Sunset Boulevard is a
boulevard in the central and western part of
Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the
Pacific Coast Highway in
Pacific Palisades east to
Figueroa Street in
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...
. It is a major thoroughfare in the cities of
Beverly Hills and
West Hollywood (including a portion known as the
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the city of West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with the city of Los Angeles near Marmont Lane to its western border with Beverly H ...
), as well as several districts in
Los Angeles.
Geography
Approximately in length,
the
boulevard roughly traces the arc of mountains that form part of the northern boundary of the
Los Angeles Basin, following the path of a 1780s cattle trail from the
Pueblo de Los Angeles to the ocean.
From Downtown Los Angeles, the boulevard heads northwest, to
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
, through which it travels due west for several miles before it bends southwest towards the ocean. It passes through or near
Echo Park,
Silver Lake
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
,
Los Feliz, Hollywood,
West Hollywood,
Beverly Hills, and
Holmby Hills. In
Bel-Air, Sunset Boulevard runs along the northern boundary of
UCLA's Westwood campus. The boulevard continues through
Brentwood to
Pacific Palisades, where it terminates at the Pacific Coast Highway intersection.
The boulevard has curvaceous winding stretches, and can be treacherous for unalert drivers in some sections. Sunset Boulevard is at least four lanes wide along its entire route. Sunset is frequently
congested with traffic loads beyond its design capacity.
Sunset Boulevard historically extended farther east than it does now, starting at Alameda Street near
Union Station and beside
Olvera Street in the historic section of Downtown. The portion of Sunset Boulevard east of Figueroa Street was renamed
Cesar Chavez Avenue
Cesar Chavez Avenue (Spanish: Avenida César Chávez) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Downtown Los Angeles, the Eastside and East Los Angeles, measuring 6.19 miles (9.96 km) in length. Named in honor of union leader César Chávez, th ...
in 1994, along with Macy Street and Brooklyn Avenue, in honor of the late
Mexican-American
Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...
union leader and civil rights activist.
History
In 1877,
Harvey Henderson Wilcox, one of the earlier real estate owners from "back East", decided to subdivide more than of land (mostly orchards and vineyards) along Sunset Boulevard, including what is today
Hollywood and Vine.
In 1890, Belgian diplomat
Victor Ponet
The name Victor or Viktor may refer to:
* Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname
Arts and entertainment
Film
* ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film
* ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
bought of the former
Rancho La Brea land grant. His son-in-law,
Francis S. Montgomery
Francis may refer to:
People
*Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome
*Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
*Francis (surname)
Places
*Rural Mu ...
, inherited this property and created
Sunset Plaza
Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spring ...
.
According to a 1901 article in the ''
Los Angeles Herald
The ''Los Angeles Herald'' or the ''Evening Herald'' was a newspaper published in Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1873 by Charles A. Storke, the newspaper was acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1931. It ...
'', Sunset only extended from Hollywood in the west to Marion Avenue in the
Echo Park district in the east.
The Board of Public Works proposed to extend Sunset east to Main Street in the Plaza by routing the road over the existing section of Bellevue Avenue,
[Alternate Link]
via ProQuest. but the plan was delayed until approximately 1904,
due to active opposition by affected land owners.
According to the 1910 Baist Real Estate Survey Atlas, Sunset Boulevard reached the Plaza by that time, but it did so by two short and narrow segments which were not aligned with each other and thus did not provide a proper thoroughfare to it. In late 1912, several properties along the route were condemned so that the boulevard could be changed in both its width and its alignment.
[Alternate Link]
via ProQuest. With these changes completed, Sunset Boulevard now reached North Main Street and continued as Marchessault along the northern end of the Plaza. This section, variously marked and signed as Marchessault Street or East Sunset Boulevard, remained open to traffic until the late 1960s or early 1970s. At that time, Sunset was realigned one block north and Marchessault was closed to motor traffic.
In 1921 a westward expansion of Sunset began, extending the road from the then-current terminus at
Sullivan Canyon toward the coast. This land, a portion of the original 1838 holdings of Francisco Marquez, stretched across a mesa and became known as the "Riviera section".
Will Rogers
William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...
, who had bought much of this land as an investment, later donated it to the State of California creating
Will Rogers State Historic Park. Circa 1931, Sunset was a paved road from Horn Avenue to Havenhurst Avenue.
Cultural aspects
The
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the city of West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with the city of Los Angeles near Marmont Lane to its western border with Beverly H ...
portion of Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood has been famous for its active nightlife since at least the 1950s.
In contrast to other American cities where it referred to a concentration of radio retailers, in Los Angeles, Radio Row was understood in the 1940s–1950s as the area around the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and
Vine Street in
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
, where the broadcasting facilities of all four major radio networks were located.
In the 1970s, the area between Gardner Street and
Western Avenue was a center for
street prostitution
Street prostitution is a form of sex work in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, benches, e ...
.
Shortly after a
much publicized incident in late June 1995, police raids drove out the majority of prostitutes on the Boulevard.
Part of Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood is also sometimes called "Guitar Row" due to the large number of guitar stores and music industry-related businesses,
including the recording studios
Sunset Sound Studios
Sunset Sound Recorders is a recording studio in Hollywood, California, United States located at 6650 Sunset Boulevard.
Background
The Sunset Sound Recorders complex was created by Walt Disney's Director of Recording, Tutti Camarata, from a collec ...
and
United Western Recorders.
The portion of Sunset Boulevard that passes through Beverly Hills was once named Beverly Boulevard.
