Beverly Hills – The Early History of How It Came To Be

With less than a six square mile (15.5 sq km) radius and 35,000 people Beverly Hills connotes far more fame, allure, and notoriety than cities considerably more populated.  So how did it come to be?

First populated by the Tongva Indians, sometimes referred to as the Gabrielinos (à la the San Gabriel Mountains) due to the Spanish influence, the area was regarded as a sacred site thanks to being a superb source of fresh and abundant water. Even then water was the most precious commodity in Southern California.

The area was fed by the waters from four streams the flowed through the three surrounding canyons - Franklin, Coldwater and Benedict. The streams met where Beverly Drive and Sunset Boulevard meet today. For the Tongva people, it was a peaceful life with plenty of wild game and edible vegetation.

When the Spanish arrived in August of 1769 they named the basin El Rodeo de las Aguas, Spanish for The Gathering of the Waters. The expedition was led by Don Jose Gaspar de Portola and, his chaplain, Friar Juan Crespi, kept a diary where he recorded the expedition’s passage through "large vineyard of wild grapes and an infinity of rose bushes. After traveling about half a league we came to a village of this region," recorded the Friar, "people came into the road, greeted us and offered seeds."

Like too often in the country’s history, the Native Americans had no immunity to European diseases and a smallpox epidemic killed two-thirds of the Tongva by 1844.  Mistreatment did the remaining ones in.

In 1838 the Mexican governor of California deeded the land grant of El Rodeo de las Aguas to Maria Rita Valdez Villa, the Afro Latina widow of a Spanish soldier. Maria Rita, possibly the first California feminist icon, built an adobe ranch house near the intersection of present day Sunset Boulevard and Alpine Drive. From here she oversaw raising of cattle and horses with the help of cowboys.  Maria Rita sold the ranch to Benjamin D. Wilson (of Wilson Observatory fame) and Henry Hancock (Hancock Park) for $4000 in 1852.  As the century wore on drought after drought followed and lima beans replaced horses and cattle.

By 1900, Burton Green, along with his partners, purchased the property from Wilson and Hancock for the Amalgamated Oil Company. He commissioned numerous oil exploratory drillings, none of which proved worthwhile. In 1906 Green re-purposed the company as the Rodeo Land and Water Company and then renamed the land Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms, Massachusetts.

To stimulate development, Green brought in landscapers and what today would be called city planners. The design was for wide curving streets that followed the surrounding hills. Beverly Hills’ first streets, Rodeo, Canon, Crescent, Carmelita, Elevado and Lomitas were constructed in 1907. A greenway, Santa Monica Park, was developed and on 1912 the Beverly Hills hotel was built at the site of El Rodeo de las Aguas.

Beverly Hills was incorporated in 1914; while it is geographically within Los Angeles, it has always been a separate and distinct city.