Historic Hollywood

Hollywood. At this time there were already large
Victorian-Style homes lining Prospect Avenue that
were built by wintering Midwestern families.
Prospect Avenue was bisected with a single track of
the Pacific Electric line running through the center
of the street that was built just before the turn of
the century. After her husband passed away in
1891, Daeida managed her vast real estate
holdings and helped create the community of
Hollywood until her death in 1914. Hollywood
was forming into a community between 1885 and
1900 with the establishment of commerce such as
markets, merchandise stores, citrus and vegetable
farming and other various businesses. With the
growth of business came the first post office, hotel,
and church. The existence of Hollywood was
recognized by the United States Government in
1897 by establishing a post office in the Sackett
Hotel. The most prominent landmark in the area
by 1903 was the Hollywood Hotel, located on the
north-west corner of Highland and Prospect
Avenue. The hotel was needed by then due to the
increase in tourists that came to the area to visit the
artist Paul De Longpre’s estate and see his works of
art and famous gardens.
It was at this time that the Hollywood Board of
Trade was formed in order to organize to give basic
improvements to the village’s infrastructure. In
August 1903 a petition was submitted to the Los
Angeles Board of Supervisors asking for
incorporation of a City of Hollywood. An election
was held on November 14, 1903, with a majority
(78 to 68) voting in favor of becoming a city in its
own right. The city limits extended from
Normandie Avenue on the east, to Fairfax Avenue
on the west, and from the top of the Hollywood
Hills on the north, to DeLongpre and Fountain
Avenues on the south. The City of Hollywood
lasted only around seven years when the residents
voted again to be annexed to the City of Los
Angeles in 1910. Hollywood’s population grew too
dense and needed expensive city services like
sewers and a dependable water supply. Annexation
would assure these and other important improvements
to the community. One of the last official
acts of Hollywood’s Board of Trustees was to
change the name of Prospect Avenue to Hollywood
Boulevard. It was at this same time that many
streets were named after the pioneers of
Hollywood. They included; Cole Street (Cornelius
Cole), DeLongpre Avenue (Paul DeLongpre),
Gower Street (G. T. Gower), Highland Avenue
(maiden name of Mrs. Walter Price), Ivar Avenue
(Ivar Weid), Vine Street (the vineyard of Senator
Cornelius Cole) and Wilcox Avenue (H. H.
Wilcox, the first sub-divider of Hollywood).
Hollywood High School’s first building was
dedicated in 1904, reflecting the need for a large
❖
Left: Looking east on Prospect Avenue
(Hollywood Boulevard) to Highland
Avenue where the Hollywood Hotel
can be seen on the northwest corner
of Hollywood and Highland. The
house on the left side is the site of the
future Grauman’s Chinese Theater
(1927). In the foreground are fields of
tomatoes, peas, beans and winter
strawberries, some of the many crops
raised in Hollywood.
Below: Highland Avenue, once a dirt
road, was the principle access route
through the Cahuenga Pass that was
originally known as the Camino Real
or “long highway” since the eighteenth
century. The houses at the mouth of
the pass are approximately where the
entrance to the Hollywood Bowl is
now located. On the northwest corner
of Hollywood and Highland was the
Hollywood Hotel which was built
in 1903.
Chapter I ✦ 7