell’s 1984.” The packed elevators that bob like a ship in high waters are no picnic. But the true horror here happens when you have to show up to fight a parking ticket. You'll realize two things: No white people in L.A. ever get tickets (we kid—they deal with them online). And no judge will ever rule against a cop no matter how thin the evidence might be. You'll leave a coupled hundred dollars poorer, which always gives us the shivers.
Weismuller/Nicolosi Estate
4. The Weissmuller/Nicolosi Estate. This place is creepy because it has been sitting in a state of disrepair … since Ronald Reagan was president. Despite its celebrity pedigree, including onetime resident Marion Davies, the Holmby Hills property never underwent a planned $1.2 million in repairs. The teenagers in this neighborhood of astronomically priced mansions must love the place this time of year.
Credit: The Elegant Manor via Zillow/ALS
3. The Elegant Manor. This is an allegedly haunted house that plays it self this time of year with an on-site live production called Delusion. Also known as the Fitzgerald House, this Jefferson Park Historic-Cultural structure was completed in 1906 and is said to have architecture that borrows Italian and Gothic influences. The purported haunting is said to have its roots in the 2004 murders of two teen siblings who were at a party at the home.
LAPD's Elisa Lam images shows her in the Cecil's old elevator shortly before her death.; Credit: Courtesy LAPD
2. The Cecil Hotel. A name change to Stay on Main couldn't dissipate the metaphorical stink stuck to this circa-1927 inn after the body of Canadian tourist Elisa Lam was found in a tank that supplied water to guest rooms. It happened last year. It appears she wandered onto the roof and might have fallen in. The L.A. County Office of Coroner ruled that her death was accidental, but noted that she was bipolar. If drinking dead-body water isn't horrific enough, there have been allegations that bed bugs also like the accommodations there.
1. The Linda Vista Hospital. This Boyle Heights institution (pictured at the very top) has been abandoned for more than two decades. It looks like the place kidnappers take you in your worst nightmare. PropertyShark says believers claim paranormal activity there is the product of fatal shooting, stabbing and beating victims who said their last goodbyes within the old hospital's walls. Creepy? Next year it will people will actually start living there.
Sweet dreams!
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