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When Spanish explorers first entered the area now
known as Hollywood, Native Americans were living in
the canyons of the Santa Monica Mountains. Before
long, the Indians had been moved to missions and the
land which Hollywood now occupies was divided in two
by the Spanish Government. Acreage to the west
became part of Rancho La Brea and settlements to the
East became Rancho Los Feliz.
By the 1870s an agricultural community flourished in
the area and crops ranging from hay and grain to
subtropical bananas and pineapples were thriving.
During the 1880s, the Ranchos were sub-divided. In
1886, H. H. Wilcox bought an area of Rancho La Brea
that his wife then christened "Hollywood." Within a
few years, Wilcox had devised a grid plan for his
new community, paved Prospect Avenue (now Hollywood
Boulevard) for his main street and was selling large
residential lots to wealthy Midwesterners looking to
build homes so they could "winter in California."
In 1911, the Nestor Company opened Hollywood's first
film studio in an old tavern on the corner of Sunset
and Gower. Not long thereafter Cecil B. DeMille and
D. W. Griffith began making movies in the areadrawn
to the community for its open space and moderate
climate.
The needs of this thriving new industry created
radical changes in the community causing a clash
between older and newer residents. Acres of
agricultural land south of what-is-now Hollywood
Boulevard were subdivided and developed as housing
for the enormous numbers of workers that
movie-making required
High-rise commercial buildings began to spring up
along Hollywood Boulevard three competing
real-estate interests caused concentrations of
development at Highland, Cahuenga, and at Vine. It
wasn't long before nearly all the homes along the
Boulevard were replaced by commercial buildings
linking the three corners.
anks, restaurants, clubs and movie
palaces sprang up, catering to the demands of the
burgeoning film industry during the 1920s and 1930s.
The architectural styles of the buildings were
representative of those most popular between the
World Wars. Banks were typically designed in the
more formal Beaux Arts styles, but other buildings
in the community took on more playful personalities.
Hollywood
has been anything but static, however, and after a
few decades as the capital of film glamour, the
neighborhood changed again. Although much of the
studio work remained in Hollywood, many stars moved
to Beverly Hills, and the elegant shops and
restaurants left with them.
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