Though Beverly Hills must be one of the world’s wealthiest residential areas, the money is discreet rather than vulgar, revealed more by the immaculate shops (like the high-fashion showcase of Rodeo Drive) and squeaky-clean streets than ostentatious displays, although the mock-European shopping alley Rodeo Two is the height of pretension. However, the city has been trying harder in recent years to be more visitor-friendly. The Museum of Television and Radio (Wed–Sun noon–5pm; $6), is a welcome addition, chronicling fifty years of the boob tube, while the Beverly Hills Trolley (daily during summer, otherwise Sat; $5) offers tourists a forty-minute glimpse of the city’s highlights, departing hourly from the corner of Dayton Way and Rodeo Drive.
Palatial estates lie hidden behind landscaped security gates in the verdant canyons and foothills above Sunset Boulevard. Benedict Canyon Drive climbs past a good number, beginning with the site of the most famous: the lavish PickFair mansion at 1143 Summit Drive, built for Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks in 1919 and unceremoniously demolished by Pia Zadora in the 1980s. Further up, Harold Lloyd’s Green Acres (1740 Green Acres Drive), with its secret passageways and large private screening room, survives intact, although the grounds, which contained a waterfall and a nine-hole golf course, have been broken up into smaller lots.
Just outside Beverly Hills, in LA’s Jewish heartland, the $50 million Simon Wiesenthal Center, Beit HaShoa Museum of Tolerance, at 9786 W Pico Blvd, is an extraordinary interactive resource centre aimed at exposing the lies of revisionist historians (April–Oct Mon–Thurs 10am–4pm, Fri 10am–3pm, Sun 10.30am–5pm; Nov–March closes 1pm on Fri; $8). The most technologically advanced institution of its kind, it uses videotaped interviews to provide LA’s frankest examination of the 1992 riots, and leads the visitor through reenactments outlining the rise of Nazism to a harrowing conclusion in a replica gas chamber.
History
The history of Beverly Hills is the history of California itself. Quiet countryside populated by peaceful Indians was invaded by Spanish explorers. Families came in, land grants were made, and the Rancho became a way of life. Open grazing land became tilled fields; land booms came and went; oil fields were replaced by homes, and cities grew--among them, Beverly Hills.
More than one hundred years ago, a grant, with limits almost identical with the limits of Beverly Hills, was assigned under the name of El Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas--"The Ranch of the Gathering of the Water". Streams cascading down Coldwater and Benedict Canyons (then known as Canada de las Aguas Frias and Canada de los Encinos), gathered near the southern boundary where clear springs bubbled and a "Cienega", or swamp, formed in the rainy season. These streams have subsided and the Cienega is gone but the beauty of the primitive area has a modern counterpart today.
A short one hundred and thirty-seven years separated the first known white man's vision of the site of the City-to-be and the opening of the subdivision of Beverly Hills in January, 1907. In August of 1769 a contingent of men under the leadership of Captain Gasper De Portola, Spanish Governor of California, left their camping place, now known as Los Angeles, on the Rio De Nuestra Senora De Los Angeles De Porciuncula and travelled an Indian Trail, now Wilshire Boulevard to press their exploration of the province of Alta California for the King of Spain. Father Junipero Serra, destined to become one of the most famous men in California history, was a member of this expedition, but he had remained behind at San Diego to proceed northward by boat at a later date.
For almost forty years thereafter, the only happenings in the area were the passage of Indians, explorers, and missionaries. Even the cession of California to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, and its admission to the Union as a State, in 1850, went relatively unnoticed.
In 1852 Maria Rita Valdez De Villa petitioned for confirmation of patent granted in 1838 for one league (4539 acres) of the area. The house Maria had built stood somewhere near the present northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Alpine Drive. Maria had been widowed over twenty-five years before that time and had been left with a large family, the progeny of her soldier husband, Vincente Ferrer Villa. The name of Villa passes from the history of the immediate area in 1854 when Maria sold the Rancho for about $4,000, of which $3,000 was promised for payment in the future. However, the family maintained its "city" home in the pueblo of Los Angeles for some years thereafter on the present site of the federal building at Temple and Main Streets.
Rancho Rodeo De Las Aguas was purchased from Maria by Major Henry Hancock, a New Hampshire attorney, who came to California in the gold rush of '49, and Benjamin Davis Wilson, a native of Nashville, Tennessee. "Don Benito" Wilson subsequently loaned his name to Mount Wilson and his talents, first to the City of Los Angeles as Mayor, and then to the State of California as a State Senator. Major Hancock donated his name to the present-day Hancock Park, served as the first Los Angeles County Surveyor and, later, as a State Assemblyman. Wheat, cattle, oil and wool, in that order, were the products of the Rancho until 1868 when Dr. Edward Preusss, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, purchased over 3600 acres of it at a price of $10,775 for the development of a city to be known as the "Town of Santa Maria". Lots were platted of about five acres each and placed on the market at $10 each, but dry weather came and the land reverted to the sheep.
The land next passed into the hands of Charles Denker and Henry Hammel, proprietors of the United States Hotel at Main and Market Streets in Los Angeles, and became "one vast field of lima beans", supplying the culinary needs of the owners' Hotel. Many of the present residents of the city can remember the bean fields, cut through with a train tack to Santa Monica which passed a station called "Morocco" located in what is now Beverly Hills. The steam train was replaced by an electric trolley in 1896, but the era of peaceful bean fields survived until the turn of the century when the land was sold for oil development.
