Hotel Lucile opens in a 1931 church in Silver Lake, Los Angeles

Since September 14, 2026, you can sleep in a church in Silver Lake. Hotel Lucile occupies the 1931 Bethany Presbyterian Church and its rectory, at 1629 Griffith Park Boulevard, in East Los Angeles’s most creative neighborhood. Twenty-five rooms, a restaurant set beneath the nave, a courtyard with a pool, and neighborhood art programming: the Casetta group, specialists in historic buildings, marks its first address in Los Angeles here.

☰Contents

1. A 1931 church with three lives
2. Electric Bowery keeps the nave and stained glass
3. 25 rooms, from the Petit King to the Lucile Suite
4. Sous Sous: Marseille and Charleston at the table
5. A living gallery and Silver Lake neighbors
6. Casetta, five character addresses in the West
7. Our perspective

A 1931 church with three lives

The building was erected in 1931 for the Bethany Presbyterian Church, a neighborhood parish in Silver Lake. It later hosted one of the first stages of East West Players, a pioneering Asian-American theater company, before becoming an antique market popular with locals. Three successive lives, and a place that has never stopped bringing people together.

This is the thread Casetta chose to pull. Rather than erasing the past, the group built its project upon it: the nave remains a nave, the rectory houses the rooms, and the church courtyard becomes the hotel’s. The establishment also presents itself as a “landmark hotel” and honors the year 1931 right down to its telephone number.

Electric Bowery keeps the nave and stained glass

The transformation was entrusted to Electric Bowery, the Venice Beach studio founded by Lucia Bartholomew and Cayley Lambur. The two architects made the original structure the focal point of the project: monumental arches preserved, restored stained-glass windows coloring the light throughout the day, and exposed timber framing. Beneath the nave, a central bar serves as the heart of the space, framed by nearly eight-meter-high curtains that close off the area for dinner or open it up for a reception.

In the rooms, the same restraint: period parquet flooring, steel-framed windows, bathrooms adorned with original stained glass, brick-red walls, and checkerboard floors. The decor is that of a neighborhood home, not a chain hotel, and this is precisely the spirit of Casetta addresses, which the group calls its “little houses”.

25 rooms, from the Petit King to the Lucile Suite

The twenty-five rooms are divided into six categories. The most compact, the Petit King, measure 20 to 26 sqm; the Loft King and Loft Double take advantage of the former building’s high ceilings; the Lucile Suite, the largest, opens onto a private courtyard hidden beneath the bell tower. All offer a minibar stocked by Erewhon grocery store, Aesop bath products, Parachute linens, coffee served every morning, a local newspaper, and martinis at any hour.

Sous Sous: Marseille and Charleston at the table

The Sous Sous restaurant occupies the former sanctuary, beneath the stained glass and timber framework. Its menu bridges two Southern regions that resemble each other more than one might think: the South of France and the American South, Marseille and Nice on one side, Charleston and New Orleans on the other. Port cities, long seasons, fish, and spices.

Chef Patrick Costa works with local catches and a raw bar that changes with the season: oysters spiced with Espelette pepper, yellowtail crudo with Virginia peanuts, roasted farm chicken with frisée, and bouillabaisse for two with clams, mussels, and shrimp. At the bar, Lee Zaremba draws on New Orleans cocktail culture, featuring an absinthe-rinsed Sazerac accented with toasted coconut, and a martini cart circulates every evening. Dinner from Sunday to Thursday 5 pm to 9 pm, until 10 pm on Friday and Saturday.

A living gallery and Silver Lake neighbors

Art isn’t just an afterthought: it’s part of the program. With Rhett Baruch Gallery and Uprise Art, the hotel exhibits rotating works, and two murals by Erin Lynn Welsh crown the common spaces, one inspired by the San Gabriel peaks above Altadena, the other by the flora of Elysian Park. The church’s former stage, now a private dining room, showcases canvases by Thai Mainhard, Harlan Hue, and Thomas Linder; in the rooms, stained-glass coasters by Janel Foo echo the building’s windows.

The rest of the neighborhood enters through the door: minibar sourced from Erewhon, guest room library curated with Skylight Books, running outings with the Landmark Run Club and USAL field guides. The calendar also features a Sunday Service Brunch and artists in residence, fitting for a place that, as a church and then a theater, has always brought locals together.

Casetta, five character addresses in the West

Hotel Lucile is the sixth house for Casetta, which has made a specialty of bringing life back to buildings with a history: Casa Cody in Palm Springs, The Surfrider in Malibu, Hotel Marina Riviera in Big Bear Lake, Hotel Willa in Taos, and The Pearl Hotel in San Diego. Anthony Gutierrez, general manager of the property, describes a simple ambition: to integrate into the fabric of Silver Lake and make the hotel a neighborhood destination, not an enclave. For the opening, the house is offering a 20% discount on direct bookings (“First In” offer), a $45 daily dining credit (“Stay and Savor”), and tiered pricing starting from three nights.

Our perspective

Transforming a place of worship into a hotel is a balancing act: too much solemnity and you’re sleeping in a museum, too much decor and you fall into pastiche. Here, Electric Bowery chose the home over the monument, keeping the church’s strongest elements·the nave, the stained glass, the light·and housing comfort within the rectory. It’s the same success as Fontevraud L’Ermitage in a Loire Valley abbey, scaled to a Los Angeles neighborhood.

For readers of La Revue des Hôtels, this address counts double: it opens in Silver Lake, a neighborhood that Beverly Hills luxury hotels ignore, and it arrives less than a year before the 2026 World Cup in Los Angeles, when the city will be short on hotels with real character. A West Coast stopover to remember, provided you book Sous Sous at the same time as your room.

Practical information

• Hotel Lucile, 1629 Griffith Park Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026, USA
• Phone: +1 (323) 800-1931
• Official website: hotellucile.com

Photo credit Hotel Lucile