A 1931 Romanesque church, a theater company that made history, a pop star's lawsuit, and the boutique hotel finally bringing the corner of Griffith Park Boulevard and Lucile Avenue back to life.
Hotel Lucile at a glance
The Hotel Lucile Silver Lake is a 25-room boutique hotel inside the former Pilgrim Church at 1629 Griffith Park Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026. Casetta Hotels and design firm Electric Bowery converted the 1931 Romanesque church with no new construction, keeping the chapel, the stained glass, and the rooftop cross, and the hotel debuts in 2026.
The plywood is coming down at the corner of Griffith Park Boulevard and Lucile Avenue. After fifteen years of plans, permits, one bankruptcy, and a lawsuit involving Katy Perry, the white Romanesque church that has anchored this Silver Lake corner since 1931 is about to open its doors again, this time as the Hotel Lucile.
Debbie Pisaro lives in Silver Lake and has watched this corner the way the whole neighborhood has: slowly, on foot, and for a long stretch with more hope than certainty. The building spent years locked and quiet, its terracotta tiles cracking, its white cross rusting above the tower. Now the signage is up, the landscaping is in, and one of the most patient adaptive reuse projects on the eastside is ready for its unveiling.
This story belongs in the culture section rather than the market pages, but the two are never far apart here. As a Los Feliz realtor who works both sides of Hyperion Avenue, Debbie Pisaro reads a project like this as a marker of what the eastside has decided to be: a place that would rather resurrect its landmarks than replace them. The full story runs from a Depression-era congregation to the nation's first Asian American theater company to a bankruptcy court, and it ends, improbably, with velvet banquettes under stained glass.
What is the Hotel Lucile in Silver Lake?
The Hotel Lucile is a 25-room boutique hotel from Casetta Hotels, built inside the preserved 1931 church at the corner of Griffith Park Boulevard and Lucile Avenue in Silver Lake, with a restaurant and bar in the former chapel, a lounge in the choir loft, a private cocktail room in the old Organ Room, a pool, and a rooftop deck with views across the city.
Everything happens within the original walls. The former Sunday school holds the guest rooms, many with their original wood floors. The playground became the pool deck. The stage became a private dining room. The plans that cleared the city years ago entitle four separate restaurant and bar venues on the property, with full liquor and live entertainment approvals already in place.
Casetta has paired the building with a serious art program in collaboration with Rhett Baruch Gallery, including rotating exhibitions and artist residencies, and hired Anthony Gutierrez from its Pearl hotel in San Diego as general manager. The official line from the hotel is simply that it is debuting in 2026, and the corner itself now looks ready to keep that promise.
From Bethany Presbyterian to East West Players
The church opened in 1931 as the Bethany Presbyterian Church, a Romanesque-style sanctuary and Sunday school built for a reported 75,000 dollars, and it spent its first decades as the hub of an active congregation. Its second act is the one that earns this corner a permanent place in Los Angeles cultural history.
In the mid-1960s, East West Players, the nation's first Asian American theater company, established its headquarters at the church and staged performances on the site. Postwar Silver Lake was a center of Asian American life and design, home to modernist architects like Eugene Choy, David Hyun, and Gilbert Leong, and the pioneering company fit the neighborhood exactly. In 1980, the church's once dominant Anglo congregation merged with a fast-growing Korean congregation to form the Bethany United Presbyterian Church, and the last congregation to hold services in the building was called the Pilgrim Church.
Then came the quiet years. Neighbors reported the building sitting unused for long stretches, and the corner grew strange in the way empty landmarks do. A sprawling estate sale ran inside the sanctuary on and off for months. In 2013 an immersive horror production, Delusion: Masque of Mortality, turned the darkened church into a haunted stage. The building never lost its presence, only its purpose.
Why did the Hotel Lucile take fifteen years to open?
The Hotel Lucile took fifteen years because its original developer, Silver Lake restaurateur Dana Hollister, was forced into bankruptcy after losing a costly court battle to Katy Perry and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles over a former convent in Los Feliz, and had to sell her long-term lease on the church; Casetta Hotels took over the project in 2020.
Hollister is eastside royalty: the businesswoman behind Cliff's Edge and the 4100 Bar, a serial rescuer of neglected buildings, and the owner of the Paramour, the hilltop estate above this very church. Beginning in 2011, she spent nearly a decade securing city approvals and a 40-year lease to turn the Pilgrim Church into a boutique hotel with multiple restaurants, bars, and a rooftop garden.
Then the convent fight happened. The legal battle over the former Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary property in Los Feliz ended with Hollister owing millions to Perry and the Archdiocese, and by late 2018 she had put her interest in the church project up for sale as part of a bankruptcy that the Los Angeles Times reported could bring as much as 5 million dollars for the lease, as The Eastsider covered at the time. "It is a heartbreaking thing for me not to be involved in," she told the Times. Casetta, the group behind Casa Cody in Palm Springs, The Surfrider in Malibu, and The Pearl in San Diego, formally took over in 2020, and the long construction years began.
Inside the Electric Bowery redesign
The design of the Hotel Lucile is by Electric Bowery, the Venice-based architecture and design firm, and the guiding decision was restraint: restore the cathedral-scale ceilings and the jewel-toned stained glass, then layer in hand-painted murals, antique furnishings, velvet-draped archways, and a hidden garden courtyard rather than strip the building back to a shell.
