Was Labeled Horror And Has The Status Of A Cultural Monument, This Hotel Has Been Transformed Into Residential

Hotel Cecil. (Wikimedia Commons/Jim Winstead)

JAKARTA - If you are a fan of gruesome, gruesome stories and spooky places, you may be familiar with Hotel Cecil, Los Angeles, United States.

Considered one of the most haunted hotels in the world, the Cecil hotel has been the stage of so many gruesome, dark and strange deaths since it opened in 1924.

Thus, many believe the series of deaths is not a coincidence, judging the hotel to have been a crime scene in the past.

At least 16 people are thought to have died at the hotel, including victims of homicide, suicide and mysterious deaths. Including 21-year-old Canadian student Elisa Lam, who is now the subject of the Netflix documentary Crime Scene: 'The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel'.

Elisa Lam was going on a solo adventure on the US West Coast in 2013, when she checked into the Cecil Hotel, where she planned to spend just four nights.

But after those nights passed, Elisa Lam disappeared. Two weeks after he was supposed to check out, his body was found in the hotel's water tank. CCTV footage showed Lam's erratic and strange behavior in the hotel elevator just hours before she disappeared.

The events of Elisa Lam's experience have sparked several theories about what could have happened to Canadian students, including unlikely ghost stories and stories of paranormal activity.

Her case went viral and still feels unresolved, although accidental drowning and bipolar disorder, a condition Lam suffers from, are listed as important factors in her untimely death.

However, hotel knowledge is somehow stronger than rational explanation. Hotel Cecil's gruesome history is so poignant that it even inspired fiction in the form of the TV show American Horror Story: Hotel, which starred Lady Gaga as the terrifying vampire Countess.

This hotel has changed ownership and name over the years. In 2007 the new owners bought it for 26 million US dollars, renaming it 'Stay on Main'.

They stayed in business for many years, renovating the hotel in 2014, when the building was sold to hotelier Richard Born for $30.

The famous hotel has been closed since 2017 when $100 million renovation work began on its structure. That same year, Hotel Cecil was awarded cultural-historical monument status by the Los Angeles City Council.

Perhaps even stranger, the historic building has now reopened as an affordable housing complex, in a new partnership between owner Richard Born and the Skid Row Housing Trust.

The hotel's 600 rooms have been converted into residential units served by a shared kitchen area, laundry facilities, and recreation area, which appear to be located on the same roof where Elisa Lam's body was found.

The project aims to tackle a surge in homelessness on Los Angeles' Skid Row, with eligibility to occupy one of the Cecil Hotel units requiring a salary of between 30 percent and 60 percent of the area's median income, Euronews reports February 11.

But only, time will tell whether this positive rebranding will be able to change the dire reputation of the famous hotel.

For now, it's good to know that Hotel Cecil is finally home to real people, and not just the ghosts many curious observers see peeking out of its windows.