From NPR:
Historic L.A. Hotel Finds New Life As School Campus
For years, the once-swank Ambassador Hotel stood boarded up on Wilshire Boulevard. The lush lawns that surrounded the place were encircled by battered chain-link fences. The sign advertising the famed Cocoanut Grove night club was regularly defaced by graffiti. Some of the large public rooms had been damaged by water leaks, and security guards patrolled the grounds turning away the curious and history-hungry. It was a sad end for a once-glamorous venue that had hosted everyone from Joan Crawford and F. Scott Fitzgerald to Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon. Click here for the full story.