In this 1905 photo, we’re looking east along Hollywood Blvd, then known as Prospect Ave. The streetcar at the center of the image is about to pass the Hollywood Hotel on the corner of Highland Ave. These days, of course, this stretch of Hollywood is packed solid with buildings, shops, theaters, and tourists, but I wonder if anyone moseying along the boulevard right this second knew that the south side of the street was once home to the huge strawberry patch that takes up most of this photo.
Gary H. says: “Mary Moll’s strawberry farm to be precise! She agreed to demolish her previous home (which would’ve been about in the center of this photo) in order for the city to connect and expand Highland Ave through her property. I feel fairly strongly that it was taken from Mary’s second, bigger and better house on the southwest corner of Orange from the 2nd floor of her huge two story Craftsman home (where are the Roosevelt Hotel was later built.)
Love it! As a Hollywood Boulevard worker and patron this is a spectacular photo of days gone by. Amazing. Yes, Hollywood Boulevard (formerly Prospect) got its name in 1910. There was also some debate as to calling it the Boulevard of Hollywood. Too long of a name. Hollywood was starting to organize then and the first studio, Nestor Film Company (from New Jersey), opened soon after. Strangely, it was on the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Gower? They merged with Universal in North Hollywood some years later. Nestor was prominent in getting Hollywood going. You could only feel for the good folks on that trolley car back in the day with NO air conditioning! By the way, Sunset Boulevard got its name (reportedly) due to a city employee who said the setting sun blinded travelers on horseback and in wagons. Do times change but the sun don’t!
It is an amazing shot. And a reminder that strawberries were a popular crop in early LA County, mostly farmed by Japanese immigrants by 1910 with fields extending east into the Gardena Valley and all the way to what is now Buena Park.