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Holmby Hills is an affluent neighborhood in the district of Westwood in western Los Angeles. It is bordered by the city of Beverly Hills on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, Westwood on the west, and Bel Air on the north. Sunset Boulevard is the area's principal thoroughfare which divides Holmby Hills into north and south sections. However, Holmby Hills can be recognized by its unique street lamps. In an effort to decrease traffic in the neighborhood, speed bumps have been installed on several key streets.

Holmby Hills, Bel Air, and Beverly Hills form the "Platinum Triangle" of Los Angeles, which houses the United States' priciest and most exclusive neighborhoods. "South Mapleton Drive" and "North Carolwood Drive" in Holmby Hills, along with "Nimes Road" and "St. Cloud Road" in Bel Air, are the most prominent and famous residential streets in all of the platinum triangle. Many of the estates in Holmby Hills boast panoramic views of the entire Los Angeles Basin. Many high-level entertainment industry executives, such as Interscope Records founder Jimmy Iovine, television producer Aaron Spelling, movie mogul Ray Stark, and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner (whose home is better known as the Playboy Mansion) currently reside or have previously resided in the area.

[edit] History of Holmby Hills

The first developer of the land that Holmby Hills, Westwood, and the University of California, Los Angeles now occupy was Maximo Alanis, a Spanish soldier who obtained title to 4,438 acres (18 km²) under a Mexican land grant in 1843. He called it San Jose de Buenos Ayres.

In 1884, about 2,000 acres (8 km²) of this land came into the possession of a forty-niner named John Wolfskill, who paid $10 an acre for it and built a ranch house near the present-day Los Angeles Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The actual development of Holmby Hills began when millionaire Arthur Letts, Sr. purchased 400 acres (1.6 km²) of the original Wolfskill ranch at $100 an acre. Letts, who was born in England in 1862, had made his fortune by transforming a small, bankrupt dry goods business in Los Angeles into the Broadway Department Store empire. He was not only a shrewd businessman, but also a skilled horticulturist; the grounds of his Hollywood home were planted with a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and flowers, and his cactus collection was known across the country.

His master plan for the prime land he had purchased in west Los Angeles was to create a neighborhood of grandiose estates. He personally christened the development "Holmby Hills," which was loosely derived from the name of his birthplace, a small hamlet in England called Holdenby. Letts died suddenly in 1923, before he could realize his vision.

His son-in-law, Harold Janss, took over the project, which was billed as "The Ultimate in Residential Estate Development." Zoning for the community, which straddles Sunset Boulevard, was designed to accommodate large lot sizes, up to 4 acres (16,000 m²). Electric and telephone lines were buried beneath the wide, tree-lined streets to preserve the landscape. Handsome, English-style street lamps, designed exclusively for Holmby Hills, were erected throughout the neighborhood.

Warner Avenue School

Emerson Middle School

University High School

Among the first mansions built here in the late 1920s was the Tudor-style home of the founder's son, Arthur Letts, Jr. Thanks to its lush landscaping, enormous lot sizes, and privacy, from the beginning Holmby Hills has attracted the rich and famous. In the 1950s, Walt Disney built his dream home here, which featured a miniature steam railroad, complete with 2,615 feet (797 m) of track and a 90-foot (27 m)-long tunnel. Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Gary Cooper, Barbra Streisand, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Dean Martin, Elvis Presley, Jack Benny, Kelsey Grammer, Michael Jackson, Sammy Davis Jr., Sonny & Cher, Nat King Cole, and Marilyn Monroe have all called Holmby Hills their home. Lloyd Bridges and his wife, Dorothy Bridges, also raised their children, actors Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges, in the neighborhood.^[1]

[edit] Fire service

Los Angeles Fire Department Station 71 is in the area.

[edit] Education

[edit] Primary and secondary schools

[edit] Public schools

Residents are zoned to the following Los Angeles Unified School District schools: Warner Avenue Elementary School, Emerson Middle School, and University High School.

[edit] Colleges and universities

Holmby Hills is a few blocks east of the University of California, Los Angeles.

[edit] Private Schools

The only school located within Holmby Hills is the independent Harvard-Westlake School (formerly Westlake School for Girls), which houses the middle school (grades 7-9) component.