On September 4, 1924, Mr. Harry Culver opened The Culver Hotel (9400 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232; 310.558.9400) in Los Angeles. Everyone celebrated the six-story “skyscraper.” Now, nearly nine decades later, The Culver Hotel still sparkles, as new ownership and a renovation have brought the boutique 46-room landmark hotel into the modern era.
On September 6, The Culver Hotel will commemorate almost a century of history for a new generation, showcasing that with age comes beauty, elegance, style and a grand 90th-birthday bash. There is a lot to celebrate: a rich history, legendary ownership, the preservation of an icon and most of all, an extraordinary comeback.
Curlett & Beelman, the architecture firm behind renowned Art Deco buildings throughout Los Angeles, including the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and downtown’s Eastern Columbia Building, designed The Culver Hotel. As Culver City became a movie-making Mecca in the 1920s and ‘30s, the hotel was a glamorous hangout for the biggest celebrities of the day. Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Buster Keaton and Ronald Reagan all passed through the doors, with some maintaining private residences for months at a time. Dwight D. Eisenhower even had a campaign office in the hotel during his run for President in 1952. At one point, Charlie Chaplin owned the Culver Hotel, and legend has it that he lost the property in a poker game to John Wayne, who later donated the building to the YMCA.
Its unique flatiron shape and architectural details made the building stand in for Paris (in winter, no less), Spain and Italy. In recent years, The Culver Hotel has appeared in Showtime’s House of Lies and Masters of Sex, the Netflix revival of Arrested Development, and they most recently hosted the W Magazine cover photo shoot with Mila Kunis for the August 2014 issue.
But The Culver Hotel is perhaps most famous for its association with The Wizard of Oz. The film was made in Culver City, and The Culver Hotel was home during production to nearly all of the 124 actors and actresses who played the Munchkins. They slept three to a bed and tales of much debauchery among the Munchkins have rumored since.
In more recent decades, the hotel fell on hard times. The place was even boarded up for a while in the 1980s and was lucky not to be torn down. The hotel was partially restored and reopened in the ‘90s, joining the prestigious National Register of Historic Places in 1997, but it again entered downturn after that. The Culver Hotel’s modern comeback really began in 2007, when Maya Mallick, whose mother started the family hotel business years ago, took a risk and bought the ailing property in a neighborhood that hadn’t yet revitalized.
Plenty of potential, but the Culver needed a lot of work. Over the next several years, she restored and redesigned the entire hotel, treating each space with attention to detail in order to preserve the architectural integrity and historic feel of the building. The operational challenges of upgrading the entire electrical and plumbing systems, renovating and modernizing all 46 rooms (including replacing 140 hand-made wooden windows), and refurbishing all the public and back-of-house areas, were staggering as with most historic property renovations. But with a dedicated team at work, including Project Manager Douglas Newton, a Culver City native, and Director of Private Events Milena Alunni, who launched the food and beverage operation, The Culver Hotel was well on its way to becoming what it is today.
With a 10-year background in fashion combined with her love of design and her family’s hospitality gene, Mallick was able to achieve her goal, but admits that it is an ongoing process. Mallick’s loves of vintage and eclectic sensibility with European ambiance are just right for the historic building. Every night of the week, handpicked local artists perform live music in the lobby and The Culver Hotel has built up its events and entertainment programs to rival the top bars and restaurants in the city.
The Culver Hotel will be introducing all-new Prohibition-inspired food and drink menus starting in September, spearheaded by Food and Beverage Director Louie Spetrini. Separate breakfast, lunch and dinner menus will feature what he calls “modern takes on classic grand hotel dishes,” along with shareable small plates and appetizers for the bar clientele. Everything uses as many fresh and local ingredients as possible, and menus will change seasonally. The new cocktail list will feature 18 Prohibition-era classics, each given a slight twist, along with a brand-new wine selection.
The second-floor meeting and event space is the latest part of the hotel to be renovated. With crystal chandeliers, large windows and herringbone wood flooring, it’s not what you’d expect from the usual hotel meeting space. One room was formerly Harry Culver’s office, which had a huge walk-in safe (‘The Vault’), private washroom and even an escape route leading to the basement and its underground tunnels. (Some hotel employees claim to have encountered Mr. Culver’s ghost haunting his old office.) All in all, with the elegant, newly designed spaces — with names like the Parisian Room, The Velvet Lounge and the Crystal Dining Room — The Culver Hotel can hold events for as many as 300 guests at a time.
You will also notice quirky design touches throughout the hotel, like the giant empty picture frame hanging askew in the lobby or the Wizard of Oz-inspired emerald velvet chair with a ruby pillow in the entrance staircase. With all the renovations and improvements complete, The Culver Hotel is thrilled to showcase what all the buzz is about on its 90th birthday on September 6 with an all-out bash in honor of its 1924 opening called the Prohibition Ball. The hotel will transform into an authentic swanky 1920s party, with open-bar craft cocktails, heavy hors d’oeuvres, a ragtime band, burlesque performers, cigars rolled to order, casino tables, Model Ts parked out front and much more. Elegant period attire is, of course, required.
Photo Credit: All images are Courtesy of The Culver Hotel.
