Made famous by The Doors, the historic Morrison Hotel has been destroyed by fire

Fire crews outside the Morrison Hotel — (Image credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

The Morrison Hotel, the downtown Los Angeles establishment made famous by The Doors, has been destroyed by fire. The building, located at 1246 S. Hope St, went up in flames on Boxing Day, with more than 100 firefighters from 17 fire crews needed to bring the blaze under control.

Nobody was hurt in the fire, although a number of homeless people were only able to escape via fire department ladders.

“In the fire department, we say there are no vacant buildings in the City of Los Angeles,” the Los Angeles Fire Department's David Ortiz told Fox 11. “A lot of the large unhoused community uses these vacant buildings as their temporary residences. Several dozen were seen self-evacuating at the time of the fire.”

After lying vacant for a decade, the property was purchased in 2013 for almost $12 million by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, who planned to turn it into more than 100 affordable housing units. The building, which now has no roof, has been "red-tagged" by the city, meaning it is not considered suitable for habitation.

"Last week when we cleared the building, there were about 15 [homeless people inside]," the foundation's Mark Dyer told Fox 11. "As soon as we secure the building, the homeless come up with power tools within hours and just cut the locks off."

The hotel that gave the Doors' 1970 album its name was originally a low-rent, single-room occupancy guest house that opened in 1914. Keyboard player Ray Manzarek discovered it while he was driving around, and photographer Harry Diltz was on hand to capture the iconic image of the band seated in the lobby window.

“We came inside and I told the guy at the desk: ‘We want to take a couple of pictures, we’ll be just a minute’", Diltz told Classic Rock in 2005. "He said: ‘You can’t unless you have permission from the owner.’”

Initially, Diltz planned to compromise by shooting the band outside, posed in front of the window bearing the Morrison Hotel logo.

"It wouldn’t have looked as good," he told us. "Then as I looked through I could see the guy leave his desk." The band ran inside and "they hit their markers, none of it was planned – Jim was in the middle like that. Bang-bang-bang. One roll of film and they were out of there."

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Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.