Ambassador Hotel (site of) 3400 Wilshire Blvd., Wilshire Center Designed by Myron Hunt with later alterations by Paul R. Williams, the Ambassador Hotel was one of Los Angeles' defining historic sites and a main catalyst for the development of Wilshire Boulevard. Built on a former dairy farm miles from downtown, the 24-acre resort hotel was a hit from its opening on New Year's Day 1921. It quickly became a tourist attraction, a fashionable winter residence for East Coast society, and a prominent social center. The Ambassador was home to the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, L.A.'s premier night spot for decades; host to six Academy Award ceremonies and to every U.S. President from Herbert Hoover to Richard Nixon; and the site of the tragic assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. The hotel closed in 1989. After a fierce preservation battle spanning two decades, the building was demolished by the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2006. Image from the postcard collection of Annie Laskey