In 2013, the Cecil Hotel gained notoriety when Canadian student Elisa Lam was discovered dead there. However, this hotel’s infamy doesn’t stop there.
It has a rich history as a source of inspiration for pop culture, influencing projects like American Horror Story’s fifth season and the Coen Brothers’ film Barton Fink, among others.
So what all happened in this hotel? And, is it really haunted?
The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles opened in 1927 and is now a historic cultural monument. But since its opening, it has seen more than a dozen deaths, including suicides, overdoses, and murders. In 1931, it witnessed its first documented death. Then, from the mid-1980s and early 1990s, it became associated with infamous criminals. Today, the Cecil has been reborn as an affordable housing complex.
Explained: The Story of the Infamous Cecil Hotel
Since the day its doors first swung open in 1927, the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles has borne witness to a series of social and cultural shifts that few could have predicted.
Built by hotelier William Banks Hanner, this grand establishment was envisioned as a luxurious haven for international businessmen and social elites.
With a price tag of eye-watering $1 million, the hotel boasted a marble lobby, 700 opulent Beaux Arts-style rooms, an elegant staircase, stained-glass windows, and palm trees.
However, just two years after its grand opening, the United States was plunged into the depths of the Great Depression.
The economic hardships that followed, coupled with the Cecil’s unfortunate proximity to the Skid Row area, marked the beginning of a dark chapter in its history.
Skid Row, a term that originated during the construction of railroads in the mid-1800s, became synonymous with destitution and crime.
Tragedy struck the Cecil Hotel in 1931 when it witnessed its first documented death, a suicide.
This unfortunate event was followed by over a dozen others, including suicides, overdoses, and murders that occurred within its walls.
The mid-1980s and early 1990s brought even more notoriety to the Cecil, as it became associated with infamous criminals.
Richard Ramirez, also infamously known as the dreaded “Night Stalker,” completely terrorized the city of Los Angeles from 1984 to 1985. During his reign of terror, Ramirez stayed at the Cecil on the 14th floor.
He was eventually convicted of five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 13 counts of murder. In 1991, another serial killer, Jack Unterweger, checked into the Cecil Hotel.
Unterweger had been convicted of murder in Austria in 1976 but was released on parole in 1990. During his stay at the hotel, he allegedly killed at least three sex workers. Austria later found him guilty of nine murders, leading to a life sentence.
The year 2013 brought one of the most perplexing and tragic incidents in the Cecil’s history. Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old Canadian student, checked into the hotel on January 26.
Initially sharing accommodations with roommates, she was later moved to a private room due to complaints from other guests. On January 31, Elisa was reported missing.
Three weeks later, on February 19, guests began complaining about the hotel’s water, citing low pressure and an unusual taste.
Tragically, Elisa’s lifeless body was discovered floating in a closed water tank on the hotel’s roof, with her clothes at the bottom. The coroner ruled Lam’s death as an accidental drowning, with no drugs, alcohol, or signs of trauma in her system.
The chilling twist to this tragic tale was the surveillance video of Elisa in the hotel’s elevator.
In the footage, she appeared to behave erratically, pressing random buttons, hiding, and seemingly conversing with someone unseen.
Many questions lingered: How did she access the locked roof without triggering alarms? How did she enter the water tank, and who closed the lid after her?
In 2017, the Cecil Hotel underwent another transformation. Over the years, it had changed ownership and even names, with a brief stint as “Stay on Main” in 2007.
However, in 2014, hotelier Richard Born purchased the property for $30 million. It marked a turning point for the notorious establishment as renovation works totaling $100 million commenced.
In the same year, the Cecil Hotel received a historic-cultural monument status from the Los Angeles City Council, acknowledging its unique place in the city’s history, albeit a dark one.
Today, the Cecil has been reborn as an affordable housing complex, a collaboration between owner Richard Born and the Skid Row Housing Trust.
Its 600 rooms have been converted into occupancy units equipped with shared kitchen areas, a recreational space, and a laundry facility, eerily located on the same roof where Elisa Lam’s body was discovered.
As for whether it is haunted or not, that depends on whether you believe in the paranormal or not.
Overall, the Cecil Hotel’s history is a complex tapestry of tragedy, crime, and the eerie unknown. Its transformation into an affordable housing complex stands as a symbolic attempt to rewrite its legacy, providing shelter and support to those in need.
As it enters a new era, the Cecil will forever be remembered as a place where the past still lingers, haunting the halls of a building that has borne witness to so much over the decades.
What are your thoughts on the paranormal accounts associated with the hotel? Do you believe that Elisa Lam was running away from something non-corporal? Or was she a victim of someone?
Let us know your theories in the comments below.
