Photos: When Hollywood Was a Country Hamlet

Before movies, there were lemons. Hollywood at the turn of the 20th century was a place of religious zeal; a town founded by an ardent Prohibitionist and a devout Episcopalian; a community that abhorred gambling, liquor, and popular entertainment. But above all else, Hollywood was a decidedly rural settlement, a small country hamlet located a few miles to Los Angeles northwest.

Hollywood at the turn of the 20th century was a decidedly rural settlement, a small country hamlet located a few miles to Los Angeles northwest.

Hollywood's rustic charm - and its agricultural potential - helped it weather the bust that inevitably followed the regional real estate boom of 1887, the year Harvey and Daeida Wilcox subdivided 160 acres of the Cahuenga Valley and named it Hollywood. The land had long been famous for its frost-free belt, a narrow strip of land along present-day Hollywood Boulevard where all manner of exotic fruits and vegetables would ripen: bananas, tomatoes, peppers, even pineapples. And so in the early 1890s, even as real estate values slumped, the prospect of a refined ranching life lured wealthy migrants to Hollywood, where they planted citrus orchards and sumptuous gardens around baronial mansions.

Panoramic view of Hollywood, circa 1905. Hollywood Blvd., then named Prospect Ave., runs horizontally through the middle of the photograph, and Orange Drive runs vertically at the photos right. The white building at top-center is Hollywood High School. Courtesy of the USC Libraries - California Historical Society Collection.

This map, published by the H.H. Wilcox and Company in October 1887 to advertise the new Hollywood tract, emphasized the communitys rustic setting. Map courtesy of the Huntington Rare Book Maps collection at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

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The idyllic retreat pictured here seems worlds apart from the Hollywood of popular imagination - the Hollywood that has become metonymous with filmed entertainment; the Hollywood of exotic movie palaces, and also of cheap souvenir shops and panhandlers costumed as superheroes.

But those worlds are more closely linked than you might think.

On an open-air stage perfumed by the surrounding lemon grove, Cecil B. De Mille shot Hollywoods first feature-length film, The Squaw Man.

In December 1913, a fledgling motion picture director named Cecil B. De Mille arrived in Hollywood and leased part of Jacob Stern's lemon ranch at the southeast corner of Selma and Vine. Inside a shingle-roofed barn - still occupied by Stern's horse and carriage - De Mille set up dressing rooms and offices for the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. Outside, on an open-air stage perfumed by the surrounding lemon grove, he shot a western epic, The Squaw Man. Released in February 1914, The Squaw Man was the first feature-length film shot in Hollywood. It was also a commercial success.

Hollywoods conservative residents were skeptical - even openly disdainful - of the newly arrived movie people. But the movies were here to stay. The Nestor Film Company had been shooting in Hollywood since 1911, and the towns rustic scenery, as well as the wilder countryside on the towns outskirts, offered filmmakers a variety of backdrops for their moving picture stories. Within 18 months, the Lasky Company purchased an entire block of Stern's ranch to expand its operations. Lemon trees gave way to studio facilities, signaling that Hollywood's days as a small country town had come to an end.

Rustic Ranches and Baronial Estates

Charles Harper built his house at the mouth of Laurel Canyon and used canyon water sources to irrigate his lemon orchard. Photo dated 1898, courtesy of the USC Libraries - California Historical Society Collection.

Harpers estate offered commanding views of the Hollywood countryside and, in the distance, the Pacific Ocean. Circa 1909/05 photo courtesy of the USC Libraries - California Historical Society Collection.

Before the movie stars came, Paul de Longpre - a French painter of flowers - was Hollywoods most celebrated artist. Circa 1900 postcard courtesy of the California State Library.

De Longpre in his Hollywood garden with his daughter, circa 1900. Postcard courtesy of the California State Library.

Henry Clausens citrus ranch at the mouth of Beachwood Canyon in 1910. Photo courtesy of the USC Libraries - California Historical Society Collection.

Sweeping Panoramic Views

Two men stand high above the Hollywood countryside on Olive Hill, the present-day location of the Hollyhock House and Barnsdall Art Park. Circa 1905 photograph courtesy of the USC Libraries - California Historical Society Collection.

A panoramic view of Hollywood, looking south from Krotona Hill in 1900. Photo courtesy of the USC Libraries - California Historical Society Collection.

Panoramic view of Hollywood, looking from Gower Street and Temple Hill Drive. Photo, dated 1900, courtesy of the USC Libraries - California Historical Society Collection.

Panoramic view of Hollywood, looking west from Laughlin Park in 1903. Filmmaker Cecil B. De Mille would later build his estate atop Laughlin Parks hill. Photo courtesy of the USC Libraries - California Historical Society Collection.

A panoramic town view of Hollywood, looking southwest at the intersection of Franklin and Highland. In 1900, H.J. Whitley began developing the land north of Hollywood Boulevard (then Prospect) exclusively for residence as the Ocean View Tract, which explains the lack of orchards in the foreground. Circa 1905 photo courtesy of the USC Libraries - California Historical Society Collection.

Another panoramic view of Whitleys Ocean View Tract, i

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