![]() Sitting in what was then the middle of nowhere, the hotel was reached by the specially-constructed Dinky Railroad, a wondrous attraction in itself.īy 1914, the local population was large enough to support the incorporation of Beverly Hills as a city, but real growth didn’t take off until the era’s most glamorous Hollywood couple, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, bought a lot on Summit Drive and dubbed their home Pickfair. The luxurious establishment served not only travelers but the locals as a de facto city hall, community center, movie theatre, and religious worship venue. ![]() In 1912, to bolster the interest of potential buyers, Green completed construction of the Beverly Hills Hotel on the site where the waters once gathered. The first house was completed in 1907, but sales were slow. These shameful restrictive covenants would eventually fall in the 1940s thanks to a lawsuit brought by Hattie McDaniel, Ethel Waters, and other notable African-Americans. ![]() The vision was to make the area affordable to a range of incomes, as long as the buyers weren’t Black or Jewish. All the streets were tree-lined and land was set aside for public parks, four elementary schools, and a high school. Cook laid out curving streets with larger lots on the north side, smaller lots on the south side, and a triangular commercial district between them. Cook was hired to design a street plan for Beverly Hills. Inspired by Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, Green and his wife renamed the bean field Beverly Hills. In 1906, Green and his partners reorganized as the Rodeo Land and Water Company. Green drilled a series of wells that failed to strike oil however, they did strike a lot of water - enough to support a town. Green, bought the bean field on behalf of the Amalgamated Oil Company. A group of oil-speculating investors, led by Burton E. In 1900, the fortunes of the former rancho began to improve. economic collapse of 1888 put a quick end to that scheme. Santa Maria was never to be after yet another drought thwarted Preuss' dream.Įarly in the 1880s, Henry Hammel and Charles Denker acquired the land with the intention of creating Morocco, a subdivision with a North African theme. In the meantime, he turned the ranch into lima bean fields, selling his crop to cover taxes. By 1868, the land was owned by Edward Preuss who sought to establish a community for immigrant German farmers to be called Santa Maria. Hancock and Wilson are remembered today for the upscale Hancock Park neighborhood and local geographic landmark Mount Wilson. ![]() Unfortunately for the new owners, the waters dried up a few years later, followed by a long drought that left their livestock to die. This may have influenced her to sell her land two years later to Henry Hancock and Benjamin Wilson. In 1852, Maria Rita survived a siege and shoot-out with Native Americans who attacked her rancho. As was the custom, livestock grazed wherever they liked but were annually herded to a rodeo located near today's intersection of Pico and Robertson Boulevards. She started a cattle and horse ranch and built an adobe home at what is now the intersection of Alpine Drive and Sunset Boulevard. In 1838, the governor of the Mexican-controlled California territory deeded the 4,500 acres that constitute the core of present-day Beverly Hills to Maria Rita Valdez Villa, the African-Mexican widow of a Spanish soldier. With Europeans, however, came a series of difficulties, beginning with smallpox, which wiped out the majority of Tongva.
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