The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to allow the demolition of a century-old building in the Westlake neighborhood that served as a Jewish landmark and later became the heart of labor organizing in the city.
The vote was a victory for Catholic Charities, which purchased the building historically known as B'nai B'rith Lodge in 2018, but later said it was “dangerously dilapidated and structurally unsound” and could threaten the integrity of the surrounding neighborhood.
Catholic Charities, a nonprofit associated with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, sued the city in 2023, saying it was wrongly prevented from allowing the ornate 1924 building to be demolished.
The city will not allow the property on South Union Avenue to be demolished because it “may be historic,” making it subject to further additional review, and also because any future projects on the parcel must comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, the group said in court documents.
Community preservationists and advocates argued that the potential demolition would be a blow to Los Angeles' crucial history. Instead, they urged Catholic Charities to repair the building and put it into use.
The Rev. Dylan Littlefield, a chaplain at the Cecil Hotel who has been involved in preservation battles, said demolishing the inn would mean destroying a place that served as “a testament to the resilience and diversity of the city of Los Angeles.” “
Esotouric, a tourism company that advocates for historic preservation and public policy, told The Times before the settlement vote was announced that the public should have an opportunity to comment. The company described the lawsuit — and any potential settlement — as a “potential land use resolution regarding the right to demolish a cultural resource.”
The city attorney's office declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit.
The B'Nai B'rith Inn was designed by the famous Jewish architect Samuel Tilden Norton, who also designed the Wilshire Boulevard Synagogue.
It was built in the early 1920s as the headquarters of the Los Angeles chapter of B'nai B'rith, a Jewish service organization with New York roots. At the time, B'nai B'rith members felt “a desire to be truly accepted by city leaders,” according to Stephen Loftman, a heritage preservation consultant.
“They felt that if they just built a meeting hall large enough, it would be one step toward being recognized as part of the community,” said Luftman, who wrote a request to have the inn considered a historical and cultural monument.
After a few years as a community center for Los Angeles Jews, the building was sold in 1930 to the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He then had a short stint as a clubhouse for Safeway Staffors' Assn. Before it became the headquarters of the Joint Council of the American Federation of Task Forces 42.
It became a site of rapid growth for the labor movement, and is where the Teamsters elected their first black official, John T. Williams, according to Luftman.
“The AFL Teamster Building was the heart of the labor movement in Los Angeles and ground zero for many of the union organizations that transformed Los Angeles into an urban powerhouse,” said Chris Griswold, Chairman of the Teamsters' 42nd Joint Council.
B'nai Brith International said in a statement that the lodge “represents an important part of our organization's history in Los Angeles.”
“Regardless of how this issue is resolved, it will be important for the history of Los Angeles Jewry to note that B'nai B'rith met there,” the statement read.
Catholic Charities and the diocese respect the building's history and “have been in contact with both the Jewish community and labor leaders throughout this process,” the religious groups said in a joint statement. “Our concern has always been the safety of the blighted properties and the well-being of our neighborhood.”
In the lawsuit, Catholic Charities said it had no projects planned for the plot of land, and stressed that its intention was simply to demolish the inn.
“Catholic Charities incurs ongoing costs amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to maintain and secure the building, which is vacant, deteriorating, and unstable,” the court document said. “These funds are diverted from important programs to help underserved communities.”
The groups said their hope is to “work with the community and council office to find a use for the property that aligns with Catholic Charities' mission, such as community food service, emergency shelter, transitional youth housing, and before and after school care.” and services for the elderly.”
Littlefield, the chaplain at the Cecil Hotel, said Catholic Charities' reasoning was “merely a pretext to justify their desire to demolish the building.”
“The building itself can be a place of empowerment,” Littlefield said. “The building itself can be a place where more movements like this get started, where more great things happen, and where more lives are saved and changed.”
