In the 1940s , the building became Pasadena 's first Black-owned hotel , the Hotel Carver , when it was purchased and operated by Percy Clark and his sons Percy Jr. , Robert , and Littleton . In the basement was a prominent jazz club known first as the Onyx Club and later as the Cobra Club . In 1970 the hotel was sold and the building was converted into artist and performance studios . Over the next fifteen years hundreds of artists , musicians , writers , dancers , and filmmakers rented space at the Hotel Carver . The building was best known during this period for the John Bull English Pub , operated by Danny and Denise Sharp , and for the quirky word mural by Paul Waszink on the north wall reading : '' " My people are the people of the dessert , " said T.E. Lawrence , picking up his fork . '' Several art shows were held in the third floor ballroom and other parts of the building . In 1985 the artists were evicted and the building closed . The 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake caused the collapse of the building immediately to the north of the Carver , and caused a large section of bricks on the top of the north wall to fall to the ground , destroying part of Waszink 's T.E. Lawrence mural . Following the earthquake , the north wall was re-bricked and the building remodeled and earthquake retrofitted , as part of the general redevelopment of Old Pasadena
1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake
1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake
Old Pasadena