Gaylord Apartments
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| (ca. 1929)* - View of the Gaylord Apartment house located at 3355 Wilshire Boulevard, directly across from the Ambassador Hotel. A banner above the main entrance reads: "Starting Thursday Feb. 21st - all apartments in the magnificent Gaylord - completely furnished will be sold as 'own your own apartment' - price from $7850 up furnished - suites 2 to 5 rooms - payments 1/2 down - balance over period of 17 years - complete service - every modern convenience - select your own apartment - take possession immediately and save high rents". Smaller signs on building read: "Walker & Eisen, Architects", and "Lange & Bergstrom, General Contractors". |
Historical Notes The Gaylord Apartment Hotel was named after Henry Gaylord Wilshire, who founded the famous boulevard; the 14-story building officially opened its doors in 1924. The entire area near the Gaylord became the site of New York style apartment buildings, and many film stars lived in these elegant high rises. Among them were the Ambassador, Asbury, Langham, Fox Normandie, Picadilly, and Windsor. In the mid-sixties, the Gaylord Apartment Hotel was converted into a charming apartment community.* |
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| (ca. 1929)* - Aerial view of The Gaylord Apartments at 3355 Wilshire Boulevard, across from the Ambassador Hotel. |
Historical Notes In 1895, Henry Gaylord Wilshire began developing 35 acres stretching westward from Westlake Park for an elite residential subdivision. He donated a strip of land to the city of Los Angeles for a boulevard through what was then a barley field, on the conditions that it would be named for him and that railroad lines and commercial or industrial trucking would be banned. In 1900, Wilshire was arrested for speaking in a public park in Los Angeles. A judge dismissed the charges, but the incident caused Wilshire to leave Los Angeles for New York. Wilshire eventually returned to Los Angeles and made much of his connection with the now famous Boulevard that bore his name, although he had no involvement with its gradual expansion in the years while he was absent from the region. He made and lost several fortunes during his lifetime and died destitute on September 7, 1927 in New York.^ |
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| (ca. 1938)* - View of the Gaylord and Evanston Apartments as seen from the Ambassador Hotel lawn. Some small shops in front of the Evanston on the 3340 block of Wilshire Boulevard are also visible. |
Historical Notes Architects Walker & Eisen designed the Renaissance revival style 1924 Gaylord Apartments, located at 3355 Wilshire Boulevard. The Gaylord was originally one of L.A.'s first co-ops, which offered all of the hotel amenities (but not a hotel). The six-story Evanston Apartments (east of the Gaylord) was built in the late 1920s and located at 630 South Kenmore. This building has been demolished and the site is now occupied by the 1967 Wilshire Square building designed by the architectural firm of Langdon & Wilson.* |
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| (ca. 1938)^ - Looking east on Wilshire Boulevard at the Gaylord Apartments and the entrance to the Ambassador Hotel. |
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| (1938)^ - Looking west down Wilshire Boulevard with the Gaylord Apartments on the right. Also seen here is the Wilshire Christian Church, Wilshire Blvd Temple and, further in the distance, the Wilshire Professional Building. |
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| (1940s)^ - The Gaylord Apartments Hotel located at 3355 Wilshire Boulevard. |
Historical Notes The Los Angeles Times called the Gaylord one of the largest and most pretentious apartment houses in the country. Since then, the building has been thoroughly renovated inside. The nautical-themed HMS Bounty restaurant on the ground floor opened in 1962 in a space formerly occupied by The Gay Room and later The Secret Harbor. The Secret Harbor opened in 1951 as an outpost of Wilshire's leading restaurant family of the 1940s and '50s, brothers Seymour and Harold Dimsdale. After The Secret Harbor, the space served a brief stint as the Golden Anchor before becoming the HMS Bounty.* |
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| (2013)* - Looking across Wilshire Boulevard toward the Gaylord Apartments. Photo by Hadley Meares |
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| (2021)^ - Looking down the stairwell of the Gaylord Apartments. Photo by Paul Wright |
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