Hotels in Early Hollywood
The Sackett Hotel in Hollywood in 1893 - Photo courtesy Bison Archives
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Los Angeles of today was beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Hollywood grew up from farmland settled by quiet, conservative families from the northeast and midwest. When those families, and thirty some odd years later, the film industry, decided to make the cross country trip to Hollywood, they all needed a temporary landing spot before finding homes and apartments to rent or buy. For the original founders of Hollywood, the Sackett Hotel was pretty much the only choice. Today it would’ve been called the Sackett Hostel, as it had 18 guest rooms but only one bathroom.
Hollywood Hotel in 1910 - Photo courtesy Bison Archives
It didn’t take long for other developers to get in on the hotel game (and build them with more than one bathroom) - the first phase of the Hollywood Hotel was built in 1903. The manager, Ms. Anderson was responsible for much of the Hollywood Hotel’s early success as she could also attract high society guests, and had a talent for keeping them for weeks, even months at a time.
Beverly Hills Hotel, circa 1950 - photo courtesy Bison Archives
Four miles west down a small bridle path that would eventually become Sunset Boulevard, a developer named Burton Green was building a Spanish style hotel in a tiny hamlet he called Beverly Hills, and had sunk $500,000 into his dream. He planned to attract the same types of guests staying at the Hollywood Hotel to his Beverly Hills Hotel, hoping that they would like his little town enough to buy land and stay. To do this, he needed someone like Ms. Anderson.
Who better than the lady herself? Ms. Anderson, who held the lease on the Hollywood Hotel, was convinced to decamp to the Beverly Hills Hotel when Burton Green offered her the same deal at the Beverly Hills Hotel plus the option to buy for a song. When Ms. Anderson arrived at the Beverly Hills Hotel, she brought most of the staff and guests from the Hollywood Hotel with her. Under her guidance, the Beverly Hills Hotel became established so that it was later able to ride out the difficulties and challenges the next 110 years and become a premiere hotel in Beverly Hills today.
Want more history around the Beverly Hills Hotel? Join us via Zoom on Saturday, April 8th at 10:30 AM PT for The History of the Beverly Hills Hotel! Click here for details.