The boulevard is commemorated in
Billy Wilder's film ''
Sunset Boulevard'' (1950), the
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...
musical of the same name, and the 1950s television series ''
77 Sunset Strip''.
Jan and Dean's 1960s hit song "
Dead Man's Curve" refers to a section of the road near Bel Air estates just north of
UCLA's
Drake Stadium Drake Stadium may refer to:
* Drake Stadium (1904), a defunct outdoor multiuse sports field at Drake University used from 1904 to 1925
* Drake Stadium (Drake University), an outdoor multiuse sports field at Drake University used from 1925 to prese ...
where Jan Berry almost died in an automobile accident in 1966.
The
Buffalo Springfield song "
For What It's Worth" was written about a riot at
Pandora's Box, a Sunset Strip club, in 1966.
Metro Local lines 2, 4 and 602 operate on Sunset Boulevard, with Line 2 running through most of Sunset Boulevard between Echo Park and UCLA, Line 4 between Sunset Junction and Downtown LA, and Line 602 from UCLA west. The
Metro B Line
The Metro B Line is a planned bus rapid transit route in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The route will operate mostly on Lake Street in Minneapolis before crossing the Mississippi River into St. Paul and operating mostly on Selby Avenue and ending i ...
operates
a subway station at Vermont Avenue.
At 4334 W. Sunset Boulevard lies the wall featured on the cover of the late singer-songwriter
Elliott Smith
Steven Paul Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003), known professionally as Elliott Smith, was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of hi ...
's 2000 album ''Figure 8''. Since Smith's death in 2003, the wall has become a memorial for the artist; fans have left many personal messages there over the years.
Landmarks (past and present)
*
Amoeba Records
*
Beverly Hills Hotel
The Beverly Hills Hotel, also called the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, is located on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California, Beverly Hills, California. One of the world's best-known hotels, it is closely associated with Cinema of the ...
*
Blessed Sacrament Church
*
Book Soup
*
Carney's
*
CBS Columbia Square
*
Chateau Marmont
*
Cinerama Dome
*
CNN
*
Comedy Store
*
Crossroads of the World
Crossroads of the World is an open-air mall on Sunset Boulevard and Las Palmas in Los Angeles. The mall features a central building designed to resemble an ocean liner surrounded by a small village of cottage-style bungalows. It was designed by ...
*
Directors Guild of America headquarters
*
Dudley Do-Right Emporium
The Dudley Do-Right Emporium was a small, eccentric gift shop named after that fearless Canadian Mountie Dudley Do-Right, located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California.
History
The emporium was founded and run by Jay Ward, creator of ' ...
*
Earl Carroll Theatre
*
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
*
The Garden of Allah
*
Gazzarri's
*
Gower Gulch
*
Haldeman House
*
Hollywood Athletic Club
*
Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California.
Histo ...
*
Hollywood Palladium
*
Hotel Bel-Air
*
House of Blues
*
Hyatt West Hollywood
The Andaz West Hollywood is a 239-room Hyatt hotel located at 8401 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, California (at Kings Road).
History
The hotel was opened in 1963 by Gene Autry as Gene Autry's Hotel Continental. Leased to Hyatt Hotels Corporat ...
*
KCET
KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV ...
*
KTLA
KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...
*
The London Fog
*
Los Angeles Film School
*
Marymount High School
*
Metromedia Square
Metromedia Square (later known as Fox Television Center from 1986 to 1996) was a radio and television studio facility located at 5746 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on the southeastern corner of Sunset and Van Ness Avenue ...
(the former Fox Television Center and
KTTV studios)
*
Nickelodeon on Sunset
The Earl Carroll Theatre was a historic stage facility located at 6230 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. It was built by showman Earl Carroll and designed in the Streamline Moderne style by architect Gordon Kaufmann in 1938. The theatre ...
*
Palisades Charter High School
*
Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Museum
*
Rainbow Bar and Grill
*
Rock Walk
Guitar Center is an American musical instrument retailer chain. It is the largest company of its kind in the United States, with 294 locations. Its headquarters is in Westlake Village, California.
Guitar Center oversees various subsidiaries in ...
*
The Roxy Theatre
*
Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine
*Sherry’s Club (now 1 OAK nightclub)
*
Spago
*
Standard Hotel
Standard Hotels is a group of seven boutique hotels in New York City (Meatpacking District and East Village), Miami Beach, London, Maldives, Ibiza, and Hua Hin, Thailand. The hotels are operated by Standard International Management. The two origi ...
*
Sunset Junction Sunset Junction is an informal name for a portion of the Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California, Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, California. It was home to the Sunset Junction Street Fair from 1980 through 2010. It is in the southwestern part of ...
*
Sunset Gower Studios
*
Tiffany Theatre
The Tiffany Theater was the first theater on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. It stood west of La Cienega Boulevard, La Cienega between the Playboy Club and Dino's Lodge restaurant. Before being converted from the Mary Webb Davis Mod ...
*
Tiki Ti
*
United Western Recorders
*
UCLA
*
Viper Room
*
Whisky a Go Go
*
Will Rogers State Beach
*
Will Rogers State Historic Park
See also
*
''Sunset Boulevard'' (film) (1950)
Notes
References
*
External links
*
{{authority control
Streets in Los Angeles
Streets in Los Angeles County, California
Landmarks in Los Angeles
Streets in Beverly Hills, California
Brentwood, Los Angeles
Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles
East Hollywood, Los Angeles
Echo Park, Los Angeles
Streets in Hollywood, Los Angeles
Silver Lake, Los Angeles
Streets in West Hollywood, California
Westside (Los Angeles County)
Film production districts
Historical red-light districts in the United States
Red-light districts in California
Boulevards in the United States