Beverly Hills Heritage

Beverly Hills Heritage Beverly Hills Heritage is a community organization dedicated to celebrating Beverly Hills’ history and culture.

It provides a wide range of programming in areas such as the conservation of historical artifacts and structures, historical education for both children and adults and creating community outreach programs about the City of Beverly Hills.

There are times when our organization will share a little Beverly Hills history of a different kind, especially when it ...
05/21/2026

There are times when our organization will share a little Beverly Hills history of a different kind, especially when it really matters for the cultural health of our home in Los Angeles.

This is one of those times.

Beverly Hills Heritage is proud to endorse David Ross for Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, Seat 131.

David Ross is truly Beverly Hills homegrown. A graduate of Hawthorne School and Beverly Hills High School, and raised on North Maple Drive, he reflects the kind of thoughtful, civic-minded leadership, integrity, and professionalism our community has long valued. David is a true friend of Beverly Hills Heritage.

Before beginning his legal career, David worked for a decade in television journalism and documentary production in Washington, D.C., Tennessee, and Kansas. That experience gave him a deep appreciation for careful listening, thoughtful analysis, factual accuracy, and the responsibility of communicating complex issues clearly and fairly to the public. He also served on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide to Congressman Floyd J. Fithian of Indiana, gaining valuable insight into the legislative process and the role public institutions play in serving communities responsibly and effectively.

David later went on to build a distinguished legal career spanning more than 30 years. He served as both a Deputy Public Defender in Riverside County and a Deputy Alternate Public Defender in Los Angeles County, and has handled more than 113 jury trials while representing thousands of people throughout Los Angeles County with professionalism, fairness, integrity, and respect for the law.

Colleagues on both sides of the courtroom consistently describe David as ethical, even-tempered, intelligent, compassionate, and exceptionally well prepared. His candidacy has also earned the endorsement of 82 members of the judiciary, a reflection of the respect he has earned throughout the legal community.
Beyond his professional accomplishments, David is simply an all-around good person who carries himself with dignity and humility and treats others with respect. Those qualities matter enormously in someone entrusted to serve the public from the bench.

At a time when public confidence in institutions is more important than ever, Los Angeles County deserves judges who are measured, principled, thoughtful, and guided by both strength and humanity. Beverly Hills Heritage believes David Ross is exceptionally well suited to serve as Superior Court Judge, Seat 131, and we are proud to support his candidacy.
We respectfully encourage voters to consider supporting David Ross on June 2.
Thank you.
Beverly Hills Heritage

Beverly Hills City Hall under construction, 1932.
04/08/2026

Beverly Hills City Hall under construction, 1932.

Will Rogers was an American humorist, newspaper columnist, lecturer, film star, and one of the most recognizable public ...
03/06/2026

Will Rogers was an American humorist, newspaper columnist, lecturer, film star, and one of the most recognizable public figures of the early twentieth century. Born in Oklahoma, he became beloved nationwide for his wit, warmth, and plainspoken observations about politics and everyday life.

On December 22, 1926, Beverly Hills honored Will Rogers with a ceremonial proclamation appointing him the city’s honorary first mayor. It was a fitting tribute to a man whose humor and decency made him one of the most admired public figures in America. Though the title was honorary, the gesture reflected the genuine affection and civic pride our young city felt for one of its most famous residents. This year marks 100 years since that proclamation was presented.

This year we also celebrate the centennial of Route 66, later known as the Will Rogers Highway, the great American road that symbolized freedom, movement, optimism, and the open West. That historic route runs through Beverly Hills, adding another meaningful connection between Rogers, the city, and the broader American story.

A century later, the proclamation feels like more than a charming civic moment. It captures Beverly Hills in its formative years, when the city was still defining itself and already understood the power of wit, character, and celebrity in shaping its identity.
Will Rogers was never just a star. He represented a kind of American humanity that people trusted. Though his name may not be as familiar to younger generations today, his legacy remains deeply worthy of remembrance, especially in Beverly Hills, where his influence can still be felt today.

