Beverly Hills’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 3 old photos of Beverly Hills. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Gaspar de Portolá arrived in the area that would later become Beverly Hills on August 3, 1769, traveling along native trails which followed the present-day route of Wilshire Boulevard. The area was settled by Californio ranchera María Rita Quinteros de Valdez and her husband in 1828. They called their 4,500 acres (18 km2) of property the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. In 1854, she sold the ranch to Benjamin Davis Wilson (1811–1878) and Henry Hancock (1822–1883). By the 1880s, the ranch had been subdivided into parcels of 75 acres (0.30 km2) and was being rapidly bought up by Anglos from Los Angeles and the East coast.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Beverly Hills’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Beverly Hills’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewConstruction plans for 1/4 mile b…, 1919: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Beverly Hills
See all 64 →
Beverly Hills, decade by decade
![Construction plans for 1/4 mile board track to be built at Beverly Hills, Calif. for Los Angeles Speedway Assn.] [Rear …](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/1377/3d1b552cf0a638bc5fb5-s.jpg)
![Construction plans for 1/4 mile board track to be built at Beverly Hills, Calif. for Los Angeles Speedway Assn.] [Rear …](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/1377/d0e0123bcc6809b2c06f-s.jpg)
1990s
8 historic places in Beverly Hills
8 places in Beverly Hills are on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
Architectural styles
When they were listed
Listed 1976Doheny Estate/Greystone
Listed 1978Virginia Robinson Estate
Listed 1985US Post Office-Beverly Hills Main
Listed 1987Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
Listed 1987Beverly Wilshire Hotel
Listed 2004Anderton Court Shops
Listed 2012Fox Wilshire TheatreListed 2011Karasik HouseThen & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Construction plans for 1/4 mile board track to be built at Beverly Hills, Calif. for Los Angeles Speedway Assn.] [Secti… (1919) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (3). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.