Here we have a view of Hollywood Boulevard from around Sycamore Ave some time in the 1930s. It’s nice to be reminded that the street of street west of the Roosevelt Hotel was once a line of charming shops—these days it’s a parking lot. Ironically, though, the palm trees aren’t much bigger.

And the view in 2015:

Andie says: Those are different palm trees. The street was widened in the late ’50s when the rails were torn out and those old “feather” palms were removed and “fan” palms were planted. At the same time the power lines and telephone lines were put underground and storm drains were installed because they did not want a repeat of the flooding in the early ’50s – probably an “El Niño” event. Oddly enough, the fan palms were messier than the feather palms because some were actually FEMALE date palms (a mistake) which dropped a lot of really nasty stuff on the sidewalks. Gradually they were replaced with the non-fruit-bearing male trees.