Starting in the late 1890s, Hobart Whitley was one of Hollywood’s earliest developers. He built the Hollywood Hotel at Hollywood and Highland, as well as conceiving Whitley Heights on the hillside overlooking Hollywood, which became the first movie-star neighborhood. It was inevitable that he would live there too, and here we have a photo of his home under construction. I couldn’t find a date on this shot, but it must have been pretty early as they’re still using mules to grade the land. And note the Whitley Heights sign in the background. That was Hobart’s idea too, and it was he who gave the Hollywoodland developers the idea to construct one of the world’s most famous signs.
(By the way, I caught a glimpse of this image in Justin Root’s very interesting multi-part series of videos on Whitley Heights. You can watch episode #1 here.)
Here is a front view of the sign, which was electric and could be seen for miles around, probably because it was the only one around. I read somewhere that it was Whitley who brought electricity to Hollywood.
Here is another view of the Whitley Heights sign as seen from the rear. From the looks of those cars, I’d say it was taken early 1920s (can anybody reading this be more specific?)
Advertisement for Whitley Heights in the Hollywood Citizen, May 20, 1921
Hobart Whitley’s house still stands at 2073 Grace Ave. This image is from August 2022.
Because the Schwab’s Pharmacy at 8024 Sunset Blvd near Crescent Heights received all the attention and notoriety, it can be easy to forget that there were at least five other Schwab’s locations that I’ve been able to identify. And now we can add this one, although to be fair, it was just a restaurant without the pharmacy section. It was at 9201 Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood, right near where the western end of the Strip as it curves into Beverly Hills. The vehicles in this photo suggest it was taken circa mid-1960s, which seems about right because it was around then that Schwab’s underwent a makeover / renovation / updating with that new (Googie-esque) logo we can see in this picture.
Safeway supermarkets is a name I haven’t seen in Los Angeles for a very long time, but back when this photo was taken in 1936, it was brand new to the LA market. It was a 5509 Sunset Blvd, which put it just west of Western Ave. A far cry from the slick corporate uniformity of later decades, I love the charm of Spanish tiled roof which lends more of a local market feel, along with that sign standing over what looks like a wishing well.
We don’t have many of these sorts of drive-in sandwich stands anymore, so I do love finding photos of them—especially if I’ve never seen or heard of them before, like this one. P.K. Sandwich stand stood at W. Vernon Ave and Crenshaw Blvd, and this photo was taken in 1930. It looks to me like they only had around a dozen items on their menu, but if you do them all really well, a dozen is all you need. Oh, and a shout out to those tiles. I wonder what color they were.
Here we have an early example of Hollywood already demolishing its history to make way for new history. In this shot, we’re looking at the demolition of one of Hollywood’s earliest studios. Christie’s had been around since the 1910s, located on the northwest corner of Sunset Blvd and Gower St in Hollywood. But the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that forced the studio into receivership in 1933. In 1936, the CBS radio network bought the site and tore down the studios, which is what we’re seeing here, in order to make way for their West Coast radio studios, known as Columbia Square, which is where they relocated their flagship station, KNX.
In this one, we’re looking east down 4th Street from Hill St toward the U.S. Grant Hotel on the corner of Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. The photo was taken circa 1890, and as we can see the three modes of transport is the streetcar, horses, and human legs. The sounds (and smells) of this 4th Street would have been a world away from what you’d encounter if you walked down 4th today.
This photo harkens back to the days when developers built theaters with soaring tower designed to catch the attention of moviegoers. They also added variety and verticality to an otherwise horizontally minded cityscape. This theater under construction is the Leimert at 3341 W. 43rd Place, Los Angeles, which puts it roughly halfway between downtown LA and Culver City. It opened on April 21, 1932, so this photo of it under construction — along with the obligatory pretty girl — was taken probably late-ish 1931.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we still had these local markets with fresh produce on display out front and a place to park your car right out front? Ivar Market (I love those red letters spaced along the overhang) was at the corner of Ivar Ave and Yucca St in Hollywood which puts it a block from Vine St and two blocks from Hollywood Blvd. Going by the car in this photo, the closest I can date this photo is circa 1940s.
This photo came to me spiderwebbed with a lot of ghostly lines so I’ve cleaned it up a bit so that we can more clearly see the appeal of this place. Le Roy’s Sandwich Stand stood at the corner of Crenshaw and Jefferson Blvds in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles when this photo was taken in 1939. It looks like it was a perfect little drive-in place and I wish the photographer stood a little further back so that we could see the lit-up tower that reached into the night sky.