In 1906, after the oil drilling ventures of the Amalgamated Oil Company proved unprofitable, the Rodeo Land and Water Company was formed under the guidance of Burton E. Green for the development of the property as a subdivision. A city was planned with wide streets of easy sweeping curves lined with Palm, Acacia, Eucalyptus, and Pepper trees. It was named Beverly Hills by Green and his associates, after Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. Settlement was slow at first, and in 1914, it was necessary for P.E. Benedict to allow his land in Benedict, Franklin and Higgins Canyons to be added to the community so that its population could meet the 500 figure required for incorporation as a city.
In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford launched the migration of motion picture people into Beverly Hills when they purchased land and built their famous home known as "Pickfair". In 1925, the citizens voted a $100,000 bond issue to join with Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Venice in purchasing a 385 acre campus site for UCLA. Will Rogers became the first and only honorary Mayor of the City in 1925, and in 1931 City Hall was built. It is worthy of note that the property tax rate in the City was $1.00 per $100.00 of value for the first seven years of its life. The 1961-1962 rate was $0.95 per $100.00 for a $7,500,000 City Budget.
From a population of 29 at the time of the first census in 1836, 550 at time of incorporation in 1914, and 18,000 in 1930, the City has grown to over 32,000 at the time of the 1960 census. According to the United States Census Department, the 1990 population was 31,971.
The period since World War II has seen the growth of an outstanding business and financial section which joins with beautiful homes to create a complete city. Imposing banks, exclusive shops, superlative hotels and brokerage houses stand side by side. Over 200,000 people work in the City. More than 1500 business licenses have been issued for doctors, lawyers and accountants. A full complement of service clubs and professional organizations serve the needs of these people.
However, the growth of the commercial area has not lessened the beauty and desirability of the residential area. A high level of municipal services, parks, library, recreation programs, schools and churches all contribute to make Beverly Hills the "Garden Spot of the World".
Culture
Within its intimate 5.69 square miles, Beverly Hills offers sanctuary and stimulation, vitality and languor. Choose your pleasures: from shopping, dining or gallery-hopping to uncovering your own treasures in the welcoming environs of our city.
Beverly Hills represents substance and style, yet is accessible to every taste and budget. An encompassing experience awaits as you begin your journey to destinations within our city that feed the mind, body and spirit.
Experience the sounds and sensations of Beverly Hills under sunny skies and swaying palm trees. Discover Beverly Hills best-kept secrets, from a special corner bistro, or in a stroll amid the city's famed gardens. Bask in the attentive service for which Beverly Hills is renowned. Area chefs will share their secrets as you join them in perusing the bounty of the city's Farmers' Market. Or, luxuriate in one of the spas offering a menu of treatments for every budget.
The amenities of Beverly Hills are not confined to the city's borders, as its central locale paves an entree to all the wonders of Southern California.
The Beverly Hills Civic Center Public Art Walking Tour, a monthly guided walking tour of Beverly Hills' prime public art works located in the vicinity of the City's Civic Center, is currently being offered on select Saturdays on an ongoing basis. The Beverly Hills Civic Center Public Art Walking Tour will take participants in and around the many public spaces that have been enhanced by the thoughtful placement of modern and contemporary sculpture installed as part of the City's Public Art Program. The nine-member Fine Art Commission appointed by the City Council, serves as an advisory body in developing the Public Art Program. Art enthusiasts will also venture into the beautiful Beverly Gardens Park where two sculptures will be studied: Hunter and Houndsby Henri Alfred Jacuemart and The Drummerby Welsh artist Barry Flannagan. Across from the park and City Hall, the former Historic Crescent Drive Post Office will be viewed. Recently acquired by the City of Beverly Hills, plans are underway for re-use of the building as a cultural center. More highlights of the walking tour include a stop in the innovative Palm Court at the Beverly Hills Civic Center, a visit to the Spiral of Life redwood sculpture by Baile Oakes and a view of Charles Arnoldi's 1991 cast bronze sculpture.
The Beverly Hills Public Library can be visited at the end of the tour and is considered a regional cultural treasure with its extensive collections of books, notable holdings of paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, artist books and children’s book illustrations. Visitors and residents will be introduced to the many outstanding historical architectural features of the Spanish Renaissance Baroque-inspired City Hall which was extensively renovated and expanded in 1990 by Urban Innovations Group and Charles Moore, a founder of the Post-Modern architectural movement.
Beverly Hills is the place to be this holiday season as the City opens its first outdoor Community Ice Skating Rink, beginning on Friday, November 24 running through New Year's Day. The Community Ice Skating Rink will be located in the Civic Center Plaza at 450 North Rexford Drive, just south of Santa Monica Boulevard between the Library and Police Department.
Art and Architecture Trolley Tour: Tour Beverly Hills' significant art and architectural locations on the 90 minute, docent-led tour, including Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills City Hall, Creative Artists Agency, and the Museum of Television & Radio.
One of the busiest and most often visited, this 1.9 mile long linear park, Beverly Gardens Park, is located as a buffer between businesses and residences along the north side of Santa Monica Boulevard. As a showcase park, Beverly Gardens Park features many cultural and art events.
The Beverly Hills Farmers' Market is a certified market offering the finest of fresh seasonal produce, juices, breads, specialty items and so much more in a festive outdoor street setting in the heart of the City. Located on the 200 block of North Canon Drive.
The Drummer" was acquired through funding from the City of Beverly Hills' Public Art Fund, made up of payments by building developers. The City's Public Art Ordinance requires developers either to acquire art valued at 1% of the construction cost or to contribute that amount to the Public Art Fund for the purchase of future artworks. The Drummer" (1989-90), measuring 96 x 68 x 36 inches, is from a series of works depicting Flanagan's trademark bronze hare, his emblem of simple and shared good humour. These works have established Flanagan as the archetypal British sculptor.
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