Hollywood and Vine
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Hollywood and Vine | |
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Prospect and Weyse Avenues (1887–1910) | |
Location | |
Hollywood, Los Angeles | |
Coordinates | 34°06′06″N 118°19′36″W / 34.10167°N 118.32667°W |
Roads at junction | Hollywood Boulevard Vine Street |
Construction | |
Type | Intersection |
Opened | 1887 (as Prospect and Weyse) 1910 (as Hollywood and Vine) |
Maintained by | City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works |
Hollywood and Vine, the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, a district of Los Angeles, became known in the 1920s for its concentration of radio and movie-related businesses. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is centered on the intersection.
Few production facilities are still located in the immediate area. One of the few remaining is the Capitol Records Tower to the north of the intersection.
The
History
The area was a lemon grove until 1903, when Daeida Beveridge allowed one corner of the dirt intersection on her property to be used for the building of the Hollywood Memorial Church for the local German Methodist population.
The streets were renamed in 1910, when the city of Hollywood was merged with Los Angeles.
Beginning in the 1920s, during the
In the 1930s, radio station KFWB spoke of "broadcasting live from Hollywood and Vine," and newspaper columnists Hedda Hopper and Jimmie Fidler regularly touted the intersection's mystique.[1]
In 1958, the intersection became the central point of the newly installed Hollywood Walk of Fame. Later Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, the astronauts of the first lunar landing mission Apollo 11, were awarded television stars for coverage of the mission, and given the places of honor at the corner of Hollywood and Vine.
By the 1960s, however, many studios and broadcasters had moved onto more upscale areas, and the area fell into disrepair and disrepute, with many abandoned stores and offices, and the streets themselves, claimed by squatters and panhandlers. It took several decades for redevelopment to take hold, and visitors looking for Hollywood dreams were often taken aback by the area's contrast with shinier tourist meccas.
The Hollywood/Vine subway station opened in 1999, and led to more sustained and serious redevelopment in the area. On May 29, 2003, Hollywood and Vine was named "Bob Hope Square" to commemorate Hope's 100th birthday.
In
Historic buildings
The first "high-rise" building at Hollywood and Vine was the 12-story
On the northwest corner, the
To the north of the Laemmle Building is a Spanish Colonial style building housing the Avalon Hollywood, opened on January 24, 1927, as the Hollywood Playhouse and designed by the architectural firm of H. L. Gogerty and Carl Jules Weyl.[2] The building's name has changed many times over the 20th century, but was known as the Hollywood Palace for many years before its most recent renaming.
On the northeast corner of Hollywood and Vine is the
On the southwest corner, the B.H. Dyas building was built in 1927 by architect Frederick Rice Dorn. The B.H Dyas Specialty Emporium was a victim of the depression. From 1931 to 1982 it housed
Just to the south on Vine was the fabled Hollywood Plaza Hotel, built in 1924 and home to silent film star Clara Bow's "It Cafe". Across the street, the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant, the second in the chain, opened in 1929 in a Spanish Colonial Revival building designed for Cecil B. DeMille; it was demolished in 1994, leaving only a part of the Derby facade, which itself was threatened with demolition as of April 2006. Farther south on Vine were the original Lasky–Paramount Studios, later NBC's West coast studios; and ABC's first West coast studios.
Redevelopment and urbanization
A number of high-profile projects are attempting to restore the lost luster of the area. As of May 2007[update], major renovations announced by the Los Angeles city council, began construction on the intersection, developments expected to cost upwards of $600-million. The new projects call for a 305-room
Two other large projects are Palisades Development Group's $50-million conversion of the former Equitable office building to condominiums and Kor Group's $70-million conversion of the former Broadway department store, also into condos.
Basque Nightclub fire
On April 30, 2008, a large fire destroyed the Basque Nightclub at Hollywood and Vine. It required the calling of 23 fire engines.[1] This destroyed the historic Laemmle building.
References
- ^ a b c d e Pool, Bob. "Turning the corner at Hollywood and Vine" Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2008
- ^ "Historic L.A."