It was around 1984 or ’86, I was between 18 and 20 years old, and was hanging out with a guy I knew from high school.
Long story short, we visited this building, which we soon discovered was… a
whorehouse. I had a steady girlfriend, but my former classmate was a virgin, and he paid to sleep with one of the girls. I left as soon as he disappeared through the double doors with the girl he had chosen.
Link to location on Google Maps
In all honesty, I was shocked that a brothel would be so “open to the public” as that. You literally just walked in, just like you’d walk into Pep Boys, no guard at the door, nobody checking IDs. The girls came out, you chose one, and that was that. How an illegal enterprise could operate so utterly indiscreetly (and in broad daylight - we went at around noon) certainly surprised me; maybe someone in high places had been paid off(?).
All these years later, I’m wondering about that building. I wish I knew architecture as well then as I do now so I could remember the building better, but the building seemed quite old (at least for LA), maybe from the 1920s, and perhaps even older than that. In my faded memory, the building seems almost Victorian. I believe it was painted white, and it was a bit dilapidated inside. There were hardwood floors, and if I recall correctly, there were also high ceilings. I can’t recall the exact shape of the building, but I know it was at the north or northwest end of the parking lot. There were NO signs or billboards outside of the building that gave any indication of what transpired inside, and the building itself looked more like a large home than a place of business. I am virtually certain it began as a dwelling, and not a place of business.
Does anyone know the history of this building?