Dunnes Inn Wilshire

Place

Dunes Inn Wilshire

The Wilshire Twilighter exemplified the postwar car craze, down to drive-in registration.

Place Details

Address

4300 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90010
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Style

Decade

Property Type

Community

Now operating as a Dunes Inn, this building opened as the Wilshire Twilighter Hotel. Its many amenities included drive-in registration, a plus in the late 1950s as the car culture boomed in Southern California. 

A prominent feature of the hotel's design is the three-story cylindrical tower facing Wilshire that houses a stairwell within. Clad in brick, it incorporates a double stretcher bond featuring alternating recessed and projecting headers.

The circle motif extends to the porte-cochere (carport), in which circular lights are suspended through enlarged circular openings, as well as to the entrance landscaping, which features a raised circular planting bed.

Wilshire Twilighter
Courtesy Jordan L. Smith Collection | The Wilshire Twilighter Hotel.
Conservancy Archives | Vintage postcard of Wilshire Twilighter.
Anne Laskey | Dunes Inn
you-are-here.com
Larry Underhill | present day.
Larry Underhill | Detail
Larry Underhill | 2005.