![]() ![]() Movie crews arrived for the first time in 1916, not quite 10 years after the industry’s birth in Los Angeles. The film business was going gangbusters in the first decades of the 20th century, when the arrival of newcomers and tourists fueled the need for temporary and long-term rental housing. ![]() The growth of the entertainment industry also had a profound and simultaneous impact on Sherman. Another measure of how quickly business grew: The railway operated 221 cars in 1905, which increased to 813 cars by 1921. In 1910, there were some 900 residents serviced by a small commercial strip along Santa Monica Boulevard. ![]() Soon, a small working-class town sprouted, populated by railroad workers and their families. Modest wood frame homes and Craftsman-style bungalows began appearing. Residential lots sold for $150 and were available for a $10 down payment with $10 monthly payments to follow. They platted a small town adjacent to the rail yard so workers could live close by. The introduction in 1896 of a water delivery system by John Pirtle’s West Los Angeles Water Company made more intensive development possible, sending the town of Sherman, as it was modestly named by Sherman and Clark, well on its way to becoming a crossroads of local development. They based the railways’ main shops, railroad yards, power plant and “car barns” at roughly at the midway point, or where Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards intersect today. ![]() Clark from failed and fragmentary predecessors, the Pasadena and Pacific connected the booming city of Los Angeles with the beach town of Santa Monica. 29, 1984, the town born of a rail yard became the City of West Hollywood,” the Los Angeles-based station stated in summarizing the city’s humble beginnings.Īssembled in the 1890s by Moses H. “The city of West Hollywood today owes its existence to one of Southern California’s first interurban electric railways, the Pacific and Pasadena (aka Los Angeles Railway),” proclaimed KCET, the country’s largest independent public television station, on the occasion of West Hollywood’s 30th cityhood anniversary in 2014. High-density housing would set the community apart from others in more ways than one. Multi-family housing was a solution at a time when surrounding communities expanded ever outward with large tracts of standalone homes. The community had to respond quickly to explosive growth by electric streetcars and motion pictures – and to being hemmed in by the city of Los Angeles. Or, as Elvis might say, “a whole lot of density goin’ on.” And it has been “goin’ on” dating back almost to the founding of Sherman, a town that became known as West Hollywood in 1925. 17th most densely populated city in the United States.4th most densely populated city in California, and.4th most densely populated city in Los Angeles County,\.Census Bureau data, West Hollywood ranks as the: With 18,297 people per square mile, according to 2010 U.S. West Hollywood has one of highest density rankings not only in Los Angeles County but also in California and in the United States. Population density is defined as the number of people per square mile within a city’s boundaries. How is it possible, you ask, that high-density housing – something new to the area – could be done so well without the wisdom and guidance provided by a zoning ordinance? This situation is best explained by taking a look at “population density” from a historical perspective. That’s when Los Angeles County authorities enacted zoning laws for the first time in the unincorporated community of West Hollywood. But wait – A check of 20 primary buildings along those historic corridors shows that at least 14 were built before or during 1928. ![]()
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