Where Hollywood Handed Out Its First Academy Awards
A 1927 Hollywood Boulevard landmark where the first Academy Awards were handed out, with a Hockney-painted pool out back.
🏆 Where the Oscars began
The Hollywood Roosevelt is a 1927 Spanish Colonial Revival hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, across from the TCL Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame. The Academy handed out its first awards here in 1929, in the ground-floor Blossom Ballroom, and the lobby still carries the wrought iron, painted beams, and central fountain from that era.
Out back, the Tropicana Pool holds a David Hockney mural painted across its floor, a wash of blue brushstrokes visible through the water. Rooms run wood-paneled and low-lit, and the two-story lobby remains the clearest link to the hotel's studio-era guest list, from early screen stars to touring musicians.
The building sits mid-block on the Walk of Fame, a short walk from the Dolby Theatre and Ovation Hollywood, and the ground-floor bars fill on weekend nights.
