East Gate Bel Air (or Old Bel Air) is a small area within the Bel Air section of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is made up of large, old estates developed mostly before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Location

As shown in the “Bel Air First Residential Allotment” map from 1923, the original Bel Air tract of East Gate Old Bel Air founded and opened by Alphonzo E. Bell, Sr. was composed of 128 lots on Bel Air Road (which passes north from South Beverly Glen and

Sunset 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 spr ...

Boulevards through the East Gate entranceA part of the city, yet apart from it too
" ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'', Mar. 6, 2005—and hence the logical East Gate name) and the five roads which branch from it: Saint Pierre, Saint Cloud, Bellagio (to Stone Canyon), Copa De Oro, and Nîmes Roads.''Houses of Los Angeles, Volume II'', Sam Watters, 2007. p.12,13 Though many of these 128 lots have since been combined into single properties, this original 1923 Bel Air allotment is what distinguishes East Gate Old Bel Air from the rest of present-day Bel Air, which was gradually added by Bell starting in 1931 with Stone Canyon (known then as Bel Air Woodland), and by 1937 Bel Air extended westward all the way to

Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda Bou ...

(its westernmost boundary today). At its southernmost edge (where Copa de Oro Road meets

Sunset Boulevard 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. It is a major thoroughfare in ...

), East Gate Old Bel Air flanks the campus of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. At its easternmost edge, it borders Holmby Hills. This combined contiguous area of East Gate Bel Air and Holmby Hills straddles North

Beverly Glen Boulevard Beverly Glen Boulevard is one of five major routes that connect the Westside of Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley (the other four are the San Diego (405) Freeway, Sepulveda Boulevard, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, and Coldwater Canyon Avenue. ...

(at a bend of Saint Pierre Road and De Neve Square Park). In general, the further one moves west from Saint Pierre Road to West Gate Lower Bel Air and north from Sunset Boulevard up the

Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...

to Upper Bel Air, the smaller and the less flat the building lots and the more varied the styles and price ranges of the homes (with development fueled largely by

postwar In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period ...

demand in the 1950s).

History

On the undeveloped hillsides of original Bel Air in 1922, Alphonzo Bell built water and sewage pipes, installed underground electric and telephone lines, and planted thousands of trees along winding streets traversing the hilly terrain. Bell refused to sell the original East Gate Old Bel Air allotments to anyone in the film business, though changed his mind on all of Bel Air with the arrival of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. A design committee has existed to the present day) to preserve the architectural harmony of the community, with restrictions including low masses, horizontal lines, pitched roofs, and unobtrusive and harmonious colors, and deed restrictions required land purchasers to spend a minimum of $20,000 on home construction.

Notable residents

References

{{Los Angeles Bel Air, Los Angeles Neighborhoods in Los Angeles Populated places in the Santa Monica Mountains Populated places established in 1923