The Arts District Firehouse Hotel from “ER”

The Grim Cheaper likes to say that I fixate on the silliest of things.  I typically scoff at the notion, but he’s 100% right.  Case in point – a few months back favorite blogger Emily Schuman, of Cupcakes and Cashmere, did a photo shoot at the Arts District Firehouse Hotel, a stylish fire-station-turned-lodging in downtown L.A.  While there, she recorded an Instagram story showing an assortment of blush matchbooks displayed at the check-in desk.  As it so happens, I had recently changed up my kitchen décor by adding some pops of pink, including a bowl filled with two rose-colored matchbooks.  One look at Emily’s story and I decided I had to snag some of the hotel’s matches ASAP to add to my new collection.  When the GC and I headed out to L.A. to take care of some business a few weeks later, I, of course, tried to reserve a room at the property, but it was completely booked.  Undeterred, I ventured right on over there as soon as we arrived in town to grab that matchbook – and an iced latte from the lobby coffee bar, natch.  The Arts District Firehouse Hotel is so artfully designed and unique that I couldn’t help but snap some pics while waiting for my drink, which turned out to be quite fortuitous, because, as it turns out, the place is a filming location!

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The Arts District Firehouse Hotel began life as Engine Co. 17, which started servicing the downtown area on April 1st, 1905.  Interestingly, it was situated in a slightly different location at the time – at 2100 East Seventh Street, about 100 feet north of its current home.  At its inception, the handsome vine-covered building (which you can see here) sat facing Seventh Street, in pretty much the spot where Bread Lounge stands today  When the Seventh Street Bridge, which ran in front of the station, was raised above grade in the mid-20s, Engine Co. 17 had to be re-located.  I’ve come across a few reports stating that to accommodate the project, the entire building was picked up and moved the short distance to 710 South Santa Fe Avenue, but I don’t believe that to be true.  Though similar, the edifice of the original Engine Co. 17 is quite different from that of the Arts District Firehouse Hotel.  The former boasted an intricately paned, three-panel window with angled projections across its second floor (as you can see here), while the latter has six separate flat windows in that spot.  And while the original featured one bay door, the hotel has two.  Though subtle, the differences are just enough to lead me to believe the 1904 firehouse was razed during the bridge project and a replacement then built at the new location.  Whatever the case, per LAFire the Santa Fe Avenue facility opened its doors on September 9th, 1927.  The station operated at that site for the next five decades before being decommissioned in 1980, at which point Company 17 re-located once again to a new building eight blocks south at 1601 South Santa Fe.

The former firehouse was subsequently sold to photographer Robert Blakeman who transformed it into four separate artist studios which he shared with various contemporaries over the next 20 years.  In 2006, he put the property up for sale for $2.95 million.  At the time, the 8,721-square-foot, 2-story structure boasted the station’s original kitchen, an indoor handball court, and parking for 13 cars.  There were no takers, though, and it was removed from the market in 2007.

At some point, Engine Co. 17 did change hands and the owners began making plans to transform the space into a hotel, but those plans did not reach fruition until hospitality magnate Dustin Lancaster was brought onboard in 2016.  He quickly tapped interior designer Sally Breer, with whom he partnered on two prior projects, to reimagine the station’s interior.  Sally worked her magic, converting the site into an operable lodging, all the while keeping intact all of the original firehouse elements that make it so unique.  A woman after my own heart, she told the Los Angeles Times, “Always our job first and foremost is to respect the architecture and breathe some new life into it.”  Yaaaaas!  With that mantra in mind, Breer preserved the building’s concrete flooring, pressed-tin ceiling, and exposed beam work.

To say the finished project is stunning would be a gross understatement!  Since the transformation, the hotel has been written up by everyone from Vogue to Architectural Digest to Time – and it’s not very hard to see why.  The place is serious #designgoals!

Opened this past April, the boutique lodging features nine suites, a restaurant and bar, event space (the station’s former handball court now serves as a private dining room), a coffee bar, a large patio complete with a fire pit, and a small shop featuring Los Angeles- and California-themed wares.

I did not realize Engine Co. 17 had appeared onscreen until long after I got home, though it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise.  A decommissioned firehouse with many of its original elements intact that operated as a studio (and therefore could easily be shut down for filming) for over two decades?  Sounds like a dream site for any location manager working on a procedural!

In the Season 8 episode of ER titled “A River in Egypt,” which aired in 2002, Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes) confronts her paramour, firefighter Sandy Lopez (Lisa Vidal), at Engine Co. 17 for outing her to her fellow County General Hospital coworkers.

Thanks to firehouse expert Richard Yokley (you may remember him from this post and this post), I learned that Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia) and Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano) investigated the disappearance of a firefighter at Engine Co. 17 in the Season 2 episode of Without a Trace titled “Trip Box,” which aired in 2003.

Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) interrogates Rod Halstead (John M. Jackson) at Engine Co. 17 about a fire her mother had been looking into in the Season 4 episode of Castle titled “Rise,” which aired in 2011, though little of the building is visible in the scene.

 Richard also informed me that Captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher), Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) headed to Engine Co. 17 to apologize to Fire Marshall Boone (Patton Oswalt) in the Season 1 episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine titled “Sal’s Pizza,” which aired in 2013.

The episode gives us some nice glimpses of the firehouse’s Interior, as well.

The music video for A Great Big World’s 2014 song “Already Home,” which you can watch here, also largely took place at Engine Co. 17.  The song tells the story of lovers who live on opposite coasts, which explains why the top screen capture below is split.

Per On Location Vacations, the pilot of Like Father was also lensed at the firehouse in 2012, but, sadly, it appears as if the show never made it on air.

And for those asking, pictured below are the matchbooks I went out of my way to procure – a fabulous addition to my collection, don’t you think?

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: The Arts District Firehouse Hotel, aka the former Engine Co. 17 from the “A River in Egypt” episode of ER, is located at 710 South Santa Fe Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.  You can visit the lodging’s official website here.