History

 Beverly Hills History Photo Gallery

 

The nexus of Franklin, Coldwater and Benedict canyons was considered a power spot and a sacred site by Native American inhabitants who named it Gathering of the Waters or, in Spanish, El Rodeo de las Aguas. Above is Benedict Canyon circa 1910.
The land grant Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas was deeded to Maria Rita Valdez de Villa in 1838. She built an adobe ranch house near what is now the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Alpine Drive.

Friar Juan Crespi, a chaplain on Don Jose Gaspar de Portola's legendary expedition through California, noted an encounter with the Gabrielino tribe near La Cienega and Olympic boulevards on August 3, 1769. On the right, the site of Maria Rita's annual rodeo held beneath a huge tree at the corner of Pico and Robertson boulevards.
     
In 1852, three Native Americans ambushed Maria Rita and a shoot-out and siege followed at what is now Benedict Canyon and Chevy Chase Drive (above). At the right, are cattle brands of the ranchos. Maria Rita's is in the first one in the second row.

First Strip Mall - The Rodeo Land and Water Company reorganized in 1906. Green and his wife renamed the land Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. This structure also housed the Beverly Hills Realty Company sales office. At the right, a celluloid monument to the role movie stars played in the growth of Beverly Hills.


Beverly Hills Speedway - Located at what is now
Beverly Hills High School. On the right, one of the crazier schemes for Beverly Hills was a plan to establish a North African themed subdivision called Morocco, shown here in a balloon-route poster, circa 1902.

The Electric Fountain, erected
in the 1930s, has a figure of a Gabrielino in prayer at the top.
Will Rogers, shown above with a model of City Hall, played a significant part in the development of the Beverly Hills government center by fostering construction of a new City Hall in 1932 and the establishment of a US Post Office in 1934.