Above, the Nadeau Hotel (sometimes called the Hotel Nadeau) at Spring and 1st streets (now the site of The Times Building), in an undated drawing.

An early ad for a business in the Nadeau, 1889.

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times Demolition of the Nadeau Hotel, 1932. Times columnist Lee Shippey writes about the sad farewells to the Nadeau, 1932.

Nadeau was a Canadian who came to Los Angeles about 1867. He began in the freight business, hauling bullion from mines in Inyo County to Los Angeles and hauling goods from Los Angeles to the miners in Inyo County. According to The Times, Nadeau had a 2,400-acre vineyard, which the paper called one of the largest in the world. 

The hotel went through some difficult times after Nadeau died in 1887. It closed for several weeks in 1912 while it was in receivership and was again in receivership in 1916.

Over the years, it was the site of countless luncheons of political and social groups, and fraternal organizations, and occasionally the site of crimes and accidents, notably an employee who was crushed by the elevator.

Bonus fact: The site of the Nadeau Hotel was previously owned by Louis Roeder, a German immigrant who operated a blacksmith shop there. At his death in 1915 at the age of 80, he still owned an adjoining lot, The Times said.

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