In the 1930s and ʼ40s, African Americans who were looking for a night on the town in Los Angeles knew where exactly where to go: Central Avenue. In its heyday, the historic South Central neighborhood was instrumental in the development of West Coast jazz and African American culture. And on Central Avenue, one institution was involved in the community’s daytime and nighttime activities: the Dunbar Hotel.

The Dunbar was the finest black hotel in L.A. and for decades the lodging of choice for African American artists, activists, athletes, and more—the hotel was even listed in the Green Book starting in 1939. After a long decline and years of decay, the majestic building with Spanish Revival details has been restored to its place as an economic and cultural anchor of the neighborhood. Today, it’s the center of the Dunbar Village development and offers affordable housing for seniors.

“It was an anchor to development early on, and in more contemporary times, it continues to be an anchor to community stability and development because of the fact it’s been revitalized,” says Alison Rose Jefferson, a scholar who specializes in the history of African Americans in Southern California. “You have low-income people able to live in a nice place in the city on a major bus line, and there’s a new restaurant there in the building. The hotel is also a centerpiece of the Central Avenue Jazz Festival, which happens every July.”

The Dunbar opened in 1928 as the Hotel Somerville. Married couple John and Vada Somerville, affluent and popular African American dentists and civil rights activists in Los Angeles, established the hotel for guests traveling to L.A. for the NAACP’s first West Coast convention in 1928. The Somervilles knew those guests would be denied first-class accommodations elsewhere in the city. John had experienced the same discrimination when he first came to California from his birthplace in the West Indies; he wrote about it in his autobiography and named it as a source of inspiration for the project.

In 1931, the rechristened Dunbar Hotel acquired a cabaret license and opened a nightclub with live music, which was immediately popular; dozens of soon-to-be-famous black artists played there. During that decade, the Dunbar played host to so many prominent people that a 1974 press release from the L.A. Municipal Arts Department claimed “almost every prominent black entertainer and athlete stayed at the hotel during its first years.” Its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places mentions Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holliday, W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes, Sojourner Truth, and Josephine Baker as performers or guests, among many others. It was also right next to the legendary Club Alabam and close to the clubs and venues around Central Avenue and 41st Street.

Ironically, the legal and social victories of the Civil Rights movement spelled bad news for the Dunbar. As new options for both permanent housing and temporary lodging opened across the city, African Americans searching for economic and social mobility moved out of South Central. Jazz performers and overnight guests could play and stay in similar or even more comfort elsewhere, and the Dunbar had newfound competition. Historians and local reporters also note the role that the Los Angeles Police Department played in discouraging white and black people from mingling together on Central Avenue; according to many oral accounts, the LAPD raided jazz clubs and broke up gatherings regularly.

The Dunbar struggled to stay open in a changing world with changing demographics. By the 1970s, jazz fell out of fashion, and the population changes that would make South Central the majority-Latino neighborhood it is today began. Finally, in 1974, it closed for good.

Its successful redevelopment has reestablished the Dunbar as a prominent force on Central Avenue. Within walking distance of the building is a city constituent service center, a library, a post office, and more, Jefferson says. “It has residents in it who need services! If you’ve got people who need services, there’s an opportunity for business development. They’ve gotta come out of their building to buy groceries, get their clothes done at the dry cleaners, and buy gas.”

Delicious at the Dunbar—the restaurant that opened in the hotel—is a perfect example of the renewed hotel’s significance to the community, she continues. “It’s a beautiful restaurant. It’s got a full-service bar, and on the weekends, paying homage to the past, they have live music. It’s a nice restaurant, and it’s not particularly expensive. That says they know something about the history, since they’re serving Mexican and Southern food,” she says. It’s the first full-service restaurant to open in the neighborhood in two decades, according to Eater.