When you’re the real estate developer who’s known as the “Father of Hollywood,” I guess you get to live in a gorgeously ornate house. HJ Whitley was the guy who, in the 1890s, took Harvey Wilcox’s subdivision and transformed it into a desirable place for wealthy people to live. He was the one who brought telephone, electric, and gas lines into the new suburb, and also built the Hollywood Hotel on the corner of Hollywood and Highland. In 1911 he convinced Nestor Studios to lease Blondeau Tavern (for $30 a month) and build Hollywood’s first film stage on the northwest corner of Sunset and Gower. Oh, and he also developed Whitley Heights on the south side of the Hollywood Hills looking out across Hollywood. Oddly, though, he didn’t live in the area. The house in this photo was on Flower St in downtown Los Angeles and was taken around 1894.
** UPDATE ** – I’m not convinced that he actually had a hand in Nestor coming to Hollywood, but if you’re interested, I found that information here.
John G on Twitter said: “Getting a “train” line to the Hollywood area was a big part of his success. He bought/lived in the Hurd House, another classic L.A. Queen Anne around Hollywood & Wilcox around 1900 when it was the wilderness of city. Then really was responsible for the start of Hollywood enclave.”
Someone sent me this colorized version:
When they had real carpenters.
I don’t know if it’s an optical illusion, but the pediment over the entrance to the porch looks tilted.
Beautiful! Sure wish it was still around… and preserved like they did with the “Gamble” house (no relation to me, more’s the pitty). I’d love to take the $12.50 tour of the place (previously the 5¢ tour, back in the day).
What a beautiful house! I gather, from some of the comments, that this is no longer around. How did they justify tearing down these beautiful old buildings? Such a waste.
I have no idea, but I suspect they justified it by saying “But the land it sits on is worth more than the house so it’s gotta go!”
An additional tragedy is that so many of these older houses were made with non-replaceable old growth timber or now valuable art tile.
All that went into the landfills.
At least often today there are attempts to salvage materials before dumping it all in the trash.
The legend goes that C.B. DeMille was originally takinging the train line from the east coast into the west to Flagstaff, AZ to make THE SQUAW MAN. The production wanted to get as far away away from Edison and his Motion Picture Patent Co. thugs as possible. Arriving there, he was disappointed in the variety of vistas. Upon asking how much further West he could travel, he was informed that a place called Hollywood was the last stop on the line, so he went there and the rest is history.
I heard this story third or fourth hand, so I don’t know if it is accurate, but it sounds plausible. I mean, why not? What other reason would he have to travele all the way to Hollywood… since it was largely a wilderness then.
You would probably know Martin. Is this story factual or just Hollywood legend? Is this covered on any of your books?
I’ve heard variations on this story but basically it’s true. The variations come from the reason why they moved on. The most common version I’ve heard is that they got to Flagstaff but there was a terrible sandstorm going on so they got back on the train and took it to the end of the line. That would actually have been downtown LA, but obviously somebody recommended the town of Hollywood…and the rest is, indeed history.