De Longpre Gardens - Hollywood’s First Tourist Attraction

The De Longpre Residence in Hollywood, CA depicted on a souvenir postcard

Did you know that Hollywood was a tourist attraction even before the movie industry came to town?

The De Longpre Garden, featuring a gorgeous mission style mansion estate surrounded by three acres of manicured gardens, was home to French watercolor artist Paul de Longpre. It was located on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard between Wilcox Avenue and Cahuenga Boulevard, and the way it came to be was quite the Hollywood story.

Hollywood founder, Daeida Wilcox stubbornly clung to her vision to make Hollywood a “rustic, yet cultured” suburb of Los Angeles and envisioned it being a destination for locals and tourists.  In 1899 she met Paul de Longpre and saw her opportunity. Paul de Longpre was introduced to Daeida Wilcox at an exhibition of his paintings.  He talked of longing to live in Hollywood, because he painted flowers, and in Hollywood you could grow any type of flower all year…the area was known back then as the “frostless belt” for its mild weather.

She sold him the land on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard, stretching from Wilcox Avenue to Cahuenga Boulevard (it’s rumored the price was 3 paintings!). In fact, Daeida actually MOVED HER OWN HOME to accommodate de Longpre property! According to the September 1900 issue of The Hollywood Sentinel “The Beveridge House is being moved to the NE corner of Cahuenga and Yucca St. to make room for the DeLongpre home.” But there was a method to this madness…De Longpre built a large garden estate on the property in 1901.  Estate tours were a popular attraction at the time, and Daeida Wilcox saw an opportunity to put Hollywood on the map. There was a popular tour at the time that went from downtown all the way out to the Beaches via Santa Monica Blvd. called the Balloon Route (named such because its route roughly resembled the circluar-oval shape of a hot air balloon), and Hollywood’s civic leaders, probably encouraged by Daeida, had the redline rail trolley tracks diverted to come up to Hollywood Boulevard, which allowed Hollywood’s De Longpre gardens to be included in this tour.

The estate received thousands of visitor each year who toured Paul de Longpre’s watercolors and gardens illustrate that creativity has always been central to Hollywood even before the film industry developed.  When the film industry did arrive, the de Longpre gardens were where DW Griffith shot one of the first films in Hollywood proper, starring Mary Pickford, titled Love Among the Roses.

After DeLongpre’s death in 1911, the De Longpre residence was purchased and turned into a boarding house in 1913. A few years later it was demolished to make way for progress, including the building of the Warner Brothers Hollywood Theater, which still stands today as the Hollywood Pacific Theatre.

It’s interesting that the year de Longpre passed, 1911, is the year Hollywood got its first movie studio at Sunset and Gower.

Today the Gardens are gone, but if you visit my favorite coffee shop, Intelligentsia, at the northwest corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Cauhenga Boulevard, you can see postcards of the De Longpre Gardens paying tribute to the property’s illustrious past.

Los Angeles 1914 Baist's Real Estate Surveys showing the location of the De Longpre Gardens