The Western Union Office from “The Sting”

History in Los Angeles hides in the most unsuspecting of places. Back in 2013, I stalked a small edifice at 118 Winston Street in downtown L.A. that portrayed a Western Union office in the 1973 caper classic The Sting. I learned of the non-descript property via The Movie Tourist Blog and was thrilled at the fact that virtually none of it had changed since its cameo more than four decades prior. I had no idea until sitting down to write this post, though, the many stories the building had to tell.

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Built in 1887, 118 Winston Street sits on the northern edge of Skid Row on a tiny five-block road that current occupants Stephen and Jodi Zeigler note “has always been a gritty little stretch of urban real estate.” The couple moved into the building in 2008 and opened These Days LA, an art gallery/boutique/publishing office, on its second floor in 2014. Los Angeles natives and aficionados both, the duo comprehensively chronicle the colorful provenance of their home/workplace in a two-part write-up on their blog, Communiqué. You can check out it out here and here. TL;DR? The CliffsNotes version is below.

Initially owned by music dealer A. G. Gardner, in its early days the building operated as a piano store on its street level and transient lodging on its second and third. Per newspapers ads I was able to dig up, the highly esteemed A. G. Gardner Piano House appears to have remained on the premises through 1907, with the Catholic Knights of America fraternal order utilizing it as a hall after that. Its function in the time that followed was a bit less – ahem – holy. At some point, the property began serving as a brothel, or “disorderly house” as periodicals of the day referred to it. Known as The Yale, the site was shut down in 1911 and its proprietor sentenced to 180 days in jail. From an upscale piano shop to a religious hall to a den of inequity – all in the space of four years. Talk about a whirlwind! If those walls could only talk. And there’s more!

In the 1930s, the Communist organizations International Labor Defense and the Young Pioneers of America moved in. Following that, 118 Winston served as several different rescue missions, including Sister Sylvia’s Soul Patrol run by Sister Sylvia Cresswell, aka the “Angel of Skid Row.’ The building was eventually condemned by the city before being transformed into a labor hall/workers’ dormitory. Then, in 1975, it was acquired by Baba Cooper who established a treatment center for Native Americans known as the United American Indian Involvement (UAII) on the premises. I am unsure of the structure’s occupants in between UAII’s departure in 1999 and the Zeiglers’ arrival nine years later. But whatever its function, 118 Winston has remained an onscreen stalwart all along the way.

The alley that runs adjacent to the building, which looks like it’s straight out of a studio backlot, is also a frequent film star with an interesting history. Named Werdin Place in real life, the stretch is more commonly known to locals as “Indian Alley” thanks to the fact that it became something of a haven for impoverished Native Americans during the ‘80s thanks to its proximity to UAII.

Once an intensely harsh, bleak and gloomy spot (as you can see in images here and here), the alley is now a virtual outdoor art gallery. Deemed “one of the most famous unofficial public spaces in the country” by On the Rez author Ian Frazier, the site is known for the vibrant murals, sketches and sculptures that line it, all of which honor its Native American legacy. The colorful works were actually initiated by Zeigler, who has since become the unofficial steward of the neighborhood. Per a 2014 Los Angeles Times article, Stephen “cleaned the streets when no one else would, wrote positive messages on the walls, and painted the street poles gold. Curiosity about his home’s past has turned him into a sort of historian-in-residence.” A man after my own heart!

The dynamic edginess of both 118 Winston and Indian Alley caught the attention of location scouts early on.

The building’s best-known appearance is in The Sting in which it portrays the downtown Chicago Western Union office that Kid Twist (Harold Gould) and J.J. Singleton (Ray Walston) pretend to paint as part of the set-up to the con on Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Though Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) refers to its location as “110 South Wabash” in the movie, the site’s actual address number of 118 is clearly visible above the front doors throughout the scene.

When the flick was shot in 1973, the property was operating as A-Rent-A-Man labor hall. Amazingly, despite the countless changes in occupancy and the passage of over forty years, it still looks much as it did in The Sting. Yes, the entrance is now gated, the façade painted black and the windows altered, but all in all it is still entirely recognizable.

I am fairly certain that only the building’s exterior appeared in The Sting and that the interior of the Western Union office was just a set.

118 Winston and Indian Alley briefly appear at the beginning of the Season 2 episode of McCloud titled “Encounter with Aries,” which aired in 1971.

In the Season 1 episode of Kojak titled “Requiem for a Cop”, which aired in 1973, a policeman chases a suspect into Indian Alley and is subsequently killed.

The following year, the locale masked as St. Matthew Mission in the Season 4 episode of Columbo titled “Negative Reaction.”

I believe the building’s real life interior also appeared in the episode.

Detective Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) gives a vagrant named Lijah (Douglas Fowley) a dollar outside of 118 Winston in the 1975 Starsky & Hutch pilot.

Later in the episode, Hutch and his partner, Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser), race down Indian Alley while chasing a suspect.

118 Winston also pops up in the Season 2 episode of Starsky & Hutch titled “The Psychic,” which aired in 1977. It it outside of the building that Starsky shoots at a kidnapper’s car causing it to explode.

Mike Roark (Rick Springfield) gets pulled over in Indian Alley in the Season 2 episode of The Incredible Hulk titled “The Disciple,” which aired in 1979.

In the Season 4 episode of Quincy M.E. titled “Dark Angel,” which aired in 1979, an arrest goes wrong and a suspect dies outside of 118 Winston.

Kelly Garrett (Jacklyn Smith) and Jake Barnett (Norman Alden) drive out of Indian Alley and past 118 Winston in the Season 5 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Taxi Angels,” which aired in 1981.

Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and Officer Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) give a homeless man a ticket outside of the building in the Season 2 episode of Southland titled “Phase Three,” which aired in 2010.

118 Winston served double duty in the Season 1 episode of Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. titled “Tupac Amaru Shakur,” which aired in 2018. The building’s front exterior first popped up as the nightclub owned by Eric ‘Zip’ Martin (Garland Whitt), where Keefe D (Lahmard Tate) is sent to try to get information.