Isn’t it amazing to think that Hollywood every looked like this? This is St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church which stood on Hollywood Blvd (then still known as Prospect Ave), which was dedicated on November 29, 1903. Some websites say that it was on the Vine St corner, others say Cahuenga Blvd, while still others say Ivar Ave. I’m going with Ivar unless someone reading this knows definitively. At any rate, it’s a little mind-blowing that the streets of Hollywood had beautiful buildings like this nestled in among thickets of pepper trees. It all looks so tranquil and bucolic, which are two words you’d rarely use to describe the Hollywood of today.
** UPDATE ** – The general consensus on social media seems to be that St Stephen’s was on the southeast corner of Ivar and Prospect (aka Hollywood Blvd. However this Los Angeles Evening Citizen article about the new location for St Stephens, dated October 15, 1925, says it was at Vine and Yucca.
Here’s the same church from another angle:
I like the nice, new, white concrete walkways.
Would this church be an earlier site of the current, much less elegant St Stephen’s Episcopal Church now listed as being at 6125 Carlos Ave? The parking lot entrance is on Carlos, but the church entrance is actually on Yucca. It’s between Gower and Argyle, in the shadow of the much larger First Presbyterian Church on Gower.
Yes. The one in the photo was the original site, which someone on Facebook told me was on Vine but a block north of Hollywood Blvd, which puts it at Vine and Yucca, so that’s another possibility.
This building was on the S/E corner of Ivar and Prospect. It was designed by Arthur B. Benton. In 1920 the congregation moved to a temporary building at Vine and Yucca and several years later moved to the current church on Yucca, but with a Carlos Ave. address. This building was enlarged in the 1950s. The entry was originally at the east end of the building, but when it was enlarged the tower was built and the entrance was moved to the west end.
Thanks much for this Jim! That new west door would be where Bishop Francis Eric Bloy entered to confirm my sister in 1955. (Then we went across the street to visit the Presbyterians because they had a small roller-skating rink.)
Thanks for this info, Jim. I found so much conflicting detail that I really wasn’t sure.
This church property somehow dove-tailed with the Stern estate which took up several acres. Either the Stern property didn’t go all the way to Ivar, or perhaps he sold off a slice to the Episcopalians.
I well remember the skating rink at Hollywood Presbyterian
Church!
That’s what threw me off about the references to it being on the corner of Hollywood & Vine – that’s where the Stern estate was!
The photos here show the church before the Sunday School/Hall building was constructed on the east side (parallel) along the back border of the Stearn’s estate (actually a future name). The first shot matches a slightly alternate angled view on the tri-fold advertising postcards I have which were mailed in 1906. Probably the same photographer and the details are exact to how it appears here. In the second shot posted we can see the Los Angeles Pacific/Pacific Electric streetcar crossing beyond the sidewalk end as it enters the rail yard where a small depot was constructed (along the future Ivar extension and out of view past the trolley) to supplant the old station which had become a restaurant before being replaced. The cars for the tour routes were later boarded in this yard removing them from the old stop on Prospect/Hollywood. This entire area was demolished for the new stores and road extension going into the ‘20’s. But everything between here and Cahuenga had already been altered before that and silent films were being shot in the alleys next to it. Bear in mind that Vine was the edge of town, not the center, originally.