{"nrhp_refnum":"76000491","name":"Somerville Hotel","other_names":["Dunbar Hotel","Dunbar Hotel Black Cultural and Historical Muse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"4225 S. Central Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Los Angeles","county":"Los Angeles County","state":"CA","lat":34.006846782000025,"lon":-118.25673698099996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-01-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story hotel at 4225 South Central Avenue (corner of 41st Street) in Los Angeles, California, built in 1928 as the Hotel Somerville in a Spanish Revival style and later renamed the Dunbar Hotel.","why_significant":"It is described as the first hotel built in America expressly for Black people, financed, owned and built by members of the Black community at a time when lodging was hard to find. It hosted prominent Black entertainers, athletes, politicians and businesspeople, and the first West Coast national NAACP convention in 1928. The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board named it a historic-cultural monument in 1974.","narrative":"Opened in June 1928 at Central Avenue and 41st Street, this four-story Los Angeles building began as the Hotel Somerville, built by Dr. John Alexander Somerville, a Black dentist and community leader, and his wife, Dr. Vada Jetmore Somerville. Black contractors, laborers and craftsmen constructed it, and members of the Black community owned and financed it. Its Spanish Revival design included arched ground-floor bays, balconies, a patio with a tile fountain and a mezzanine lobby; the balconies and parapet were later removed for seismic reasons. The hotel was described as the first built in America expressly for Black guests, and it hosted the first West Coast national NAACP convention in 1928. Musicians, athletes, writers and civic leaders stayed or performed there. Lucius Lomax bought it in the early 1930s and renamed it the Dunbar Hotel. The city designated it a historic-cultural monument in 1974, and plans called for a Black history museum and cultural center.","period_of_significance":"1928 (construction)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Spanish Revival, with Mission Revival elements","criteria":[],"status_note":"No longer operating as a hotel; most offices vacant, though a barber shop, bar and shoeshine stand still operate on the ground floor. Owners plan a Black museum and cultural center.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.123977-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/76000491.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000491/11506243e9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000491/11506243e9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Los Angeles","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somerville_Hotel,_Los_Angeles.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somerville_Hotel,_Los_Angeles.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123859518","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar_Hotel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5314148"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/los-angeles-county/somerville-hotel-76000491/"}