About West Hollywood
West Hollywood
At just under two square miles, West Hollywood is a one of the smallest cities in the US, yet it deserves its oversized reputation. With the first city in the country to have an openly gay majority on is city council, West Hollywood is a symbol for LGBTQ rights and progressive politics.
Incorporated in 1984, West Hollywood is one of the youngest cities in the country. Its birth in part was in response to Los Angeles County’s discontinuance of rent control. In one of the city council’s first enactments, West Hollywood adopted one of the strongest rent control laws in the country that had broad support from a coalition of renters in the city’s densely apartment areas. Per the 2010 US Census, over 75% of residents are renters.
Before West Hollywood became a city, it was an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County and outside the reach of the Los Angeles Police Department. In the 1920s while gambling was prohibited in LA, nightclubs and casinos mushroomed on Sunset Blvd. where gambling and illegal liquor flowed freely. In the 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood’s entertainment luminaries flocked to the Sunset Strip’s Ciro’s, the Trocadero and other clubs, names that are part of early West Hollywood lore. Raymond Chandler’s in his pulp-fiction classic Little Sister, observed the scene as place where “tough looking palm tree “grow. Chandler based his 1949 description of the Sunset Strip loosely on The Players, a club owned by Hollywood director, Preston Sturges, where Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart and the Marx Brothers often frequented. At the eastern end of the Sunset Strip at the corner of Crescent Heights stood the iconic apartment, Garden of Allah, where transplanted writers and actors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley lived. Across the street another writers and movie industry hangout was Schwab’s Drugstore. To the contrary of Hollywood lore, a young Lana Turner was not discovered at Schwab’s, but further east on Sunset Blvd. at the Top Hat Café across from Hollywood High School where Turner was a student.
By the mid-1960s, Sunset Strip’s allure had faded, but was replaced by an emerging music scene in clubs like The Crescendo, The Trip, The Fog and Whisky A Go Go where the Doors were the house band, playing before main acts – Buffalo Springfield, The Turtles, Otis Redding and Love among other headliners. “The Strip’s” music scene reputation was enshrined during succeeding generations, from California 60s rock to 1970s Glam to 80s Punk and Hairbands that followed in clubs like the Troubadour, The Roxy and The Viper Room. The Go-Gos, L.A. punk band X, Guns n’ Roses all played in the Sunset Strip clubs to launch their careers. To many, the music scene on Sunset has lost its relevancy in part due to the “pay for play “policies at many of the clubs.
West Hollywood’s identify is on display on Santa Monica Blvd. part of the historic Route 66. Santa Monica Blvd. reflects its diverse from the nightclubs and stores that cater to the LGBTQ community to the Russian restaurants and grocery stores that serve a large immigrant population and to the design community, many who live in West Hollywood and work in the fashion and interior design industry. Today after $34 in million reconstruction, planting of 1,200 trees and the installation of public artwork along its meridian, the boulevard has been transformed into a thriving businesses and retail area with lively sidewalk cafes making it an ideal place for the annual Russian, the West Hollywood Halloween Costume Carnival (the largest outdoor Halloween event in the country) and the LGBTQ Pride celebrations.
In 1975 near the border of Beverly Hills “a Blue Whale” breached in a low-rise residential and business section of West Hollywood. As it is more widely known, the Pacific Design Center’s Center Blue, the first of three vividly primary colored glass-clad buildings designed by Cesar Pelli and Norma Merrick Sklarek was met with awe and local scorn. Today the three buildings house 1,600,000 square feet of multi-use galleries, meeting and exhibition spaces, and restaurants for the interior design and fine arts professions. Surrounding the Design Center numerous design, fabric and furniture stores also opened to further expand its designer offerings and reputation.
While the majority of its residents are renters, West Hollywood is also known for its immaculately maintained single family homes. Among them are iconic examples of Southern Californian, modernist architecture from ground breaking architects such as Richard Nuetra, Rudolph Schindler and John Lautner. Rudolph Schindler designed an innovative, multiple live/work on King’s Row that he shared for a time with his fellow architect and friend, Richard Nuetra and his family. The Schindler House attracts countless architectural aficionados to its tours. Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright’s eldest son, Lloyd, an architect is his own right supervised many of his father’s Los Angeles based projects including the Ennis House and the Hollyhock House. The younger Wright built his own studio and residence on Doheny Drive and designed notable residence and homes throughout Southern California. A recent, unfortunate trend to many across West Hollywood and Los Angeles is the demolition of modestly sized homes replaced with over-sized, minimal “white boxes.” Taking advantage of Green building codes intended to add energy efficiency, developers are able to add additional square feet to their residential projects that literally casts their shadow over their neighbor’s property and change West Hollywood’s residential character.
West Hollywood Schools
Among the many factors in considering where to live, the proximity to quality school is vitally important. It’s not only important information for parents of school aged children, but for any informed buyer or seller who knows school location’s impact on property value and re-sale.
The school finder link provided is intended as a first step. Before purchasing or renting, parents of school aged children need to contact the district’s school for availability and registration requirements. When considering private schools, in addition to availability and registration requirements, commute times and transportation should be considered.
Public Schools
The Los Angeles Unified School District Resident School Identifier is a helpful tool to locate schools in your dream neighborhood. This website matches address within the school district to the corresponding elementary, middle and high schools.
Public schools that serve West Hollywood include:
West Hollywood Elementary School
Rosewood Avenue Elementary School
Laurel Elementary School
Melrose Elementary School
Garden Street Elementary School
Fairfax High School is designated for all of West Hollywood students while both Fairfax and Hollywood High Schools is the designated school for some of West Hollywood.
Private Schools
Interested in learning more about West Hollywood?
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