Laurie Avocado [Flickr]

The Pershing Hotel, at 502 S. Main, was originally built in 1888 as the commercial Charnock Block.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The fate of one of Downtown's oldest buildings will be the topic of the evening on Thursday, when DLANC and the Skid Row Housing Trust hold a town hall meeting to discuss plans for the 1888 Pershing Hotel, located on the southeast corner of 5th and Main.

Originally built as a commercial block, the building has functioned as a hotel for nearly 100 years.

Skid Row Housing Trust operates 67 units of housing in the building, which was last renovated in 1993. The non-profit has been trying to start a renovation for years, and has explored plans that would range from affordable housing for artists to propping up the facade and attaching it to a new, larger structure that would support 100 units of permanent supportive housing.

A 2008 decision by the Trust to lease the ground floor of the Pershing as a medical office for homeless patients was controversial for Downtown residents who saw the site as an important part of creating life between 4th and 6th streets on Main.

Thursday evening's forum will take place at 6pm inside the Police Headquarters Building's Ronald Deaton Civic Auditorium, located at the corner of 1st and Main.