A fun fact that not everybody knows about Beverly Hills is that every street has a different sort of tree planted along it. Many of them are different sorts of palm streets. These days, we’re used to many of those trees being 30 to 40 feet high but this photo reminds us that twas not always thus. This is a shot of North Canon Drive taken in the early 1930s when these palms were still quite new. I’m surprised they were planted so closely together—it gives a jungle feel to the street. But if course that became less of an issue the taller the palm trees became.
It’s my understanding that the trees along Canon Drive during the 1930s are a different variety than those which are found there today. When a fungal blight hit the Canary Island strain, the City of Beverly Hills went to a great deal of trouble and expense to replace them with Mexican Fan palms. This Laurel and Hardy short from 1933 gives us an idea of what it used to be like. (Start at the 25 second mark.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jtjo3UtL7E&list=PLjyBAuyo5sMgphUs0ICrTv0KQCghD-ErS
A fun fact that not everybody knows about Beverly Hills is that every street has a different sort of tree planted along it. Many of them are different sorts of palm streets. These days, we’re used to many of those trees being 30 to 40 feet high but this photo reminds us that twas not always thus. This is a shot of North Canon Drive taken in the early 1930s when these palms were still quite new. I’m surprised they were planted so closely together—it gives a jungle feel to the street. But if course that became less of an issue the taller the palm trees became.
It’s my understanding that the trees along Canon Drive during the 1930s are a different variety than those which are found there today. When a fungal blight hit the Canary Island strain, the City of Beverly Hills went to a great deal of trouble and expense to replace them with Mexican Fan palms. This Laurel and Hardy short from 1933 gives us an idea of what it used to be like. (Start at the 25 second mark.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jtjo3UtL7E&list=PLjyBAuyo5sMgphUs0ICrTv0KQCghD-ErS
Thanks for that info, Bromley. I didn’t know that about the fungal blight.