Even the handiest of set designers would be hard-pressed to recreate the years of organic decay that have made Linda Vista Community Hospital into the ultimate film set — streaks on the walls, peeling paint, broken pipes, the occasional stray syringe. (Mixed in with some Hollywood props, left behind.) It's a real live 19th century-era hospital for railroad workers, and its abandoned halls give an inimitable chill to the hundreds of movies, TV shows and music videos shot there.

But the industry might need to start looking for a new haunted house:

The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that Linda Vista Community Hospital, deserted since 1991, will now be undergoing a $40 million flip into an apartment complex for low-income seniors. The federal government has even decided to throw the developer, AMCAL, a $9 million grant for taking care of some neighborhood blight. (In this case, the most glamorous kind of blight around. Only the finest cobwebs for a love-torn Bruno Mars!)

But are there really old folks brave enough to sleep in Linda Vista at night, a spot that many believe to be the most haunted in all of L.A.?


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The developer will try to remove all elements of creepiness. Because the hospital is considered a historical monument by the federal government, AMCAL does have to be careful not to mess up its, uh, rustic charm too bad. But when the project is finished, the developer tells the Times, the old hospital will be converted into around 100 clean little apartments, and the exterior buffed up to resemble an “upscale hotel.”

So, not exactly the creaking old ghost jail that horror geeks have been drooling over all these years.

As a sort of R.I.P., we thought we'd take a look back at some of the grittiest film shoots to echo through this Boyle Heights landmark during its long and storied career. Hat tip to Wikipedia and IAmNotaStalker.com blogger Lindsay, who calls Linda Vista “hands down, the spookiest location I have ever visited in all my years of stalking.”

TV SHOWS

• True Blood

• Dexter, “Let's Give the Boy a Hand” and “Love American Style”

• Charmed, “Dream Sorcerer”

• FlashForward, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”

• Moonlight, “Arrested Development”

• Bachelor Pad, that episode where some dude takes three screaming wussy chicks to a haunted hospital so they can freak out and cling to his manliness

• ER, “24 Hours”

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• Countless paranormal-activity reality shows, including the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures/Ghost Stories and an episode of Spike TV'S 1000 Ways To Die

FILMS

• Se7en

• Pearl Harbor

• Outbreak

• End of Days

• To Live and Die in LA

• The Longest Yard

• The Lords of Salem (upcoming Rob Zombie movie)

• In the Line of Fire

• Suicide Kings

• Pearl Harbor

• BOO

• Day of the Dead 2: Contagium

MUSIC VIDEOS

[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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