| North Hollywood | |
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| — Neighborhood of Los Angeles — | |
| Nickname(s): NoHo | |
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North Hollywood
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Los Angeles |
| City | Los Angeles |
| Time zone | PST (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
North Hollywood is a district in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California, along the Tujunga Wash. It is bounded on the south by Moorpark Street and the Ventura Freeway, on the southwest by Burbank Blvd. and Coldwater Canyon Ave., on the northwest by Tonopah St., on the northeast by Laurel Canyon Blvd./ Webb Ave./ Lankershim Blvd., Sherman Way, and on the east by Clybourn Ave. The Hollywood Freeway (California Highway 170) runs north-south through the middle of it. North Hollywood was established by the Lankershim Ranch Land and Water Company in 1887. It was first named Toluca before being renamed Lankershim in 1896 and finally North Hollywood in 1927. It is home to the NoHo Arts District.
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North Hollywood was once part of the vast landholdings of the Elizabethian Mission San Fernando Rey de España, which were confiscated by the government during the Mexican period of rule.
Following the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, a small group of Yankees raised the California Bear Flag on June 18, 1846 and declared independence from Mexico. United States troops quickly took control of the presidios at Monterey and San Francisco and proclaimed the conquest complete. In Southern California, the Mexicans, for a time, resisted American troops, but when defeat became inevitable, Andrés Pico arranged the peaceful surrender of Los Angeles to American forces under Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Frémont. Pico and Frémont signed the Treaty of Cahuenga which ended the U.S.-Mexican fighting in California was signed at Tomás Feliz's adobe house at Campo de Cahuenga on on today's Lankershim Boulevard in January 1847.[1]
A group of investors assembled as the San Fernando Farm Homestead Association purchased the southern half of the Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando. The leading investor was Isaac Lankershim, a Northern California stockman and grain farmer, who was impressed by the Valley's wild oats and proposed to raise sheep on the property. In 1873, Isaac Lankershim's son and future son-in-law, James Boon (J. B.) Lankershim and Isaac Newton Van Nuys, moved to the Valley and took over management of the property. Van Nuys thought the property could profitably grow wheat using the dryland farming technique developed on the Great Plains, and leased land from the Association to test his theories. In time the Lankershim property, under its third name, the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company, would become the world's largest wheat-growing empire.[2][3]
The world wheat market remained strong through the 1870s and early 1880s, but then supply began to exceed demand, and prices began to fall.[4] When the Santa Fe Railroad reached Los Angeles in 1885, fare wars between the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific brought ever more settlers to Southern California, and pressure rose to subdivide the great ranches.[5]
In October 1887, J.B. Lankershim and eight other developers organized the Lankershim Ranch Land and Water Company, purchasing 12,000 acres (49 km2) north of the Caheunga Pass from the Lankershim Farming and Milling Company.[6] Lankershim established a townsite which the residents named Toluca along the old road from Cahuenga Pass to San Fernando. On April 1, 1888, they offered ready-made small farms for sale, already planted with deep-rooted deciduous fruit and nut trees—mostly peaches, pears, apricots, and walnuts—that could survive the rainless summers of the Valley by relying on the high water table along the Tujunga Wash rather than surface irrigation.[4][7]
The land boom of the 1880s went bust by the 1890s, but despite another brutal drought cycle in the late 1890s, the fruit and nut farmers remained solvent. The Toluca Fruit Growers Association was formed in 1894. The next year the Southern Pacific opened a branch line slanting northwest across the Valley to Chatsworth. The Chatsworth Limited made one freight stop a day at Toluca, though the depot bore the new name of Lankershim. With the Post Office across the street called Toluca, controversy over the town’s name continued and the local ranchers used to quip, “Ship the merchandise to Lankershim, but bill it to Toluca.” In 1896, under pressure from Lankershim, the post office at Toluca was renamed "Lankershim" after his father, although the new name of the town would not be officially recognized until 1905.[8][9]
By 1903, the city was known as "The Home of the Peach". In 1912, the area's major employer, the Bonner Fruit Company, was canning over a million tons of peaches, apricots, and other fruits.[10] When the Los Angeles Aqueduct opened in 1913, Valley farmers offered to buy the surplus water, but the federal legislation that enabled the construction of the aqueduct prohibited Los Angeles from selling the water outside of the city limits.[11] For the Valley communities, the choice was consent to annexation or do without.
At first resistance to the real-estate development and downtown business interests of Los Angeles remained strong enough to keep the small famers unified in opposition to annexation. However, the fruit packing company interests were taken over by the Los Angeles interests. The two conspired to decrease prices and mitigate the farmers' profit margins making their continued existence tenuous. When droughts hit the valley again, rather than face foreclosure the most vulnerable farmers agreed to mortgage their holdings to the fruit packing company and banks in Los Angelse for the immediate future and vote on annexation.
