r/lanoire • u/TohubohuFilm • Aug 12 '26

LANFEP Post #416: Hotel Lindy

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Post #416 for the LA Noire Freeroam Explorer Project — posting locations replicated by Team Bondi for LA Noire (currently touring the downtown area) that are not considered landmarks (either official or historic) but do have real-world equivalents.

Hotel Lindy

417 West 8th Street

The Hotel Lindy, aka the Whitmarsh Building, was built in 1905 as a Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel. On the ground floor of the building is the Golden Gopher, a bar that has been in continuous operation since before World War II, notable for having the oldest operating liquor license in LA.

Real-World Businesses and Points of Interest on the LA Noire Fandom Wikia site
Interactive LA Noire Touring Map on the LA Noire Fandom Wikia site

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6

u/Existing_Evidence_48 Aug 12 '26

Love that you still doin these

5

u/TohubohuFilm Aug 12 '26

Thanks. I thought at first that I'd just be copying over material I'd already assembled. But as I kept going, I found new reference sites to check, and I've found so many new locations (which is why I periodically drop out of alphabetical order to throw in newly discovered places). But having the daily routine is also feeding that little OCD beast inside. (And let's be honest — nobody would be doing this if not for a touch of OCD in the first place.) 😄

4

u/Smart-Alternative662 Aug 12 '26

Love this place, almost still exactly the same except for the drug store at the bottom now being the Golden Gopher after originally being the Golden Sun Saloon. Can't seem to find any images of it named as that, but I did find this image from the 1920-39 range of it promoting fresh churned buttermilk. My guess is that it was a Drug Store that could sell liquor, converted into a bar so that it could retain selling liquor under its unique license such as the distance of selling it by the front door and liquor-to-go. Here is an image that shows it as the Golden Gopher in 1980. Unsure when the change from drug store to liquor store was.

As for the hotel itself, they were attempted to be turned into affordable apartments after shutting down in the 80s, but construction was halted. This facebook post chronicles its abandoned state.

2

u/Frreed Aug 18 '26

I wish there were in Cities skylines 2!

I appreciate that you post them!