Hmmmm,
e_r . . . there is a Gordian knot here which will take some time and ingenuity to untangle.
"Hotel de Thompson" was a jocular designation in the late 1870s and 1880 for the L.A. city jail, as drunks and so on were said to be staying at the "Hotel de Thompson" after arrest, the "Thompson" giving his name to this being Sheriff James Santiago Thompson, a colorful Angeleno rich in interest, first in L.A. in 1850; but I'll just mention that he was
first (if I understand correctly) appointed to the Sheriff's office by the Board of Supervisors in 1858 upon the violent death of Sheriff Getman, who had been shot down by one Reed, near the corner of "Beaudry's building" (as reported), reputed insane. Now, Sheriff Thompson had a house on the grounds of Rancho La Brea in the 1850s; but the photo reference is from 1906, and what's more I'm not certain that he is the
Judge Thompson who cut quite a figure in L.A. in the 1870s-1880s, and whose house was not in Hollywood but rather "on Figueroa street, between Washington and Adams" (
LA Herald, 5/18/1875). The photo's reference to "Hotel de Thompson" could just be a jocular and somewhat dated "old Angeleno" reference to the residence of some otherwise unrelated Thompson in Hollywood; or . . . [
mind whirls with theories] . . .