The Dunbar Hotel History: Rise, Fall, and Rebirth

The Dunbar Hotel History: Rise, Fall, and Rebirth

A former high-end hotel with a booming nightclub right here in South LA? Yep. That's the Dunbar Hotel (Hotel Somerville) in South Central / South LA.

For this researched I pulled newspaper clippings from the now defunct California Eagle, which was a prominent black newspaper throughout the first half of the 20th century, right here in Los Angeles.

You'll find the Dunbar Hotel on the corner of 42nd Place and Central Avenue in South Los Angeles, right across from the historic Jazz Park.

The Dunbar Hotel is a four story, brick building with decorative windows, that, well, almost doesn’t fit in its Historic South Central neighborhood. If you’ve watched my earlier videos, my wife and I visited the Dunbar Hotel during our Central Avenue food crawl.

CHAPTERS
Intro 0:00
The Dunbar Hotel 0:37
John and Vada Somerville 1:11
Building Hotel Somerville 2:43
Fall of Hotel Somerville 3:33
Lomax and the Dunbar Hotel 3:56
A New Lease on Life 4:17
Father Divine and the Dunbar Hostel 4:43
The Dunbar Hotel Reopens 5:09
The Downfall and Rebirth 5:56
Dunbar Village 7:46
Outro 8:29

Let's connect on the web!
Website: Ericmcraig.com
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Watch the Central Avenue Food Crawl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4-ZwBBihtM&ab_channel=EricCraig

Learn more about John and Vada Somerville, the creators of the Dunbar Hotel / Hotel Sommerville - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-12-23-me-12005-story.html

Learn more about the La Vada Apartment Complex - https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/z1kd3g07

Jim Crow Laws, Performers, and all-white hotels and clubs - https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-rope-the-forgotten-history-of-segregated-rock-roll-concerts-126235/

The Fred Harvey Dining System - https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/fred-harvey-restaurant-former

A Brief History of Lucius Walter Lomax buying the Dunbar Hotel for $100k - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-12-23-me-12005-story.html

Bernard Johnson and the Dunbar Hotel - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-23-me-3109-story.html

Dunbar Hotel / Hotel Somerville in the National Register of Historic Places - https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123859518

The original 73-unit low-income senior home at the Dunbar Hotel - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-11-me-147-story.html

Dunbar Hotel's 2008 foreclosure - https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-outthere10-2008oct10-story.html

Dunbar Village - https://www.tsahousing.com/affordable_housing.php?property=1598&name=Dunbar_Village

Delicious at the Dunbar - https://www.yelp.com/biz/delicious-at-the-dunbar-los-angeles

Видео The Dunbar Hotel History: Rise, Fall, and Rebirth канала The South LA Recap