This bucolic scene could be pretty much anywhere in the countryside…except for the newly opened Beverly Hills Hotel smack dab in the middle of it. This photo was taken in 1912, the year the hotel opened as a rural get away from the madness of Los Angeles, which largely meant what we now think of as downtown L.A. This photo was taken in the foothills of Beverly Hills, so we’re facing southwest across Lexington and Crescent Drives, and Sunset Blvd is that white strip on the far side of hotel.