# Cahuenga Boulevard

Cahuenga Boulevard (/kəˈwɛŋɡə/ ) is a major boulevard in Los Angeles, California, US. It connects the Los Angeles Basin to the San Fernando Valley, with a southern terminus at Rosewood Avenue in Hancock Park. It simultaneously transitions into Ventura Boulevard and intersects with Lankershim Boulevard at the border of Studio City and Universal City. If one follows Lankershim Boulevard, they reconnect to Cahuenga Boulevard and it continues until its northern terminus with Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood.
“Cahuenga” is a Spanish transliteration of the Tongva village of Kawe'ngna, meaning "place of the mountain". The Spanish used the village name Cahuenga to name the 227m tall pass between two of the Santa Monica Mountains, now called Briar Summit and Burbank Peak. Cahuenga Boulevard is so named because it transverses Cahuenga Pass.

## Route

The majority of the route is bifurcated by the Hollywood Freeway, US-101. Cahuenga Boulevard East travels from Odin Street, near The Ford to Barham Boulevard, where it transitions into W. C. Fields Drive as it approaches Universal City. To reach the rest of Cahuenga Boulevard, travelers must cross the freeway via Pilgrimage Bridge, the Mulholland Drive Viaduct, or the Barham Boulevard Overpass. The western route of Cahuenga Boulevard transitions into Highland Avenue outside of the Hollywood Bowl.
Cahuenga Boulevard emerges again at an intersection where Lankershim Boulevard crosses the Los Angeles River. This section of Cahuenga Boulevard is a north-south route that passes under the Ventura Freeway and travels through the east side of the valley until terminating with Victory Boulevard at the southern entrance to Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.
Cahuenga Boulevard passes through many neighborhoods. South of Cahuenga Pass, the boulevard passes through Hollywood, Whitley Heights, the Hollywood Hills, and the Hollywood Dell. It connects to Studio City and Universal City in the San Fernando Valley. The section north of the Los Angeles River passes through the neighborhoods of Toluca Lake and North Hollywood.

## Landmarks

The southern part of Cahuenga Boulevard has been referred to as the "heart of old Hollywood". The intersection between Cahuenga and Hollywood Boulevards had been an important intersection from the early history of Los Angeles, and by 1915 it already had a trolley stop, a bank and a hardware store. Trolley cars were used on the boulevards until the 1960s when replaced with bus. Historically a number of important Los Angeles buildings were located on the road including the Technicolor building from the 1940s through the 1960s and the World Book and News building. The Owl Drug Company at 6380–84 Hollywood Boulevard on the south-west corner of Cahuenga Boulevard was a notable Californian company in the 1930s. At the intersection of Cahuenga Boulevard with Yucca Street, just off of Hollywood Boulevard was the Halifax Hotel, owned by world-famous classical pianist Van Cliburn.
The Buster Keaton studio, originally belonging to Charlie Chaplin, was located on Lillian Way, one block east of the boulevard. The boulevard appears in several of his films. 1542 Cahuenga Boulevard, which formerly adjoined the Toribuchi Grocery at 1546, appeared in the 1921 Keaton film The Goat, which featured Keaton running from the police past them. It is now a strip mall. In another Keaton film, Three Ages (1923), Keaton is seen running from the police past the Los Angeles Police Department Hollywood building and former fire station, now the location of Edmonds Tower at 1629.
Today, numerous nightclubs, bars, and restaurants are dotted along the boulevard south of Franklin Avenue. Notable clubs on Cahuenga include The Room, Hotel Café, Velvet Margarita, and many others. The Hotel Café, at 1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd, is owned by Marko Shafer and Maximillian Mamikunian and opened in 2000. The Baked Potato, one of the city's most prominent jazz clubs, is situated near the intersection with the Hollywood Freeway, and the Hollywood Theatre of Note is also on the boulevard. At 1355 North Cahuenga Boulevard is the Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial, a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and National Register of Historic Places building which was built in the Neo-Renaissance style in 1930.