If you want to know what the proclamation says, continue reading here⬇️

Know all men by these presents, that:

Whereas, this is an occasion marking the return HOME of
our eminent citizen WILL H. ROGERS, and

Whereas, this distinguished citizen has evidenced by wise
and individually characteristic utterances his knowledge
of, insight into and deep interest in problems affecting the
public welfare, and

Whereas, it is realized that the foregoing has exerted a
profound influence upon the public mind and has greatly
worked for a sane and healthy political attitude on
the part of all persons, and

Whereas, Further it is generally recognized that his works
have gone far toward the establishment of better understanding,
kindlier feeling and honest friendliness between this and
other Nations, between sections of this country and
between its political parties, and

Whereas, all the foregoing has been accomplished with-
out departure from the modest homely and kindly char-
acter for which he is everywhere affectionately known, and

Whereas, the administrative body of this municipality is
confirmed in the belief that the foregoing facts are common
knowledge and opinion and that a formal consultation of the
inclination of the electorate is in this instance needless
and that the administrative body's present act evidences
the unanimous desire of such electorate; Now, Therefore,

Be It Resolved, that there is on this day conferred upon
WILL H. ROGERS a title-MAYOR OF THE CITY OF BEVERLY HILLS
as evidence of the pride of the municipality in numbering him
among its citizens and in valuation of his worth as a power for
good in civic affairs:

In Witness Whereof, the governing body together with a considerable number of the citizens have in the CITY OF BEVERLY HILLS, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, inscribed their signatures and have caused to be affixed hereto a seal on this the twenty-first day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-six.

The first schoolhouse in the area now known as Beverly Hills was called The Coldwater School. Established around 1887, i...
03/04/2026

The first schoolhouse in the area now known as Beverly Hills was called The Coldwater School. Established around 1887, it stood near Coldwater Canyon, then part of the Sherman Precinct in Cahuenga Township under the jurisdiction of Los Angeles.

A modest one-room Victorian structure, remembered by former student Margaret Thomas Yager as “a little red school house," it served the children of some of the area’s earliest pioneer families, including the Benedicts. At the turn of the century, the building was dismantled and relocated to The Pass School in Cahuenga, and the students were transferred to the newly constructed Beverly Hills Grammar School on N. Rexford Drive. Following the City’s incorporation in 1914, that school became Hawthorne Grammar School.

In August of 1930, Margaret Thomas Yager, reflecting on his childhood at Coldwater School and the city that had grown up around it, penned the poem that follows. His verses are more than a charming rhyme; they are a firsthand memory of a vanished landscape of barley fields, sycamores, orange groves, and of a time before stately mansions rose where children once played.

The poem and original sepia toned photograph are from the Historical Collection of the Beverly Hills Public Library.
We hope you enjoy this intimate glimpse into our beginnings as much as we do ❤️

The Coldwater School

A little red school house
With a prohibition name,
Stood in the midst of a barley field
When early farmers came

To cast their lot with the pioneers
In sight of the sunset sea
To plant the luscious orange
And the early garden pea.

Their children gathered up their books
And to this school house went,
To meet a cheerful teacher
With good intentions bent.

To train these lads and lassies
Along the road to fame
That “foot-prints in the sands of time”
Would justify the name.

The golden rule was daily stressed
With words and figures too
Their lessons interspersed with songs
Were not too hard to do.

And so the years flew quickly by
This little group must part
They sailed away on life’s great sea
Each in his little barque,

Went drifting out on the ebbing tide
Where new worlds would unfold
With hopes that some mysterious sprite
Would load their ship with gold.

Their ships are in the harbor now
We’ve gathered in the park
To tell of life’s brief voyage
And knowledge to impart.

They cannot find the school house
It’s gone the way of earth,
But flowers are blooming in the yard
Where once there was a dearth.

A stately mansion rears its head
Upon the sacred ground
Where children’s voices rent the air
With gleeful sports and bounds.

The sycamore where once they climbed
To daring dizzy heights
Still stands a living monument
To all their scoffs and fights.

The swimming pool has vanished too
Where sun-tanned youths did sport
Far from the dreadful danger line
Of the juvenile high court.

We turn the leaves of our yesterdays
And with memories’ pencil trace
The picture of this school house
That time cannot efface.

All hail to the name and the teachers
Our tribute of thanks we pool
As we leave to ancient history
The dear little Coldwater School.

Margaret Thomas Yager
Coldwater School Student
Written August 1930

Address

9461 Charleville Boulevard #480
Beverly Hills, CA
90212

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Beverly Hills Heritage posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category