Whitley Heights
These days, Whitney Heights is known mainly as a residential district in Hollywood, CA, with a mixture of affordable housing and apartments as well as some fairly expensive housing. However, in his heyday, Whitney Heights was known as a mega housing district for the top movie celebrities in the world.
In 1982, Whitney Heights was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1992 it was designated a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, which effectively has saved the area from too many changes, many of which occurred in the 1950’s. Because of that, most of the area still looks as it did back in the 1920’s and 1930’s, when such stars as Rudolph Valentino, Charley Chaplin, Jean Harlow, Bette Davis, Gloria Swanson and WC Fields had residences there.
It all started with a man named Hobart Johnstone "HJ" Whitley, often called the “Father of Hollywood.” He saw the area and knew that it would be a perfect area for development. He then decided to have many homes built that resembled Mediterranean style homes to sell to Hollywood celebrities. He knew that they would enjoy living there because that area was close to many Hollywood movie studios, which meant they wouldn’t have to travel far to get to work. Many of them were actually in walking distance, although it’s speculated that none of them did walk to the studios.
But they lived well, and partied just as well. Parties were known all over the United States, as the rich and powerful would fly in just to be seen with a celebrity. This was the original tourist attraction in the area, where tour buses would bring visitors to the city so they could see how celebrities lived.
The neighborhood began to change as movies made more stars and younger celebrities wanted to live even closer to hotspots in Los Angeles. In 1948, the city ran the Hollywood Freeway through the neighborhood, destroying homes that used to belong to Valentino and Chaplin, as well as 40 other homes. Other homes were destroyed over the years for projects such as high rise apartment buildings and museums, and a couple of small theaters, until the Whitney Heights Civic Association was able to mobilize enough people to, eventually, get the area its historic status.
New Hollywood and its excesses wouldn’t exist without Whitney Heights leading the way, and even now, there’s a natural link to it and where younger stars are hanging out. It is still considered a major gateway to Hollywood, and the remaining original homes still retain a sense of style and seem as though they could have just recently been built.