West Lankershim (more or less today's Valley Village) agreed to be annexed to the City of Los Angeles in 1919, and Lankershim proper in 1923.[12][13] Much of the promised water delivery was withheld, many of the ranchers one by one had their holding foreclosed or transferred to the packing companies. In turn, these were bought up by the real-estate developers and by the late 20's a massive effort was underway to market the area to prospective home owners throughout the country. As part of this effort, in 1927, in an effort to capitalize on the glamour and proximity of Hollywood, Lankershim was renamed "North Hollywood".[10] The result was a massive development of housing which transformed the area into a suburban development of Los Angeles.
Starting in the late fifties, many of the original owners were aging and their children were moving to other areas. School integration in the subsequent years, blockbusting, and subsequent ethnic tumoil encourage many remaining families to move out who in turn were replaced with black and Hispanic families moving from the downtown areas. By the 1990s the demographic changes had almost completely transformed the region.
North Hollywood was also the site of an infamous shootout that took place in 1997.
North Hollywood is a diverse area with significant sized populations of foreign origin including Latino, Asian American, Armenian American, African American, Jewish, Jamaican American, Middle Eastern, Iranian American, German American, and Filipino American populations.
Since 2000, the community has been undergoing many changes and developing, thanks in large part to the formation 743-acre North Hollywood Development District and the subsequent NoHo Commons projects.[14] These projects attempt recapture North Hollywood's historic image and restore a more ethnic and socioeconomic diverse population including middle class working individuals. Consequently, North Hollywood's landscape has been transformed, with condominium towers (including a 15-story building on Lankershim Boulevard) appearing in the midst of older one-story bungalows and small apartment complexes. The community is changing from a suburb into a metropolitan center, in large part as a result of the construction of Metro Stations for the Red Line and the Orange Line, two lines that have made the neighborhood into a regional hub for the San Fernando Valley. Medium- and high-density developments are being built around the Metro Station, particularly in the NoHo Arts District, with the intent of creating a walkable urban village.
In 2009, the Los Angeles Times's "Mapping L.A." project supplied these North Hollywood neighborhood statistics: population: 77,848; median household income: $42,791.[15]
North Hollywood is home to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park is located in the area, and is notable for its special section memorializing aviators.
Universal Studios is also located on the border between Hollywood and North Hollywood.
Business and theatre owners in the Universal City/North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce formed the idea of establishing a theatre and arts district in 1992 with support from L.A. Department of Cultural Affairs. They chose "NoHo" as it not only reveals its location, but also plays off the well-known "SoHo" Arts District of New York City.
Central to the new NoHo Arts District, located near Valley Village in North Hollywood, are contemporary theaters, art galleries, cafes, and shops. The area features more than 20 professional theatres producing new work and classics, diverse art galleries, public art and professional dance studios. The district also features the largest concentration of music recording venues west of the Mississippi.
The theater district includes two new large venues that expand upon existing theatres, the newly redesigned NoHo Arts Center (formerly the American Renegade Theatre), and the redesigned Historical El Portal. They add to the existing 31 theatres located in and around the NoHo Arts District. New mixed-use development, the NoHo Commons, is planned near the NoHo Arts District's commercial core and subway station by Los Angeles developer J.H. Snyder Company.
The $100-million, 292-unit loft apartment project by Snyder is the first segment to be completed of NoHo Commons, part of a "transit village" rising at the terminus of the Metro Red Line subway and the Orange Line busway. Also planned are hundreds of other apartments, condos, stores and other developments, including a high school.
NoHo 14 is a 14-story apartment building with 180 units on Lankershim Boulevard and Cumpston Street that is complete and now leasing. The historic North Hollywood train depot at Lankershim and Chandler Boulevards, is being restored to its 1920s condition. The old train depot sits on land owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, across from the Metro Red Line subway station and next to the termination of the Orange Line bus line.
