HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
1926 YWCA-Origin Boutique Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles
939 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Standard rooms typically run $200-400 per night; suites higher. Restaurant dining at Sparrow and Florence by the Water is open to non-guests.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalks and accessible hotel entrances and elevators.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1926 · YWCA Origin · Women's Hospitality History · Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture · Downtown Los Angeles · Hyatt Unbound Collection
When Hotel Figueroa opened on the corner of Figueroa Street and Olympic Boulevard in 1926, the Los Angeles Times described it as 'an exclusive women's hostelry' that had been 'financed, built and operated by and for femininity.' The 13-story Spanish Colonial Revival hotel was developed by the Los Angeles YWCA as both a residence for working women and a public hotel - one of the largest such ventures by women in the United States at the time. Its first general manager, Maude Bouldin, was widely covered in early 20th-century newspapers as a pioneer in the hospitality industry.
The hotel's first decades catered to single women employed in downtown businesses, with the upper floors functioning effectively as long-term residential housing. The property passed through several owners after the YWCA's involvement ended in the 1950s and operated for much of the late 20th century as a budget tourist hotel.
A major restoration completed in 2018, undertaken by hotelier Connie Wang and the GreenOak Real Estate group, returned much of the Spanish Colonial Revival detailing to the lobby and added the two-restaurant program now anchored by Sparrow. The property joined Hyatt's Unbound Collection in 2024. To mark the hotel's 100th anniversary in 2026, the operators opened Florence by the Water, a Mediterranean concept on the ground floor.
The hotel's documented dark history includes two mid-20th-century homicides: in June 1929 a radio operator named William L. Tallman shot his girlfriend Virginia Patty in a guest room, and in April 1950 Harry Gordon murdered Hallie Cecilia Oswald in another room. Both cases were extensively reported in Los Angeles newspapers at the time.
Sources
The Figueroa's reported phenomena are largely guest-centered and concentrated in the upper floors - the same floors that historically functioned as women's residential housing during the YWCA era. The most commonly described occurrence is the elevator stopping on a floor that was not selected, the doors opening to an empty corridor, then the cab continuing on. Staff members during the late 20th century reported finding televisions powered on and tuned to static in rooms they had locked the previous evening.
The hotel's published haunted reputation focuses on the 1929 and 1950 homicides - both extensively reported in the Los Angeles Times at the time - though reports of unease in specific upper-floor rooms predate any clear connection to those incidents and may simply reflect the building's century of dense residential occupation. A 2018 LA Weekly profile of the restoration described the design team's deliberate effort to brighten and 'banish' the hotel's prior gloom; reports from guests since the restoration have continued, though at a lower volume than during the property's lower-occupancy years.
An overnight stay at the 268-room boutique hotel in downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to LA Live and Crypto.com Arena. The hotel's coffin-shaped pool, Spanish Colonial Revival lobby, and history as one of the first U.S. hotels financed and operated for women are part of the appeal.
Hotel Figueroa's two restaurants - Sparrow, a wood-fired Italian and Mediterranean concept, and the new Florence by the Water - are open to non-guests. Florence opened in February 2026 to mark the hotel's 100th anniversary.
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