Espirit de Lafayette at the walk thru time

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Two men in blue suits walk the sidewalk at Broadway and Linden, maps in their hands and mumbling about architecture, and then the one stops, turns, and looks up: “Oh,” he says, tipping back to trace the corner of the Lafayette. “Oh my God!”

That’s a flattering moment for the stately apartment complex at the heart of the East Village Arts District—the SoundWalk flyers used the Lafayette’s Campbell building as their central image—and the kind of thing that might make Lafayette Historical Preservation Group President Jack Nendel smile. After 80 years—lots of ups, a decade or so of downs—the rejuvenated Lafayette (rejuvenated in large part through the efforts of the nonprofit LHPG) will be hosting its second Walk Thru Time home tour, which leads visitors through a downtown landmark that was once the luxury destination of all Long Beach luxury destinations.

The original two buildings—the 11-story Campbell and the seven-story Lafayette—opened at the corner of Broadway and Linden in 1928 and 1929, the Lafayette proper on the day the stock market. The Campbell was designed as luxury apartments for wealthy winterers and the Lafayette as a top-notch hotel whose best rooms went for $6 powerful American dollars a night. The lobby, says Nendel, is regarded as one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in Long Beach. In 1948, the International-style Broadway building—and attached mod lanai, now the Long Beach Inn—was built and in 1952 the Hiltons took over, lifting the Lafayette into its pinnacle years.

Then the entire block belonged to the hotel, which delivered the kind of city-unto-itself charm the Queen Mary towed across the North Atlantic: a wedding chapel, a café and pharmacy, a fleet of ballrooms, several toasty sunrooms and a slew of themed bars like the Tuna Room (where the Rat Pack supposedly settled, now denuded but still dignified) and the Ivanhoe Room (with creepy shackles still hanging from the walls) and the Fife and Drum Room (the old {open}, styled for 1776). There was even a suit of armor in the lobby, once stolen by three guys on a lark. Bruce Lee did karate demos there; Miss Universe and her hopefuls stayed there; there was a national accordionist’s convention in 1966. Building manager Sharon Hays has the program (and much more Lafayette-iana) under glass in a new Lafayette museum, set to open Sunday. “It was,” she says, “the place to be.”

Last year’s Walk Thru Time was the first Walk Thru Time, connecting 15 condominium units with points of interest like the Campbell solarium (slated for a complete period redressing this year) and the wedding chapel (still in tatters after a 1994 fire) and the Broadway’s rooftop garden, with a ’30s Packard parked out front and members of the Art Deco Society trotting around in fedoras on the sidewalk.

This year, the Deco Society is back to help patrol six new and nine original homes, including the modern-style condo of a professional furniture dealer and a meticulously Deco restoration, as well as converted promenade units and remodels that combine two hotel rooms into spacious custom units. And this year’s Walk will also include the debut of the Lafayette Museum, stocked by Hays and friends over 10 years of diligent eBaying and antiquing (locals with Lafayette memorabilia are invited to get in touch, Nendel adds).

“Last year,” Nendel says, “we had one person who came to the tour and when she got married, the first wedding reception in the Lafayette was her reception. And another gentleman had been a busboy in one of the restaurants. When these people are coming back, they’re reconnecting to the past—they’ve been a part of it.”

THE LAFAYETTE HISTORICAL PRESERVATION GROUP PRESENTS A WALK THRU TIME THE LAFAYETTE | 140 LINDEN AVE | LONG BEACH 90802 | SUN NOON | $20 | LAFAYETTEHISTOR [dot] PRESERVATION [at] GMAIL [dot] COM

Tags: architecture, art deco, downtown, the lafayette