Outpost Estates is a neighborhood in the

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills is a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It borders Studio City, Universal City and Burbank on the north, Griffith Park on the north and east, Los Feliz on the southeast, Hollyw ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, consisting of about 450 homes. It is bordered by

Mulholland Drive Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland. The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura counties is n ...

to the north, Franklin Avenue to the south,

Runyon Canyon Park Runyon Canyon Park is a park in Los Angeles, California, at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, managed by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. The southern entrance to the park is located at the north end of Fuller Av ...

to the west, and Hollywood Heights and the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...

to the east.

History

According to Edwin O. Palmer in his 1937 two volume ''History of Hollywood'', the area identified as Outpost Estates was one of the villages of the Native American

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Channel Islands of California, Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . In the precolonial era, the peop ...

(or

Kizh The Kizh or Kit’c ( ) are an Indigenous people of California, the historically and ethnographically documented lineal descendants of the Mission Indians of San Gabriel. They belong to a group commonly known by the Spanish name Gabrieleño. The ...

) Nation (named "Gabrielino" by the Spanish after their

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel Mission San Gabriel Arcángel () is a Californian mission and historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. It was founded by the Spanish Empire on the Nativity of Mary September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become twenty-one Spanish mi ...

). The Tongva people, who speak a

Uto-Aztecan The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of native American languages, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ...

language and are affiliated to the

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ), also known by the endonym Newe, are an Native Americans in the United States, Indigenous people of the United States with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshon ...

people of Western America, have occupied the area for at least 3500 years, and were preceded in the area by

Hokan The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families spoken mainly in California, Arizona, and Baja California. Etymology The name ''Hokan'' is loosely based on the word for "two" in the various Hokan language ...

-speaking native people. Based on the 1852 letters of

Hugo Reid Hugo Reid (April 18, 1811 – December 12, 1852) was a Scottish immigrant and early resident of Los Angeles County who became known for writing a series of newspaper articles, or "letters," that described the culture, language, and contemporary ci ...

and other sources, Palmer wrote: "...the rolling hills, deep canyons, and gentle slopes now called Hollywood, were known by their inhabitants as Cahuegna (little hills). Their chief was Cauegnie. These were later rendered in Spanish "Cahuenga" and "Chief Cahuenga". Their language was called "Kokomear". "Their Mocohuenga (council grounds) were situated near the mouth of the canyon at the north end of Western Avenue, at Los Feliz. Their principal rancheria (village) at the mouth of the canyon at the north end of Sycamore Avenue, now the Outpost, was called Caueg-na, and was seven miles from Yang-na (now Los Angeles), and about the same distance from Paseg-na, now San Fernando." (''Volume 1'', page 16. Palmer wrote many pages describing the lives and culture of the Tongva Kizh people.) The area was the site of the first building in what is now Hollywood, a three-room

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

house built in 1853 by Don Tomas Urquidez, near what is now the intersection of Outpost Drive and Hillside Avenue. General Harrison Grey Otis, the owner of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', acquired the estate from Don Tomás through legal wrangling associated with California's joining the United States in 1850. Near Casa Don Tomás, Otis built a clubhouse on the property for entertaining, which he called "The Outpost." Outpost Estates Brochure

In 1924,

Charles E. Toberman Charles Edward Toberman (February 23, 1880 – November 10, 1981) was a real estate developer and stenographer who developed landmarks in Hollywood, California, including the Hollywood Bowl, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, El Capitan Theatre, Roos ...

acquired the property. He kept the Outpost name and developed the property as one of several 1920s Hollywood luxury residential neighborhoods. The area became known as an affluent area with many rich and famous residents. "Homes had to be designed in Spanish, Mediterranean or California modern style, have red tile roofs, plenty of patios for "outdoor living," and be approved by architectural committee before being built." Most of the original houses have been preserved, and Lower Outpost looks much like it did in the 1920s. In the 1920s, in the hills above the development, a large sign spelled out "Outpost" in red neon letters 30 feet high. It was intended to compete with the Hollywoodland sign, (which later became the Hollywood sign). At the time, it was the largest neon sign in the United States. The Outpost sign was dismantled during World War II, and the wreckage of the sign was left in place, buried in the weeds. Even the original foundation and electrical junction boxes survived. The twisted remains were identified by hikers in 2002. In 1967, a homeowners association was formed to combat what residents considered to be inappropriate development. In the 1980s, the group helped to prevent the development of Runyon Canyon. The Outpost Estates development was one of the first neighborhoods in the country to offer all-underground utilities. The neighborhood is featured in Episode 14018 of ''

California's Gold ''California's Gold'' was a public television human interest program that explores the natural, cultural, and historical features of California. The series ran for 24 seasons beginning in 1991, and was produced and hosted by Huell Howser in coll ...

'' with

Huell Howser Huell Burnley Howser (October 18, 1945 – January 7, 2013) was an American television personality, actor, producer, writer, singer, and voice artist, best known for hosting, producing, and writing ''California's Gold'' and his human interest sh ...

Education

Residents are zoned to three elementary schools, depending upon address: Gardner Street Elementary School, Selma Elementary School, and Valley View Elementary School. All residents are zoned to Bancroft Middle School and

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. His ...

References

External links

Outpost Estates Homeowners Association website
{{Greater Hollywood Neighborhoods in Los Angeles Neighborhoods in Hollywood, Los Angeles Hollywood Hills Populated places in the Santa Monica Mountains 1924 establishments in California