Hollywood was little more than a dreaming , a roaring - fourth dimension subdivision etch onto the Cahuenga Valley ’s rich champaign , when an product destined for fame first appeared onan 1887 map . Known today as Hollywood & Vine — a booming tourist hub and the center of theWalk of Fame — the intersection began as an undistinguished , dusty patch of estate where Prospect and Weyse avenues encounter .
In its former years , the Cartesian product sat among sweet-scented lemon groves , made possible by Hollywood ’s frost - destitute microclimate . The repose of the rural crossing was disrupt only by the steam railway locomotive of theCahuenga Valley Railroadrumbling down Prospect Avenue .
As the intersection assume its now - intimate name — it became Hollywood & Vine in 1910 — its agricultural character gradually gave way to a more urban feel . In 1903 , a Methodist church replaced lemon tree on the southeast corner . Twenty years later , the 12 - story Taft Building — Hollywood ’s first limit - height bodily structure — go up from the same bit , and by 1930 building on three corners overstep out near 150 feet in height ( then the legal limit in Los Angeles ) , give the product a verticality that announced itself from afar . On the northwesterly turning point , meanwhile , a sequence of eateries — Carl Laemmle ’s CoCo Tree Café , a Melody Lane eating place , a Hody ’s diner , a relocated Brown Derby , and a Howard Johnson’s — fed Hollywood tourists inside low - slung buildings .
But the intersection was mainly famous for its association with the entertainment industriousness , one reinforced by its proximity to prominent production facility . In 1913 , Cecil B. DeMille produced the first Hollywood feature film one cylinder block off at Selma and Vine , inside a barn on Jacob Stern ’s citrus ranch . In 1938 , NBC opened its West Coast receiving set studios another blockage south at Sunset & Vine , and the Capitol Records building has hulk over Vine Street since 1956 . Stargazing tourists flocked to “ filmland ’s crossroads . ” But by the time its sidewalks became home to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the 1950s , it had already entered a long , painful period of decline — onereversedonly within the past decade and a one-half .
This 1907 photo(courtesy of the Photo Collection – Los Angeles Public Library ) looks northwards up Vine Street from Hollywood Boulevard when the product was definitely rural :
Another view of Stern ’s cattle ranch , showing his decoration garden , also courtesy of thePhoto Collection – Los Angeles Public Library :
Hollywood ’s association with filmed amusement has its origins inthis sawhorse barn , located very near Hollywood & Vine on Jacob Stern ’s Citrus limon grove . Cecil B. DeMille used the barn — show here courtesy of the Photo Collection – Los Angeles Public Library – as his yield position in 1913 while making the The Squaw Man , the first feature - length film bring out in Hollywood :
One of the first structures to stand at the intersection was the Hollywood Memorial Church ( 1903 - 23),shown here circa 1905courtesy of the USC Libraries ’ California Historical Society Collection :
Hollywood & Vine is visible just behind a banner in the centre ofthis 1921 aerial photo(courtesy of the Photo Collection – Los Angeles Public Library ) , which attend east down Hollywood Boulevard :
By 1927 , Hollywood & Vine had acquired a more urban appearance . This 1927 view , good manners of the USC Libraries ’ Dick Whittington Photography Collection , looks toward the intersection ’s northeasterly quoin :
By midcentury , Hollywood & Vine had become a noted tourist terminus , as seen inthis 1947 postcardcourtesy of the Frasher Foto Postcard Collection at Pomona Public Library :
Top image : A 1910 photo(courtesy of the Photo Collection – Los Angeles Public Library ) of Jacob Stern ’s lemon cattle farm , settle on the southwestern corner of Hollywood & Vine .
Southland is made potential by a partnership between Gizmodo , theUSC Libraries , and the extremity collections ofL.A. as Subject . write byNathan Masters , the serial explores the urban yesteryear of Los Angeles , including the lost landscape and forgotten infrastructures that continue to influence the city we have it away today . A version of this post antecedently come along on KCET.org as “ Photos : From Prospect & Weyse to Hollywood & Vine . ”
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