This Mid-Century Motel Described in Reviews as ‘Eerie’ Just Became a Los Angeles Historic Monument

Built in 1960, the Hollywood Premiere is the first motel to be added to the list of more than 1,300 protected sites in the city

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

August 13, 2025

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A Los Angeles motel that online reviewers have called “eerie” and “sketchy” has been added to the city’s Historic Cultural Monuments list. The Hollywood Premiere Motel, a rundown drive-up in central L.A., is the first motel to receive the designation.

“It may have a 1.7-star Tripadvisor rating, but we don’t judge our landmarks by thread count,” says city councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez, whose district includes the motel, in a statement.

Preservationist James Dastoli, who is known for attempting to save local structures, nominated the motel for monument status. He spoke at a meeting of the L.A. Cultural Heritage Commission earlier this year, highlighting the motel’s mid-century modern design, as the Los Angeles Times’ Christopher Reynolds reported in March.

“This to me is a landmark that defines the entire neighborhood of East Hollywood,” Dastoli said at the meeting. He cited the Hollywood Premiere Motel’s “simple geometric volumes, low sloped roof, relatively chaste exterior walls and decorative concrete blocks.” He also mentioned its colorful Googie-style sign.

The commission voted unanimously to move forward with the motel’s nomination, and the L.A. City Council approved the designation on July 30. It has now joined a list of more than 1,300 sites in the city that cannot be altered or demolished without approval from the Office of Historic Resources.

Built in 1960, the Hollywood Premiere Motel is a two-story stucco building on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and North Serrano Avenue, according to a report from the Cultural Heritage Commission. Its 42 rooms surround a gated parking lot, which is flanked in one corner by a swimming pool. The motel was designed by Joyce Miller, who worked as a licensed architect in the 1960s—“a rare achievement for a woman at the time due to rampant sexism in the field,” according to an Instagram post from the Los Angeles Conservancy. Miller is only the third woman architect to be included on the list.

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The word “motel” was first used in the 1920s, when architect Arthur Heineman opened his Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo, California. “Mo-Tel” stood for “motor hotel,” which capitalized on the growing car culture in the United States. Located between L.A. and San Francisco, Heineman’s establishment featured bungalows flanked by garages, which were available for $1.25 per night, reported Smithsonian magazine’s Kat Eschner in 2016.

The Hollywood Premiere is an “excellent example of a 1960s motel that accommodated automobile tourism in Hollywood,” according to the report. In the mid-20th century, many motels sprang up on Hollywood Boulevard, meeting the demands of increasingly ubiquitous car-owning tourists, who wanted accommodations near both the freeway and the Walk of Fame.

In the following decades, Hollywood Boulevard’s motels began to disappear, and the Hollywood Premiere is “one of only a few extant, intact examples,” per the report. Throughout its 65-year history, the motel has been only minimally altered, Dastoli wrote in his nomination. In photos from April 2025, the motel’s sign still advertises “dial direct,” meaning guests can make calls without going through a switchboard operator.

“I don’t want to change it,” Bonnie Xi, who has owned the motel for four decades, told ABC7 Eyewitness News’ Rob Hayes in March. “I want to keep it 1960s style.”

Though the Hollywood Premiere seems to have trouble satisfying guests, its iconic appearance has served as the backdrop for more than a few television shows, including NCIS: Los Angeles, Twin Peaks and Fargo.

As Soto-Martínez says in the statement, “This place is a survivor—still standing after decades of change in Hollywood.”

Sonja Anderson | Read More

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in Chicago.