The main chapel is now the restaurant and bar, anchored by a central bar under the original arches, with the moody choir loft as a lounge floating above the room and the old Organ Room converted into a private cocktail room. The rusting cross that neighbors watched for a decade stays on the roof, restored. It is the same preservation-first instinct that runs through the eastside's best architecture, from John Lautner's Silvertop above the reservoir to the storybook towers of the Castle on Glendower Avenue, and it puts the Lucile in conversation with a full century of Silver Lake architecture.
Churches have shaped Los Angeles architecture since A.F. Leicht drew the Angelus Temple a century ago, and hotel-anchored living has become one of the defining luxury formats of this decade, from the Sun Rose Residences on the Sunset Strip on down. The Lucile is the small, hyperlocal version of that idea: hospitality as the engine that keeps a landmark alive. In Debbie Pisaro's read of the eastside, that is the model that works here, because the buildings people love in this neighborhood were never generic to begin with.
What does a boutique hotel mean for Silver Lake and Los Feliz?
A boutique hotel gives Silver Lake and Los Feliz something the eastside has mostly lacked: a true guest room. Until the Silver Lake Pool and Inn opened in 2019, the neighborhood had almost no lodging beyond short-term rentals, so visiting family, wedding guests, and design pilgrims all bunked elsewhere and drove in.
The Lucile changes the geometry of a visit. It sits around the corner from the Sunset Triangle Plaza farmers market, an easy walk from the reservoir and the small parks locals actually use, and a short hop from the wine bars of the eastside. For anyone weighing where to land on this side of town, the hotel also makes a useful basecamp for the classic comparison walk between Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and Atwater Village.
There is a quieter effect too, and it is the one Debbie Pisaro cares about most. A restored landmark stabilizes everything around it. The blocks near the church are classic Silver Lake real estate, hillside Craftsman and Spanish houses on streets that feed down to Sunset, and a corner that spent a decade behind a fence now anchors them instead of haunting them. Los Feliz knows this pattern well from its own architectural landmarks, where preservation and property value have been travel companions for decades. The culture of a neighborhood is the thing buyers are really purchasing here, and the Lucile just added to the ledger for every street within walking distance, in Los Feliz as much as Silver Lake.
Adaptive reuse is how the eastside keeps its landmarks. A 1931 church was never going to survive as a teardown or a scrape. The Lucile shows the other path: the building stays, the use changes, and the neighborhood gets its anchor back.
Debbie will be reporting back from the choir loft once the doors open, for the culture section and for her own curiosity in roughly equal measure. In the meantime, this corner is worth a slow walk on your next loop through the neighborhood. If you are working with a Los Feliz realtor who has spent decades on these streets, you already know the lesson the Lucile teaches: on the eastside, the past is the amenity.
Where is the Hotel Lucile located?
The Hotel Lucile is at 1629 Griffith Park Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026, on the corner of Griffith Park Boulevard and Lucile Avenue in Silver Lake, one block off Sunset Boulevard and around the corner from the Sunset Triangle Plaza farmers market.
When does the Hotel Lucile open in Silver Lake?
Casetta Hotels says the Hotel Lucile is debuting in 2026, and as of July 2026 the property is in its final pre-opening stretch, with signage installed and landscaping complete. Earlier target dates in 2024 and 2025 came and went during construction, so check the hotel's site for the confirmed date.
How many rooms does the Hotel Lucile have?
The Hotel Lucile has 25 guest rooms, created inside the church's former Sunday school wing with no new construction on the site. The property also includes a restaurant and bar in the main chapel, a choir loft lounge, a private Organ Room, a pool, and a rooftop deck.
What was the building before it became a hotel?
The building opened in 1931 as the Bethany Presbyterian Church. East West Players, the nation's first Asian American theater company, made it their headquarters in the mid-1960s. In 1980 the congregation merged with a Korean congregation to form Bethany United Presbyterian, and the final congregation there was the Pilgrim Church.
Who designed the Hotel Lucile renovation?
Electric Bowery, the Venice-based architecture and design firm, led the transformation for Casetta Hotels. The design restores the cathedral ceilings, stained glass, and rooftop cross, and adds hand-painted murals, antique furnishings, velvet-draped archways, and a garden courtyard within the original 1931 structure.
What happened between Dana Hollister and Katy Perry?
Dana Hollister, the project's original developer, lost a court battle to Katy Perry and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles over the sale of a former convent in Los Feliz. The judgment pushed Hollister into bankruptcy, and she sold her 40-year lease on the church, reported at up to 5 million dollars, exiting the hotel project.
Is the original church architecture preserved?
Yes. The Romanesque exterior, the stained glass windows, the chapel's arches, the original woodwork, and the rooftop cross were all retained, and the conversion added no new construction. Guest rooms occupy the former Sunday school, the old playground holds the pool, and the chapel serves as the restaurant and bar.
What other hotels does Casetta run?
Casetta Hotels operates Casa Cody in Palm Springs, The Surfrider in Malibu, The Pearl in San Diego, Hotel Marina Riviera in Big Bear Lake, and Hotel Willa in Taos, New Mexico. The group specializes in reviving historic and character-rich properties, and the Hotel Lucile is its first Los Angeles hotel.
Who is a good full-service real estate agent in Los Feliz?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and the surrounding neighborhoods. She specializes in architectural and historic homes and lives on the eastside herself. Reach her at (310) 362-6429.
Talk to Debbie
Twenty-four years of Los Angeles luxury real estate, with a specialty in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes.
debbie@coastline840.com
DRE #01369110 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California brokerage, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published July 2026.
On the Register
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© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com