The Ambassador's Last Stand

[Michael Hogan]

Some great photos and stories

http://www.ambassadorhotel.blogspot.com/

http://www.nlphotos.com/

[Michael Hogan]

L.A.'s Famous Cocoanut Grove Nightclub to Fall

Margaret Foster

January 16, 2008

Excerpts:

Four years ago, the school district agreed to dismantle and reuse parts of the 1921 Ambassador Hotel: its Paul Williams-designed coffee shop, the Ambassador's pantry, where Bobby Kennedy was fatally shot, and the entire Cocoanut Grove nightclub. In light of this promise, the Los Angeles superior court granted permission to raze the Ambassador, which was gone by January 2006. (The site of the Kennedy assassination, now in 29 pieces, is in storage.)

In May 2007, however, the school district reneged on the deal, announcing that it wasn't feasible to save the Cocoanut Grove or the coffee shop. Instead, it would rebuild part of the nightclub, which was remodeled in the 1970s....

...."We faced the harsh realization that the true preservation of the site's remaining historic resources had become impossible," said Linda Dishman, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy, in a statement. "The Cocoanut Grove and coffee shop had been stripped of their historic fabric, and the RFK assassination site was now a 'Humpty Dumpty' of broken pieces in storage containers. As we maintained throughout the long fight to save the hotel, fake history does not belong in a place of learning; our kids deserve better."

http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/arch...2008/011608.htm