The Bryson Apartment Hotel is a historic , ten-story apartment building on

Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the principal ...

in the

MacArthur Park MacArthur Park (originally Westlake Park) is a park dating back to the late 19th century in the Westlake, Los Angeles, Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. In the early 1940s, it was renamed after General Douglas MacArthur, and later designated ...

section of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Built in 1913 in the Beaux Arts style, it was one of the most luxurious residential buildings in Los Angeles for many years. The building is also closely associated with the city's

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

history, having been featured in

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

's works and the 1990

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

'' The Grifters''. The building's stone lions and large rooftop "Bryson" sign have become Los Angeles landmarks. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1983 and designated a Historic Cultural Monument (#653) by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission in 1998.

Construction and architecture

The Bryson was built in 1913 by real estate developer, Hugh W. Bryson, along a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard that was considered to be the "West Side" and which was then principally a residential area. Bryson acquired the property in 1911, purchasing and razing four houses that occupied the space. He had originally intended to construct a six-story building flush with the sidewalks along Wilshire Boulevard and Rampart Street. When neighbors complained about his plans, Bryson chose instead to build a taller structure, but one set back from the centerlines of Wilshire Boulevard and Rampart Street. In March 1912, Bryson announced his revised plans: "It is my intention to make this apartment house in a class by itself on this coast and finer than any other west of New York City. To that end, I shall spare no expense." Bryson hired architects Frederick Noonan and Charles H. Kysor to design the building. The construction was undertaken by Bryson's own company, F.C. Engstrum & Co. and completed in only seven months between June and December 1912. The total cost, including land, construction, and furniture, was approximately $750,000 ($ million today). The building combines Beaux Arts and Classical styles. The structure was built around a central court wide and deep. At the time of its opening, it had 320 rooms divided into 96 apartments, with a configuration allowing apartments to be connected to form suites with as many as 12 rooms. All four sides of the building "presented a finished appearance", each being "handsomely ornamented with vari-colored tiles and concrete moulding." The interior was finished with cut-glass chandeliers, Italian marble stairs and wainscotting, tile floors, and richly upholstered mahogany furniture. The top floor was dedicated to common use, with a ballroom, library, billiard-room and three enclosed

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

s. Bryson reportedly spent $60,000 ($ million today) for rugs, fine art, rare plants and furnishings for the top floor. Being located at an elevated spot in the city, and being the only high-rise in the area, the building's top floors offered panoramic views. A 1920s brochure for The Bryson touted the view:

It has three large loggias from which one can see the Pacific Ocean, Catalina Island away, on a clear day; green foothills, orange groves and snow-capped mountains.

Because of its setback, The Bryson was also able to make room for tennis courts and a wide lawn and gardens—though this has been reduced as the streets were widened in later years. One writer in the building's early days noted: "The landscaping of the place constitutes one of its principal charms."

Operation as an apartment hotel

Early success

When the new building opened in January 1913, it was met with glowing praise. The ''Los Angeles Times'' called it "magnificent" and opined that it "is probably the finest apartment-house west of New York City, comparing favorably with the splendid apartment-houses and apartment-hotels in the Riverside drive district of Manhattan." When Bryson had announced his plans, some thought Los Angeles was too small to support "an institution of this character," but the building proved to be a success. In fact, the building was fully occupied within two days of its opening. In 1915, the building was sold for $1.25 million ($ million today), nearly 70% more than it had cost to build just three years earlier. In its early years, The Bryson was reportedly a favorite location for the "beautiful people" of the day." It was the only high-rise and the dominant feature on Wilshire Boulevard for many years. It was not until 1921 that The Bryson was joined by the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire, followed by The Gaylord in 1924, The Arcady in 1927 and Bullocks Wilshire in 1929.

Association with Raymond Chandler and film noir

Novelist

added to The Bryson's landmark status when he featured it in his 1943 work ''

The Lady in the Lake ''The Lady in the Lake'' is a 1943 detective novel by Raymond Chandler featuring the Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe. Notable for its removal of Marlowe from his usual Los Angeles environs for much of the book, the novel's com ...

''. Owing to its connection with Chandler, The Bryson has been described as one of the city's "high-rises that were meant to house wealthy transplants from back East but became the faded palaces of L.A. noir." In the novel, detective

Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...

visited the Bryson Tower in pursuit of the title character. Chandler described the Bryson:

Twenty five minutes brought us to the Bryson Tower, a white stucco palace with fretted lanterns in the forecourt and tall date palms. The entrance was in an L, up marble steps, through a Moorish archway, and over a lobby that was too big and a carpet that was too blue. Blue Ali Baba oil jars were dotted around, big enough to keep tigers in. There was a desk and a night clerk with one of those moustaches that get stuck under your finger nail."

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce reports that thousands of Chandler fans travel to Los Angeles to see the locations of Chandler's works, including the Bryson and the

Montecito Apartments Montecito Apartments is a large apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a ...

. In a 2007 article about Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, one writer described the view of The Bryson, with "its enduring rooftop sign," as "a symbol of a cityscape that is rapidly disappearing"—the city "as it looked to Philip Marlowe, heading toward the Bryson Apartment Hotel for another rendezvous." Chandler used The Bryson as a setting when he co-wrote the screenplay for the 1944

classic ''

Double Indemnity ''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American crime film noir directed by Billy Wilder, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The screenplay was based on James M. Cain's 1943 novel of the same ...

'', which starred

Fred MacMurray Frederick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series, in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film le ...

(see also next section). When

Stephen Frears Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is an English director and producer of film and television often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply drawn characters. He's received numerous accola ...

shot his 1990

, '' The Grifters'', he chose The Bryson Apartments as one of the principal locations, serving as the home of a main character and the site of the bloody climax.

Post-war years

In 1944, shortly after starring in the Bryson-located film ''Double Indemnity'' (see above),

purchased The Bryson for $600,000 ($ million today). MacMurray owned the building for approximately 30 years. By the late 1940s, as other parts of the city expanded, The Bryson began to lose some of its prestige. In 1949, MacMurray secured a reduction in the property tax assessment to $100,000 ($ million today), arguing that high costs made the building unprofitable. By the 1970s, as glitzier locations on the westside and in other areas became more popular, the shine was gone from The Bryson. In 1977, the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that the 10th floor, formerly the building's showplace, had been stripped and was used only for storage. In 1999, the building underwent a $5.5 million renovation ($ million today). The project drew attention by dressing the building's landmark statues of the lions in hard hats and orange construction vests. The contractor noted: "It's become quite a conversation piece for people along Wilshire Boulevard."

Historic designations

The Bryson was added to the

in 1983 and designated a Historic Cultural Monument (HCM #653) by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission in 1998. It is one of several Registered Historic Places encircling Lafayette Park, including the

Granada Shoppes and Studios Granada Shoppes and Studios, also known as the Granada Buildings, is an imaginative, Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style block-long complex consisting of four courtyard-connected structures, in Central Los Angeles, California. ...

, The Town House, the

Felipe De Neve Branch Felipe de Neve Branch Library is a branch library of the Los Angeles Public Library located in Lafayette Park in Westlake, Los Angeles. It was built in 1929 based on a Mediterranean Revival-Classical Revival design by architect Austin Whittlesey. ...

and

Bullocks Wilshire Bullocks Wilshire, located at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, is a Art Deco building. The building opened in September 1929 as a luxury department store for owner John G. Bullock (owner of the more mainstream Bullock's in Down ...

one block to the west.

References

{{LAHMC Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Residential buildings completed in 1913 Apartment buildings in Los Angeles Westlake, Los Angeles 1913 establishments in California