It is on 640 S Main St, in downtown Los Angeles, California. The hotel saw great success as the burgeoning middle to upper-class Angelinos and tourists chose to stay in this hotel.

But as the Great Depression started to change the American economy in the 1930s, the Cecil Hotel quickly became a budget hotel for transients and businessmen. Even the nearby hotels have been reduced to a similar status, as the economic difficulty had crept even into the lives of the affluent families.