The Pico House was built by Pío Pico, last governor of California under Mexican rule. This was the first three story building and the first grand hotel in Los Angeles. The hotel was built in the Italianate style, with deep set round-arched windows and doors and the Main Street and Plaza facades were stuccoed to resemble blue granite. The hotel had eighty two bedrooms and twenty one parlors as well as bathrooms and water closets for each sex on each floor. Architect Ezra F. Kysor was instructed by Pio Pico, the last Mexican Governor of California, to build the finest hotel in Los Angeles, a task he fulfilled from 1869-1870. The expense of the hotel was paid for through the sale of Pico's land in the San Fernando Valley.
Pío de Jesús Pico (Born in California Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in 1801) was the last governor of Alta California, and owned the luxury hotel Pico House (Casa de Pico) built between 1869 and 1870. The Italianate three story, 33 room hotel was the most extravagant and lavish hotel in Southern California. It had large rooms with large windows, an interior court and grand staircase. The courtyard had a fountain and aviary filled with exotic birds. The hotel wrapped around three sides of the court and the Merced Theatre on the fourth side enclosed the courtyard. For a couple of decades the hotel was crowded with guests but by 1900 the city was moving further south and the building began to decline.
The building is adjacent to Olvera Street at Los Angeles Plaza and is now part of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Monument. Pico House is listed as a California Historic Landmark (No. 159) and is now a National Historic Landmark as a part of the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District.
http://elpueblo.lacity.org/SightsSounds/HistoricStructures/PicoHouse/index.htm424 North Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012