It’s odd to think of the Hollywood Hotel as being a country resort but that’s virtually what it was when it opened in 1903. This photo was taken in 1907 when a little more development had taken place. (In the foreground we can glimpse the field behind Hollywood High School, which also opened in 1903.) But much of the surrounding space is still empty fields and farmland, especially south of Hollywood Boulevard, which back then was still called Prospect Avenue.

This photo was taken in 1903, the year the hotel opened. There is so much open land that you have to wonder why they built a hotel there at all. Who was going to stay there?!?!