Traces On The Land…Maps Of The Past
I can be mesmerized by a Thomas Guide, gazing at streets and neighborhoods I may never visit. Imagine the pleasure of Brentwood
maps from 1940…and 1925! I spent hours with those fragile, amazing portraits of young Brentwood, preserved at Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.
There were a lot of Westgates! The original was between San Vicente and Wilshire (earlier known as Nevada), the Soldiers Home and Arcadia. Arcadia? What we now know as Bundy Drive (for Santa Monica Land and Water principal, C.L. Bundy) was originally named for the co-owner of the Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, elegant Arcadia Bandini de Baker. (The Santa Monica water facility at Wilshire and Bundy is the “Arcadia plant.†) On the 1925 map, my street (Kiowa) was Penn; Dorothy was Sherman. There was a Dorothy west of Arcadia, but not continuing east until annexation by Los Angeles. Westgate Avenue, north from Wilshire to Montana, was Chelsea.
Westgate Acres was bounded by Montana and San Vicente on the south, Beverly on the north, the Soldiers Home east and Norman Way west. Norman Way? Arcadia ended at San Vicente. Above, the street we know as Bundy was Norman Way, up into the mountains. Today only a small portion still has that name. Beverly? That magnificent highway to the Pacific was cut through and paved from downtown to the Ocean in the mid-1920s and its name changed to Sunset Boulevard.
West of “Acres†was Brentwood Green, north from San Vicente to Beverly, from Norman Way to Cliffwood, where Brentwood Park began. A large chunk of the development was originally Carlos Heights (circa 1907). However, Chicago millionaire Tracy Drake, who named the development after his oldest son, sold the land to other investors after less than a year. Frank Meline marketed it as “Brentwood Green†in the early 1920s.
Westgate Heights was the elegant area above Beverly (Sunset) between Barrington and Norman Way (Bundy). It was originally called Highland Hills when it was subdivided (around 1923) but the name didn’t catch on. It was still labeled Westgate Heights in 1940. (Telephone directories were using “Brentwood Heights†for the entire community by then.)
Westgate Gardens was way up in the Santa Monicas. Its only claim to fame until after World War Two was Mount St. Mary’s.
Boundaries unchanged since 1906, Brentwood Park has been the nexus of our community. Both maps show its gracefully-curving streets and traffic circles. The extra-large circle on Sunset is also on both maps. It was the mid-1950s when the City cut Sunset through it and Bristol Circle North and South were born.
Brentwood Terrace was between the Brentwood Country Club and 26th Street, San Vicente and Montana, dating from the early 1920s.
A few areas apparently grew without an inspiring name. In 1925, the area east of Kenter, around Bonhill and Tigertail, was well-developed but known only as Tract 7840. One would think the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Sturgis house deserved a better, more impressive name for its neighborhood.
Maps, like photographs, tell tales of our past. But, also like photos, their stories are often hard to read and without explanation. They leave questions.There was no Gretna Green below Sunset. Now there’s no Gretna Green above Sunset. What happened to Chelsea? Who was Barrington? Who was Norman? Why did Kiowa, a Plains Indian tribe virtually unknown in California, replace Penn?
A final note. I told you I can’t stop looking at maps. There, on a random page I turned to, was a Los Angeles neighborhood I love…Bungalow Land! Gee Whiz! I would like to live in Bungalow Land! I would imagine everyone has their own not-too-big but also not-too-small space. It can’t be too expensive…it’s not like “Estate Land†. Bungalow Land was off Laurel Canyon, adjacent to the unappealing Wissahickon (who?) Tract in 1925.
It’s not Brentwood…but hey! Everyone can’t live in Los Angeles’s most beautiful neighborhood…
