A Story Like No OtherClick HereA Young City with Deep RootsClick HereA Playground for the StarsClick HereA City Forged in Civil RightsClick HereA Gambler's ParadiseClick HereA Century of FilmmakingClick HereThe Epicenter of Rock 'n RollClick Here Previous slide Next slide TONGVA PEOPLE The region was home to the Tongva People before the Spanish arrived in 1521. Their village near future West Hollywood was called Cahenga -- "Kawee’nga, meaning “place of the fox." Today's Hollywood Hills were known as the Cahuenga Mountains and the rolling plains to the south came to be called the Cahuenga Valley. “Californio” settlers emigrated from Mexico starting around 1776. After Mexican independence in 1821, the Rancho La Brea land grant, including present-day West Hollywood, was created. RANCHO LA BREA In 1860, Henry Hancock, a Harvard-trained lawyer and surveyor, acquired Rancho La Brea where he mined asphalum from the tar pits. Many years after he died, Hancock’s widow and son became fabulously wealthy overnight when they struck oil under what is now Park La Brea.SHERMAN YARDS In the 1890s, Moses Sherman and partners built a streetcar yard at what is now the intersection of Santa Monica and San Vicente Blvds. The village of Sherman grew up around the yards, establishing the historic core of West Hollywood.VICTOR PONET Also in the 1890s, Belgian émigré Victor Ponet, a wealthy Los Angeles financier, bought 280 acres north of Sherman. Years later, his heirs, the Montgomery family, developed Sunset Plaza there. They still operate the fine retail and dining zone today.STUDIOS CITY In 1919, Charlie Chaplin built a studio on La Brea that is the Jim Henson Studio today. That same year Jesse Hampton built a studio on Santa Monica. It later became the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios and is now called The Lot.FAMOUS NIGHTSPOTS In 1934, Hollywood Reporter publisher Billy Wilkerson opened Café Trocadero, a hive of elegance on the Strip. In 1940, he opened Ciro’s down the street as a sort of private club for Hollywood elites. Mocambo, another world-famous club on the Strip, opened soon after.HOLLYWOOD MOB The 1947 assassination of Bugsy Siegel (above) ignited a war for control of the millions generated by illegal gambling on the Strip. Attacks by the Jack Dragna mob on Siegel’s successor, Mickey Cohen, outraged the public and signaled the end of high-stakes gambling on the Strip. GAY ON THE STRIP Cross-dressing acts like Karyl Norman, “the Creole Fashion Plate,” and Rae Bourbon (above), performed on the Strip. Café International and Jane Jones’ Little Club catered to lesbians, while Café Gala and Club Bali were popular with gay men.ROCK MECCA The opening of PJ’s Discotheque on Santa Monica at Crescent Heights in 1961 introduced rock ‘n roll to West Hollywood. Four years later, the Whisky a Go-Go opened on the Strip, launching a revolution. RUSSIAN EMIGRES In the waning decades of the Soviet Union, thousands of Russians emigrated to West Hollywood, including many were fleeing religious and political persecution. Since the 1970s, as many as 13,000 Russian natives have made the city their homes.GAY RIGHTS In 1951, the pioneering gay rights group ONE formed in West Hollywood. Over the ensuing decades, the area became a center of LGBT life and a focus for gay civil rights nationwide.CITYHOOD In the late 1970s, a coalition primarily of seniors and gay activists coalesced around renters’ rights and other issues. The movement culminated in a vote that established the city of West Hollywood in 1984. Previous image Next image