In fall of 2009, J.H. Snyder Company plans to finish a mixed-use structure including a seven screen Laemmle movie theatre, five story office building and 150 residential units on the south end of NoHo Commons.[16]
In summer 2009, a 39 unit condominium complex will be completed on 5016 Bakman Ave. called "Bakman Court" designed by the award winning Architect Michael Naim. More information at www.BakmanCourt.com
In the future, North Hollywood plans a $1 billion mixed-use development at Lankershim and Chandler, surrounding the Metro Red and Orange line terminals. The project would re-develop 15.6 acres (63,000 m2) with 1,720,000 square feet (160,000 m2) of commercial and residential space, including 562 residential units and three high-rise office towers. The project was awarded to Lowe Enterprises by the Los Angeles Metro board and will be designed by architects AC Martin Partners.[17][18]
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services has the Antelope Valley Area Health Office and the San Fernando Valley Area Health Office in a facility in North Hollywood.[19][20] The department operates the North Hollywood Health Center in North Hollywood.[21] In addition the department operates the Glendale Health Center in Glendale, serving North Hollywood.[22]
The United States Postal Service operates the North Hollywood Post Office at 7035 Laurel Canyon Boulevard,[23] the Valley Plaza Post Office at 6418 Bellingham Avenue,[24] and the Victory Center Post Office at 6535 Lankershim Boulevard.[25]
The North Hollywood Metro Subway station opened in June 2000. Close to half a million people took advantage of free rides on the 17.4-mile (28.0 km) Red Line subway in its first weekend in operation. The station is the starting point for the Red Line Metro system, which cost $4.5 billion to construct.
The L.A. county Transportation Commission took four years but finally in 1990 approved the subway station connecting North Hollywood to the Metro Rail from downtown. That followed the Los Angeles City Council unanimously endorsing the Valley Metro Rail extension plan. The subway features a route from Union Station to North Hollywood.
The tunnel to connect the Metro Red Car's Hollywood leg to the San Fernando Valley extension cost $136 million. It included the cost of digging a tunnel under the Santa Monica Mountains. The tunneling work was done by a Traylor Brothers/Frontier-Kemper joint venture. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Sierra Club had fought to prevent the tunneling but ultimately lost. Environmentalists were concerned that the removal of billions of gallons of ground water might affect springs, wildlife and vegetation.
Tunneling from North Hollywood for the subway started in 1995. Workers dug 70 feet (21 m) deep using tunneling machines. Work progressed an average of 50 to 200 feet (61 m) daily, performed by work crews round-the-clock six days a week. The machines used bore through soil that once lined the bottoms of ancient oceans.
The two tunnels between the North Hollywood and Universal City stations were a total of 10,541 feet (3,213 m). The cost of building the two tunnels was $65.4 million and involved 250 workers.
A further Red Line extension was replaced by the Metro Orange Line bus rapid transit. Its terminus is located across the street from the subway station. This expanded the station area into a transit hub, and many local and rapid buses now stop at the station.
The Los Angeles Unified School District serves North Hollywood.
High schools serving North Hollywood include:
Middle schools serving North Hollywood include:
Elementary schools serving North Hollywood include:
Early education:
The high school campuses of Harvard-Westlake School and Oakwood School are in North Hollywood.
Campbell Hall School is a prestigious K–12 Episcopalian school of note.
Laurel Hall and St. Paul's First Lutheran and Messiah Lutheran School are Lutheran elementary schools.
Art Institute of California - Hollywood An art school occupying 4 floors of a new mixed-use building on Lankershim Blvd. Relocated from Wilshire Blvd, west of Downtown Los Angeles
The Wesley School is a K-8 school with Over 200 kids.
Los Angeles Public Library operates the North Hollywood Regional Branch.
The North Hollywood (Amelia M. Earhart) Regional Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library is located at 5211 Tujunga Avenue. The one-story, mission-style brick building with Spanish tile work was opened in 1929 to replace a storefront operation known as the Sepulveda Library, which could not meet the demand caused by the area's rapid population growth. In 1981, at the suggestion of a local resident, officials renamed the library for Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Earhart, who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on an attempted around-the-world flight in 1937, lived in nearby Toluca Lake for several years when she was in her 20s.
The North Hollywood Recreation Center is mostly in North Hollywood, with a portion in Valley Village.[28][29] The park has an auditorium, lighted indoor baseball diamond courts, lighted outdoor baseball diamonds, lighted outdoor basketball courts, a children's play area, lighted handball courts, picnic tables, an outdoor unheated seasonal pool, and lighted tennis courts. In addition the center has an indoor gymnasium which can be used as a second auditorium and a community room; the gymnasium's capacity is 250 people.[29]
The Valley Plaza Recreation Center in North Hollywood includes an auditorium, barbecue pits, a lighted baseball diamond, lighted outdoor basketball courts, a children's play area, a 40 person community room, a lighted American football field, an indoor gymnasium without weights, an outdoor gymnasium without weights, picnic tables, lighted tennis courts, and unlighted volleyball courts.[30] The Jamie Beth Slavin Park, an unstaffed pocket park with unlighted outdoor basketball courts, a children's play area, and picnic tables, is in North Hollywood.[31]
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