How a Los Angeles church was reborn as a hotel – and why more could follow

There is a cross on the roof, stained glass windows and a choir loft upstairs, but this whitewashed three-level building near Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, is no longer a house of worship. It is the Hotel Lucile, a 25-room boutique lodging that opened in September 2026 with a restaurant and bar in the high-ceilinged sanctuary where church-goers once gathered. This opening follows more than a decade of controversy and transformation, including a community debate, bankruptcy and...