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L.A. Asks For Proposals To Revamp The Abandoned Lincoln Heights Jail
(Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection)
One of Los Angeles' creepiest abandoned buildings is due for a makeover, and the city is looking for input on what should be done with it. The abandoned Lincoln Heights jail, located at 421 North Avenue 19 near the Arroyo Seco Confluence, hasn't been operational since 1965. It's more recently served as the backdrop for a number of film productions including Nightmare on Elm Street, Lady Gaga's "Telephone" video, American History X, and Sons of Anarchy.
Now, L.A. is looking to spruce up the joint and turn it into something useful. It's big, at 229,000 square feet, spread out among two buildings, according to Eastsider LA. However, the building does need some work—it's in more of a Season Three Walking Dead prison shape, if you will, with possible structural and contaminant issues.
The city has a few ideas listed in their Request for Interest, which can be found here. These include housing, a museum, a school, a hotel and an office or research facility, among others. Proposals are due by May 13 at noon.
There are actually a few prison-turned-hotels, including the HI-Ottawa Jail Hostel in Ottawa, the Liberty Hotel in Boston and a supposedly haunted prison-hotel in Latvia where you have to sign a waiver because they actually treat you like a prisoner.
The James Ellroy novel L.A. Confidential was inspired by the brutal beatings of seven inmates at the Lincoln Heights Jail on Christmas Day, 1951. Eight police officers were eventually indicted for assault after pressure from the Mexican American community to investigate the beatings. The incident was known as 'Bloody Christmas.' And if you go on a tour of Los Angeles' seediest tales with Crimebo, a clown who leads macabre tours, he might take you there for a few urban legends about its former inmates.
The Linda Vista Hospital, also a formerly abandoned, rumored-to-be-haunted L.A. site, is now home to the Hollenbeck Terrace Apartments, which offers 120 affordable apartments for senior citizens.
We've reached out to the city for more information, and will update the post when we hear back.
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