Happy Birthday, Beverly Hills!

Beverly Hills CA

28 January, 2021

10:54 PM

Description

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — One hundred seven years ago today, the citizens of one of the nation's first planned communities incorporated their city. What began as a lima bean field and later an oil well-drilling site had been transformed into a town full of parks and wide curving streets, designed with affordability and tranquility in mind, named Beverly Hills after bucolic Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. A few years later, the arrival of the world's first film stars turned Beverly Hills into an international symbol of luxury and glamor, a reputation it maintains to this day. Beverly Hills celebrated its 107th birthday Thursday. Because of the pandemic, no celebrations were planned, but social media posts proclaiming the city's birthday resulted in an outpouring of support. "Happy 107th Birthday Beverly Hills! While we've come a long way from horseback riding along Rodeo Drive, we're still a City full of trailblazers who have kept us moving forward since 1914," the city wrote in an Instagram account that garnered 518 likes and 12 comments. View this post on Instagram A post shared by City of Beverly Hills (@cityofbevhills) On off years, the city's birthday is often a low-key affair marked by official speeches and social media recognition. But for its centennial anniversary in 2014, the city went all out. It procured a $200,000, 15,000-slice chocolate cake. The 9-foot tall, 12-foot-wide, and 24-foot-long treat was featured an entirely edible City Hall surrounded by palm trees and Rodeo Drive boutiques that doubled as shopping bags with wrappers. Rodeo Drive closed down for a five-hour party featuring Ferris wheels, a 20-piece dance band, fireworks, and of course, the giant cake. The land that is now Beverly Hills was inhabited by the Tongva people, who called the area "the gathering of the waters," according to the Beverly Hills Historical Society. The Spanish explorer Don Jose Gaspar de Portola translated that name into Spanish, calling the area "El Rodeo de las Aguas." In 1838, the governor of the Mexican-controlled California territory granted 4,500 acres that is now the center of Beverly Hills to Maria Rita Valdez Villa, the widow of a Spanish soldier. The area became a cattle and horse ranch known as "El Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas." Livestock were herded annually at a festive rodeo near what is now the intersection of Pico and Robertson boulevards. In 1852, Maria Rita sold her land to Henry Hancock, a Harvard-trained lawyer and land surveyor, and Benjamin Wilson, a Tennessean who became the second mayor of Los Angeles. The waters dried up a few years later, resulting in a long drought that killed much of the livestock. In 1868, the land was acquired by Edward Preuss, who turned the ranch into a lima bean field. In the 1880s, Henry Hammel and Charles Denker, two German brothers-in-law an business partners. They intended to use the land to create a subdivision called "Morocco," which would follow a North African theme. After the economic collapse of 1888, that idea was abandoned. In 1900, a group of oil speculators bought the bean field on behalf of the Amalgamated Oil Company. Led by oilman and real estate developer Burton Green, the wells did not find any oil, but they did find large supplies of water - a "gathering of waters." There was enough water to support an independent city, so Green and his partners founded the Rodeo Land and Water Company in 1906. Green named the city "Beverly Hills" after Beverly Farms, a rural, wealthy, seaside community north of Boston. They hired landscape architect Wilbur D. Cook to design a street plan for the burgeoning city. Cook laid out curving streets centered around a triangular commercial district. The streets were tree-lined, and plenty of space was left for parks. The city was open to white, Christian buyers, a restrictive covenant that remained until the 1940s after a successful lawsuit by Gone With The Wind star Hattie McDaniel and singer and actress Ethel Waters. Home sales were initially slow, but the construction of the Beverly Hills Hotel, which became the unofficial city hall, and center of action. Once it was connected to the Dinky Railroad, the population began to grow, and there were enough people for the city to incorporate on Jan. 28, 1914. In 1919, silent film stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks bought a lot on Summit Drive, where they built their home, Pickfair. Throughout the 1920s, film industry stars and executives began pouring into the city. The 20s saw the construction of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and Greystone, the reportedly haunted 55-room mansion, estate, and Edward Doheny built for his son that is now a museum and park. The city considered annexation by Los Angeles in 1923 to gain access to their water supply, but vocal opposition led by Mary Pickford kept the city proudly independent. The following decades saw the construction of City Hall, Rodeo Drive, and explosive growth as the city became an international destination for people to live, work, and play. In 2012, just ahead of the centennial, the Beverly Hills City Council adopted a Historic Preservation Ordinance to preserve the city's many architectural gems.