In 1869, members of the French Benevolent Society laid the cornerstone of LA's original French Hospital - not in the French Colony, but a mile away on the edge of town where it was significantly easier and cheaper to buy four adjoining lots.
That original hospital building was a two-story adobe, and when the FBS ran out of money during construction, they opened the finished ground floor while raising more money to finish the upstairs. A wooden dormitory building was constructed onsite to house the nurses.
The hospital was rebuilt and modernized in 1915, then expanded in 1926, and it's long been rumored that a portion of the original adobe building is entombed within its walls.
The French Hospital became Pacific Alliance Medical Center in 1989, then became an urgent care center when it was sold to Allied Pacific in 2018. Allied Pacific rehabilitated the building rather than replacing it.
Unfortunately, this is Los Angeles, and a developer wants to tear it down for a mixed-use building. They are falsely claiming there are no historic buildings on the site.
Oh, and the developer isn't even local. Applicant AGI Avant Group Partners LLC is a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Francisco. Representative 531 W College LLC is also a Delaware corporation (although the two people associated with it are both in Alhambra).
I'm firing off a letter to both the Cultural Heritage Commission and the Office of Historic Resources right now (to be posted VERY soon).
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