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Streets of Hollywood
History of the Streets
Have you ever wonder what the history of the streets of Hollywood was, from Hollywood, Sunset and Santa Monica Blvd., and all the streets in between. Each and every street has a history starting back over 100 years.
Hollywood Boulevard was originally called Prospect Avenue until 1910, when Hollywood was a town created by H.J. Whitley, until it was annexed by the neighboring city of Los Angeles. Once it was annexed the streets numbers changed from 100 Prospect Ave, at Vermont Avenue to 4600 Hollywood Blvd.
The major junctions ran from Highland Avenue, Hollywood and Vine and on the East end Sunset Boulevard/Hillhurst Avenue.
Now Sunset Boulevard stretches from the central and western part of Los Angeles, from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, east to Figeroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood that includes part of the Sunset Strip.
Harvey Henderson Wilcox in 1977 one of the earlier real estate owners from “back East,” decided to subdivide more than 20 arces of land which consisted mostly of orchards and vineyards, which includes what is known today as Hollywood and Vine. According to a 1901 article in the Los Angeles Herald, Sunset only extended from Hollywood in the west to Marion Avenue in the Echo Park district in the east.
In 1921 a westward expansion of Sunset began, extending the road from the then-current terminus at Sullivan Canyon toward the coast. This land, a portion of the original 1838 holdings of Francisco Marquez, stretched across a mesa and became known as the “Riviera section”. Will Rogers, who had bought much of this land as an investment, later donated it to the State of California creating Will Rogers State Historic Park. Circa 1931, Sunset was a paved road from Horn Avenue to Havenhurst Avenue.
Now the history of Santa Monica Boulevard aka Route 66 stretches from Chicago and ends in Santa Monica. Known as the Mother Road and now called Santa Monica Blvd.
