This circa 1910s shot treats us to an unusual angle of the Hollywood Hotel at the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave. The hotel opened in 1902, so it had probably only been around for a dozen years or so. I love how that lone figure is walking alongside the streetcar tracks—and why not? It’s not like there was any great danger of being run down. We can see only one vehicle in the whole image. It’s also interesting to see what preceded the 13-story First National Bank building on the northeast corner. The modest two-story building with the awning housed the Bank of Hollywood, which went under in the 1930s.
Here’s an ad for the Bank of Hollywood:
I’ll take the blame on the bad info. about a closure in the 1930’s. Mary Mallory noted that the first Bank of Hollywood (2nd building up from the corner) had some problems and then became the First National Bank (in the corner building). [The later Bank of Hollywood was another creation from a different organization and is related to the Equitable Building mess.] When the built the tower at Highland in 1927, the name of the bank is the Los Angeles-First National yada yada so maybe something changed again. The Security-First takes over, going in to Security-Pacific which ends up in BoA.