A nearly century-old hotel in Los Angeles serves as a beacon for women’s rights

Los Angeles — Hotel Figueroa opened in Los Angeles about six years after women got the right to vote.

“It was built to be a place for professional women,” Connie Wang, general manager of Hotel Figueroa, told CBS News.

Hotel Figueroa was fully financed and built by a group of pioneering women in 1926, at a time when almost every hotel did not allow women to have a room unless accompanied by a man.

A painting of Maud Bouldin, the first CEO, hangs in the lobby.

“She rode across the country on a motorcycle to get her first job here,” Wang said.

Many guests come for the hotel’s charm without knowing its incredible history, such as the fact that it was one of the first hotels to allow women to check in unescorted, according to Wang.

According to Wang, after 97 years, almost everything at Hotel Figueroa remains as it was.

“We wanted to make sure it still had a very strong sense of time and place,” Wang said.

“It was important to restore, not reconstruct,” she added.

All artworks in the hotel are created by women. When asked what she would be proud to show the hotel’s founders, Wang said, “How we continue to welcome women in the arts like we did in the 1920s and 30s.”

And the pool has its own legend.

“There are rumors that it was built in the shape of a coffin to bury the patriarch,” Wang said.

Jamie Yukas

Jamie Youkas is a correspondent for CBS News in Los Angeles.