A downtown Los Angeles building made famous as the setting of an album cover photo for the legendary rock band the Doors was heavily damaged after fire broke out Thursday morning.
The building that was once home to a transient hotel known as the Morrison Hotel was the setting for cover photo for the band’s fifth album, titled “Morrison Hotel,” given the nod to the surname of Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison. The photo, snapped by famed rock photographer Henry Diltz, was taken on the fly in December 1969. The album was released by Elektra in February 1970. Morrison died at age 27 in July 1971.
“On this day, December 17th, 1969, we were out taking photos for the Morrison Hotel album cover,” Diltz wrote on Facebook. “We were at a transient hotel in Downtown LA on Hope Street. The Doors didn’t have permission to take pictures, so when the lobby was empty, they ran in quickly and sat behind the window.”
In recent years the building located near the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Hope Street has been used as a training site for the Los Angeles Fire Department. It had been scheduled to be converted into affordable housing.
But the building is now red-tagged after a fire broke out around 11 a.m. PT on Thursday. It took 17 fire companies about an hour and a half to get the flames under control, according to a report by KTLA-TV Los Angeles.
“Morrison Hotel” is marked by a grittier sound that befits a hard-luck hotel near Los Angeles’ Skid Row. The platter opens with the rowdy “Roadhouse Blues” and includes favorites of Doors fanatics such as “Peace Frog,” “Waiting for the Sun” and “Ship of Fools.”
