LA History

(1905) - Hollywood Blvd. looking east from Gower Avenue. There are residences to the left and right and a streetcar is seen in the middleground. Barely visible in the background are the Silver Lake Hills.

Exterior view of the old flower-covered wooden police station in Hollywood, located at 131 of an unidentified street, in 1906.

Large rural area with a few houses and trees. The future site of Melrose and Normandie, 1906.

The above farm is where the Hollywood Frwy crosses Melrose Avenue today. Just to the west and out of view is the location of the McCarthy Ranch. In 1887 E. A. McCarthy named Melrose Avenue after his hometown of Melrose, Mass.

(1906) - View is looking east from the hill towards Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga Avenue.

(1906) - Early view of Highland Avenue north of Hollywood Boulevard in 1906. Some buildings are visible with hills in the background.

(1907) - Photograph is captioned: Looking north from Hollywood Memorial Church, showing residence of A.G. Bartlett. The church building is not visible. The photograph shows a large residence on the left with orchards and fields all around.

(1907) - Exterior view of the Hollywood residence and gardens owned by artist Paul de Longpré. The home was located on the west side of Cahuenga Blvd. at Hollywood Blvd. on property he obtained from Mrs. Wilcox Beveridge after he moved to Los Angeles in 1889. The French born artist desired the 65-foot-deep lots for a large flower garden.

A photo of a flyer advertising real estate: "Choice building lots in the Holly tract, now platted and ready for sale at $150 to $400 per lot." These residential lots are being sold by R.W. Poindexter Co. and George P. Swan. Their addresses are given on the flyer. Photo dated circa 1908.

Panoramic view of Hollywood in 1907, looking north from the Hollywood High School campus. A number of houses are seen, and electric power poles are visible.

Panoramic view of Hollywood in 1907, looking southeast from Franklin Avenue near Orange Drive. Hollywood High School is in the center of the photo, facing Highland Avenue, with vacant lands beyond. The Hollywood Hotel is at left, facing Hollywood Blvd. Orchid Street is at left. Quite a few houses are seen, and electric power poles line the streets.

Panoramic view of Hollywood in 1908, looking toward the hills from the Hollywood High School campus, the later site of the Roosevelt Hotel. An athletic field is in the foreground. A number of houses are seen, and electric power poles are visible

(1909) - Hollywood Union High School athletes, both baseball and track, are in their uniforms on the field in back of the high school. An English half-timbered style house is next to the school.

(Early 1900s) - Early view of Franklin and La Brea Avenues with residential buildings in the foreground and hills in the background.

Panoramic view of West Hollywood, showing a few houses and much open space in 1909, when much of the area was agricultural. The view is from the rear of Wattles Gardens, a mansion and large formal garden bounded on the south by Hollywood Blvd. and on the west by Curson Avenue and the east by Sierra Bonita Avenue.

(ca. 1910) - Exterior rear view of the Spanish Revival Wattles Estate, looking southwest towards smaller homes, farms and orchards in Hollywood and what is now West Hollywood.

(1909) - A conductor leads a musical ensemble playing to a large crowd of visitors outside the Mission Revival/Moorish style Hollywood residence of artist Paul de Longpré. This well attended event celebrated the completion of the Hill Street tunnel in downtown.

Pacific Electric Railway Hollywood car via the Hill Street Tunnel in 1909. Its sign says, "Beverly, Sawtelle, Ocean Park, Venice."

(1910) - Tree-lined Melrose Avenue, probably in 1910, at Western Avenue. Trees were planted in the early 1880's and felled on the right side in 1922 and on the left side in 1923. This was a favorite street for horse and buggy rides on Sundays.

(ca. 1910) - A view of the Sackett Hotel, facing Cahuenga Blvd at the southwest corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga, about 1910. The hotel was built in 1898 by Horace Sackett. A post office was added in 1900, and the hotel stood until 1910 or 1911.

(ca. 1911) - Construction is in progress on one corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga in this picture taken around 1910 or 1911. Possibly the same corner at which the Sackett Hotel stood.

(1913)* - The first motion picture studio in Hollywood was built by David Horseley for Christie Film Co. Automobiles are lined up at Sunset Blvd., with Gower Street at right. The sign above the building reads "Christie Film Co.", and "Nestor Comedies, Universal Films." The photo includes Charles Christie, Horace Davey, Al Christie, Nadgi, head cameraman; George French, Gus Alexander, Harry Rattenburg, Lee Moran, Eddie Lyons, Billie Rhodes, and Eddie Barry. The photograph is signed "Witzel."

(1913)* - Exterior view of Castle Sans Souci, the mansion of Dr. A.G. Castles in Hollywood. He was originally called Dr. Alfred Guido Rudolph Schloesser, but during World War I, due to anti-German sentiment, he changed it to Dr. A.G. Castles. He also changed the name of the residence from Schloesser Terrace to Castle Sans Souci in honor of the summer residence of Frederick II.

(ca. 1912)* - A trackless trolley, "The First in America," traveling to and from bungalow land in Laurel Canyon, Hollywood, in the early 1900s. Fare was 10 cents.

(Early 1900s) - View of trackless trolley in early 1900s. It ran through Laurel Canyon and was the first in the United States.

(Early 1900s) - This was the nation's first trackless trolley, built by Charles Spencer Mann in 1910 to promote vacation lots in Laurel Canyon.