Ambassador Hotel
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The landmark Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles was the site of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 and its Cocoanut Grove club, the site of many Academy Awards ceremonies, and a favorite of celebrities from the 1920s until the 1960s. The assassination marked the beginning of the hotel's decline, hastened by the decline of the surrounding neighborhood. By the 1970s, the gang and drug problems in the area near the hotel were already becoming severe, and worsened as time went on. Despite a renovation of the Cocoanut Grove in the mid 1970s, and a period when it was ran by Sammy Davis, Jr., the hotel was not able to return to its former splendor, and closed in 1989.
It is now the subject of a battle between developers and preservationists.
The Ambassador Hotel is currently owned by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which intends to tear down most of the buildings and put in a school complex. The retail complex designed by noted local architect Paul Willams, a part of the Coconut Grove, and other facilities are expected to be retained.
The Ambassador Hotel is reportedly haunted.