Get inside the secret members-only landmark this month only
Doheny! Lankershim! Huntington! These power brokers who built L.A. were also members of the Jonathan Club, a private Downtown institution at the corner of 6th and Figueroa since 1926.
The restored main lobby of the Jonathan ClubCredit: Photo courtesy of the Jonathan Club
The upstairs halls are lined with portraits of the club’s early members, which range from movie stars like Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs and Griffith Park benefactor Griffith Jenkins Griffith.
Club President William Jeffries sets the cornerstone on Feb. 26, 1925Credit: Photo courtesy of the Jonathan Club
To mark their centennial, the Jonathans are opening the sprawling and mysterious venue for rare public tours with the Los Angeles Conservancy on two dates: January 24 and 31.
The Grill restaurant at the Jonathan ClubCredit: Photo courtesy of the Jonathan Club
Luxurious meeting spaces, hotel rooms, entertainment pavilions, a library, pool and even a barber shop share space under magnificent stenciled, gilded and coffered ceilings. Keep an eye out for the recently uncovered Batchelder art tiles in the dining room.
The swimming pool at the Jonathan ClubCredit: Photo courtesy of the Jonathan Club
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Many of the club rooms look the same today as they did 100 years ago but offering the comforts of the 21st century. Today’s 4,000 members (including at an ivy-covered sister beach club in Santa Monica) enjoy fine dining, curated art shows and an extensive medical spa with nutritionists, coaches and even a hyperbaric chamber.
The library of the Jonathan ClubCredit: Photo courtesy of the Jonathan Club
“We’ve taken the time to recruit experts in their fields,” says the club’s Jessica McLin of their staff. “One instructor was an Olympic swimmer and our masseuses are incredible.” The tours don’t include a massage, but you can visit a hidden cocktail lounge that was conveniently left off the blueprints during prohibition. “It was on the plans as a utility room, all ducts and fans,” McLin says of the secret bar. “That was all a crock.”