The school district bought the property for $76.5 million in 2001.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Ambassador Hotel lured politicians, Hollywood stars and famous writers. Then Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, on the verge of his biggest political victory, was assassinated in a kitchen hallway, an event that began a steady decline in one of the nation’s cultural treasures.

Today, the Ambassador’s only residents are feral cats that scamper around its browning lawn. The Los Angeles Unified School District, which owns the 24-acre property, could decide by year’s end whether to demolish all or part of the hotel to build much-needed neighborhood schools.

But while the district says the cheapest option is to raze the 82-year-old Ambassador, the Los Angeles Conservancy disputes the district’s numbers and instead favors renovating as much of the historic hotel as possible to preserve history and inspire students.

If the district decides to demolish the entire hotel, the conservancy says it will consider suing.

“We’ve only resorted to that a handful of times in our 25-year history, but this is one of those very significant resources that would be tragic to lose,” said Ken Bernstein, the conservancy’s director of preservation issues.

“Imagine reading ‘The Great Gatsby’ in the room where F. Scott Fitzgerald stayed, studying political history in the room where (Richard) Nixon wrote the ‘Checkers’ speech, or being able to perform in an auditorium that is the Cocoanut Grove nightclub,” he said.

Every U.S. president from Herbert Hoover to Nixon stayed at the hotel, which was designed by Rose Bowl architect Myron Hunt. Bing Crosby, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra performed at the Cocoanut Grove, and six Academy Awards ceremonies were held at the hotel.

Then, in 1968, Sirhan Sirhan, lurking in a kitchen hallway, fatally shot Kennedy moments after he declared victory in the California presidential primary.

In 1989, the hotel closed.

At one point in the 1990s, New York developer Donald Trump wanted to build the world’s tallest building on the site, but that project faded. The school district bought the property for $76.5 million in 2001.

The Ambassador’s majestic facade remains visible behind a chain-link fence, but cracks run along its exterior walls and ballroom ceilings have gaping holes from water damage.

Lately, its only use has been by motion picture companies that rent the property for filming.

Next month, school district officials will make a recommendation to the superintendent on the hotel’s fate. The school board likely will take up the matter in November. Construction, if there are no legal challenges, could begin in spring 2005.

The Los Angeles Conservancy could be a roadblock to that construction.

In its response to the district’s five development plans, it accused school officials of inflating a $382 million estimate for renovating the most historic structures, such as the Cocoanut Grove and the Embassy Ballroom where Kennedy gave his victory speech, while underestimating the $286 million cost for all-new construction.

The district stands by its estimates, said Glenn Gritzner, special assistant to Superintendent Roy Romer.

Two alternatives that would use part of the original building would cost an estimated $307 million and $320 million. They would incorporate historically significant pieces of the hotel, including a coffee shop designed by Hollywood architect Paul Williams, the first black member of the American Institute of Architects.

The most expensive option would create a student common area out of the hotel’s lobby, where actress Marion Davies once rode on horseback to amuse her lover, publisher William Randolph Hearst.

Under four alternatives, the district would build an elementary school, middle school and high school on the hotel site. More than 3,800 children who live near the Ambassador are bused as much as an hour to attend schools out of the neighborhood.

Some neighborhood groups and business leaders support a fifth, $404 million option that would drop the elementary school and reserve about five acres adjacent to Wilshire Boulevard for public space, commercial use and housing.

For some, though, the fate of the hotel strikes a personal chord.

Carlyn Frank Benjamin, 82, was raised at the Ambassador from 1921 to 1938 because her father was a manager. She remembers meeting aviator Charles Lindbergh when she was 6.

“That’s the story of our city, just tearing everything down,” she said. “I’m hoping to save that building and turn it into a school. It would make a marvelous school.”

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On the Net:

Los Angeles Unified School District: http://laschools.org/amb/

Los Angeles Conservancy: http://www.laconservancy.org/

AP-ES-09-21-03 1334EDT