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In
the western section of
metropolitan
Los
Angeles sits the famous city of Hollywood,
California
known almost exclusively as the global center of movie studios and
film stars.
Though the district
is now called home to an estimated 300,000 people, it began around
1853 with nothing more than one adobe hut. However, by the
1870s, an agricultural community had grown in the area. In the
1887 Harvey Wilcox, who had made a fortune in real estate, relocated
to the area from
Kansas
along with his wife Daeida and soon bought 160 acres of land west of
where Hollywood would soon be born.
When Daeida Wilcox went on a trip to the
East, she met a woman on the train that spoke of her country home in
Ohio named after a Dutch settlement called "Hollywood."
Daeida liked the sound of it and when she returned to Southern
California
she gave the name to her and her husband's ranch.
Though Wilcox had lost the use of his legs
due to typhoid fever, it did not stop the ambitious real estate
investor. Before long, he drew up a grid map for a town, which
he filed with the county recorder's office on February 1, 1887. Soon,
Prospect Avenue, which would later be called Hollywood
Boulevard, was lined with large Queen Anne, Victorian, and Mission
Revival houses. Mrs. Wilcox worked with other residents to raise funds
that were used to build churches, schools and a library.
Hollywood
quickly became a prosperous community, sporting a post office, a
newspaper, a hotel and two markets by the turn of the century. Lying seven miles east of Hollywood, through the citrus groves, was
the already well established city of Los Angeles. A single-track
streetcar connected the two cities, but service was infrequent and the
trip took two hours. An old citrus fruit packing house was soon
converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the
inhabitants of Hollywood.
The famous Hollywood
Hotel, the first in hotel in Hollywood,
was opened in 1902 by a developer who was selling residential lots
along the foothills. The hotel's initial objective was to house the
many people that he was trying to sell to. Flanking the west side of
Highland Avenue, the structure fronted Prospect Avenue, which was
then, just a dusty, unpaved road. Today the Kodak Theatre, home of the
Academy Awards stands where the old hotel once was.
The community
incorporated in 1903, but its independence was short-lived, as the lack of
water forced annexation with the city of Los Angeles in 1910. During
its seven years as a self-supporting town, several ordinances were passed
which included outlawing the sale of liquor the driving of cattle through
the streets in herds of more than two hundred.
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Route
66 Signs 
