Friday, March 22, 2019

Research #9 Hollywood Hotel

Research #9
Hollywood Hotel
formerly located at 6811 Hollywood Boulevard

We started researching our new book GAME TOWN, in Hollywood, on Hollywood Blvd. While researching the Hollywood area in period newspapers, we found mention of the new development that took the place of the Hollywood Hotel. So we Googled it.

          The Hollywood Hotel opened in December 1902. It was built by Hollywood developer H.J. Whitley, to support selling residential lots to potential buyers arriving from Los Angeles by the  Los Angeles Pacific Railroad. The hotel was situated among lemon groves then at the base of the Hollywood Hills.
          Initially, the hotel was advertised as a country resort hotel. Surrounding  the hotel was 3 acres of cultivated gardens
          In 1906 the heiress Almira Hershey, who was then living in a mansion on Bunker Hill in Downtown Los Angeles, took a horse and buggy ride to see the hotel that was being advertised in the Los Angeles Times. She was so impressed with the Hollywood Hotel she decided to buy the hotel and expanded it from 16 rooms to 250.

          By the 1950s, the hotel was rundown and faded from its former glory. Developers were adamant that renovating and restoring the property was out of the question. It was razed in August 1956 to make way for a $10 million development. It was replaced by a twelve-story office building for the First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Hollywood, a shopping center, and parking lots.
          In 2001 those were demolished, and the Hollywood and Highland Center shopping and entertainment complex was built on the site. It includes the Dolby Theatre (formerly known as the Kodak Theatre), the current home of the annual Academy Awards ceremony.

AHA Moment

The hotel was lovely, however, it was gone by spring 1957.  So we decided to make mention of it in the newspaper Skylar during coffee and donuts. But- oh what a hotel it was!

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