page_title: Hollywood
section_title: Early history and development
hierarchical_section_title: Hollywood / History / Early history and development
caption_attribution_description: English: The intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and Highland in Hollywood, with residences, in 1907. Location of the present Hollywood and Highland complex, and center of Hollywood tourism. This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 85000704
context_page_description: Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many of its studios such as Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures were founded there and Paramount still has its studios there.
  Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, and soon thereafter a prominent film industry emerged, eventually becoming the most recognizable in the world.
context_section_description: H.J. Whitley, a real estate developer, had previously started more than a hundred towns across the western United States. Whitley arranged to buy the 480-acre (190 ha) E.C. Hurd ranch. They agreed on a price and shook hands on the deal. Whitley shared his plans for the new town with General Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and Ivar Weid, a prominent businessman in the area.
  Daeida Wilcox, who donated land to help in the development of Hollywood, learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon (now Lake Hollywood) and a prominent investor and friend of Whitley's. She recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey H. Wilcox, who had purchased 120 acres on February 1, 1887. It wasn't until August 1887 Wilcox decided to use that name and filed with the Los Angeles County Recorder's office on a deed and parcel map of the property.
  
  By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, and two markets. Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles (16 km) east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent and the trip took two hours. The old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood.
  The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by Whitley, who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard and Development Company. Having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, which, still a dusty, unpaved road, was regularly graded and graveled. The hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years.
  Whitley's company developed and sold one of the early residential areas, the Ocean View Tract. Whitley did much to promote the area. He paid thousands of dollars for electric lighting, including bringing electricity and building a bank, as well as a road into the Cahuenga Pass. The lighting ran for several blocks down Prospect Avenue. Whitley's land was centered on Highland Avenue. His 1918 development, Whitley Heights, was named for him.
caption: The intersection of Hollywood and Highland, 1907
exif: {}