1890s to 1910 Part of today's Hollywood Boulevard was called Prospect Avenue, a dusty road that ran through
Hollywood towards the neighboring
city of Los Angeles. In December 1899, a new railroad construction began to connect Hollywood with Los Angeles in a project that was led by Peter Beveridge,
H.J. Whitley, and
Griffith J. Griffith. In May 1900, the railroad connecting Hollywood and Los Angeles was completed, and another one was under construction. In 1901, the Town of Hollywood opened the new macadamized road surface with
electric railway that ran down its center between
Laurel Canyon and Western. Eventually, the road was widened from 20 feet wide to almost 100 feet wide in some areas. On November 09, 1903, Hollywood became an incorporated municipality, and Prospect Avenue became sometimes known as the Boulevard of Hollywood, albeit unofficially. On February 07, 1910, the town of Hollywood was consolidated into the City of Los Angeles,
1920s In the early 1920s, real estate developer
Charles E. Toberman (the "Father of Hollywood") envisioned a thriving
Hollywood theater district. Toberman was involved in 36 real estate development projects while building the
Max Factor Salon,
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and the
Hollywood Masonic Temple. He partnered with
Sid Grauman, and they opened the three themed theaters:
Egyptian,
El Capitan ("The Captain") (1926), and
Chinese.
Regional shopping district Starting around 1920, the boulevard and adjacent streets became a major regional shopping district, both for everyday needs and appliances, but increasingly also for high-end clothing and accessories, in part because of the nearby film studios. Chains that opened includes Schwab's in 1921,
Mullen & Bluett in 1922,
I. Magnin in 1923,
Myer Siegel in 1925, F. W. Grand and
Newberry's (dime stores) in 1926–8, and Roos Brothers in 1929. The independent Robertson's department store, at and 4 stories tall, opened in 1923. In 1922, stock was sold to finance construction of a much larger department store at
Hollywood and Vine, originally to have been a
Boadway Bros. When Boadway's went out of business the next year,
B. H. Dyas, a
Downtown Los Angeles–based department store, opened in the building in March 1928, then sold their lease to
The Broadway in 1931 – the building still a landmark today, known as the
Broadway Hollywood Building. By 1930 the shopping district consisted of over 300 stores. The area would later face competition from areas along
Wilshire Boulevard: the easternmost around
Bullocks Wilshire which opened in 1929, second the
Miracle Mile, and finally, the shopping district of
Beverly Hills, where
Saks Fifth Avenue opened a store in 1938.
Map of businesses in the shopping district at its peak c.1925–8 The following diagram, based on an artistic map by the Hollywood Boulevard Association, and on newspaper advertisements In 1958, the
Hollywood Walk of Fame, which runs from
La Brea Avenue east to
Gower Street (and an additional three blocks on
Vine Street), was created as a tribute to artists working in the entertainment industry.
Decline In the 1970s, the street became very seedy and was frequented by many odd characters as shown in pictures by photographer Ave Pildas.
Revitalization In 1984, a portion of Hollywood Boulevard was listed in the
National Register of Historic Places as part of the
Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District. In 1992, the street was paved with glittery asphalt between Vine Street and La Brea Boulevard. The
El Capitan Theatre was refurbished in 1991 then damaged in the
1994 Northridge earthquake. The full El Capitan building was fully restored and upgraded in . The Hollywood Entertainment District, a self-taxing business improvement district, was formed for the properties from La Brea to McCadden on the boulevard. Beginning in 1995, then
Los Angeles City Council member
Jackie Goldberg initiated efforts to clean up Hollywood Boulevard and reverse its decades-long slide into disrepute. In 2021, the
Vogue Theatre, on Hollywood Boulevard, at Las Palmas, reopened as the
Vogue Multicultural Museum. Renovations of the Hollywood and Highland Center began in 2020. The renovated complex was renamed
Ovation Hollywood in 2022. In 2022, for the return of the
LA Pride parade to the boulevard, the city installed multi colored lighting to more than 100 trees to illuminate for special events.
Heart of Hollywood / Walk of Fame Master Plan Advocates promote the idea of closing Hollywood Boulevard to traffic and create a
Pedestrian zone from La Brea Avenue to Highland Avenue citing an increase in pedestrian traffic including tourism, weekly movie premiers and award shows closures, including 10 days for the Academy Award ceremony at the Dolby Theatre. Similar to other cities in the US, like
Third Street Promenade,
Fremont Street in Las Vegas,
Market St. in San Francisco or the closure in
Times Squares
Pedestrian Plaza's created in 2015. In June 2019, The City of Los Angeles commissioned
Gensler architects to provide a master plan for a $4 million renovation to improve and "update the streetscape concept" for the Walk of Fame between the
Pantages Theater (Gower Avenue) at the east and
The Emerson Theatre (La Brea Avenue) at the west end of the boulevard. Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell released the draft master plan designed by Gensler and Studio-MLA in January 2020. The city's Bureau of Engineers proposed a three phase approach to implement the changes. This included adding bike lanes, new landscaping, removing lanes of car traffic, sidewalk widening by removing street parking and art-deco designed street pavers to beautify the boulevard. They also proposed a street mechanism to able to temporarily close the boulevard on pedestrian high capacity days or events where a street closure was approved. Creating public plazas and car free zones. Phase three would disallow east-west travel thru the boulevard but still allow north-south travel along its major intersections, Highland Avenue, Cahuanga Boulevard and Vine Street. The approved phase one was completed and removed parking lanes between Orange Drive and Gower Street in 2022. New district council member for Hollywood,
Hugo Soto-Martinez continued with the revitalization plan after defeating O'Farrell in the 2022 election cycle. A motion was filed June 30, 2023 to implement a tax district to continue funding the master plans phase two and three. In early March 2024, council member Hugo Soto-Martinez announced "Access to Hollywood" plan. Commencing phase two of the proposed redevelopment. They announced the addition of bus only lanes, bikes lanes and the removal of additional street parking to add sidewalk space for pedestrians. Restructure of lanes to be completed by 2025. Phase three build out has not been announced, pending funding. Also in East Hollywood area, another plan for boulevard revitalization is planned.
LA DOT announced "Vision Zero" in August 2023, a pedestrian friendly streetscaping redesign. LADOT's plan focuses on the eastern section of Hollywood Boulevard between
Gower Street and east past
Vermont Avenue. Plans are to add safety instruments, continental crosswalks and pedestrian friendly alert striping. ==Major intersections==