Relaxing at the historic Hotel Figueroa in downtown LA [complimentary stay]. Did you know this LA Hotel represented a huge stride for women, and especially solo female travelers, at the time?
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The Hotel Figueroa was built in 1926, funded by women, for women, to function as a safe haven for solo women travelers. At the time, most women couldn’t check into hotels without a male chaperone, and traveling alone was considered unsafe and damaging to a woman’s reputation, so Figueroa was established by the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) to provide a place to stay. It was the LARGEST building to be designed, funded, and run entirely by women at the time in the US.
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The YWCA also built other hotels throughout LA, some functioning as safe housing for single women pursuing independent upwards economic mobility. Marilyn Monroe was one of the residents of the YWCA funded hotels when she moved to LA. So yes, “safe spaces” were always necessary, they just weren’t called that at the time. The Figueroa also hosted plenty of artists and progressive political meetings during the early 20th century.
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I enjoyed staying not only at the hotel, but in this part of LA as well. Downtown LA has a lot of beautiful Art Deco architecture, an incredible food scene, and so many neighborhoods I love around it (Arts District and Olvera Street jump to mind). But it’s quite a distance from where I live, especially in traffic, so I don’t get there nearly as often as I’d like.
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Which means when I got offered a mini two day vacation there, I immediately accepted. It’s exciting to see your city through a different perspective, and staying in a different neighborhood for a while can give you exactly that. Learning a lot of the feminist history associated with this historic hotel was a great bonus!
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