- For some, it was a fresh start. For others, a last resort. It was the home of Al's Bar, the ultimate punk-rock dive. Built in 1905 to provide "first-class accommodations for negroes," the American Hotel has been a haven for society's outsiders for more than a century. Writers, musicians, filmmakers and painters have all called the four-story brick building home. The American Hotel is the heart of the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District. But as gentrification and development drastically and rapidly change the urban environment around it, its free bohemian spirit is struggling to survive.
- Built for black Americans in 1905, adopted by Japanese before World War II, taken over by artists in the 1980s. The American Hotel has always been a refuge for society's outsiders. What happens when the world around it dramatically changes?
- For some, it was a fresh start. For others, a last resort. It was also the home of Al's Bar, the seminal punk-rock dive. The American Hotel in downtown Los Angeles was built in 1905 as the city's first hotel for African-Americans. Since that time, it has been a haven for society's outsiders, whether Japanese immigrants or artists seeking cheap space and an off-the-grid existence in an abandoned and neglected urban landscape. Over the past four decades, a thriving and free-spirited arts scene has grown up in and around the American Hotel. But development and gentrification are pushing out the artists that made the area desirable. At the heart of this struggle stands the American Hotel, with its history of tolerance and renewal.
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