Beverly Hills Heritage

04/08/2026

Beverly Hills City Hall under construction, 1932.

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.

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

10/01/2025

As it was
As it is
As it will always be🌴♥️

09/03/2025

This remarkable view of S Santa Monica Blvd and Rodeo Dr. from 1948 takes us back to a time when Rodeo Drive was nothing more than a village shopping area for locals. A place where women and children shopped for clothing and food and men went to the barber shop for a shave and a haircut.

Today, the Spanish Revival building on the very left, known as the Heegaard Building (once known as the Writers and Artists Building) is Beverly Hills' Landmark # 24 on the Local Register of Historic Properties and was designed by notable American architect Roy Seldon Price.

Up ahead, the tall Art Deco style Bank of America Building would be demolished in the 1980s and replaced with the Paley Center for Media whose building was designed by renowned architect Richard Meier. Soon, Meier's building will be demolished to make way for a new project spearheaded by yet another very famous architect, Frank Gehry. The project will span the entire block on Santa Monica Blvd between Beverly and Rodeo Drives and will be Louis Vuitton's multi-dimensional new flagship store. The project is slated to begin early in 2026 and plans to be open by 2029.

More on the LVMH project to come...

04/19/2024

Walter’s Cafe, a Beverly Hills institution since 1949, is closing permanently on April 30th, reports the Beverly Hills Courier.

Walter’s Cafe, a Beverly Hills institution for over 75 years, will close its door permanently on April 30.

04/05/2024

These rare photos, taken in 1957 inside the Beverly, the first cinema built in Beverly Hills, were graciously provided exclusively to Beverly Hills Heritage by Dawn Gonzales, whose mother, Leatrice “Letty” Grossman, worked there as an usherette when a student at Hamilton High School. They show Letty in various areas of the theatre, including the concessions counter, staircase landing, and balcony. The exterior photo dates to when the feature film “The Wild One” (1953), starring Marlon Brando, was playing.

Located at 206 North Beverly Drive, the Beverly was designed by architect L.A. Smith in an eclectic blend of near, middle, and far eastern motifs with a Moorish twist, a distinctive onion dome. It opened on May 18, 1925, and remained in business until 1977. It next became the west coast flagship of Fiorucci, the Italian fashion merchandiser, and later a bank, but always retaining its landmark dome. The building was razed in 2005, to make way for a luxury hotel development.

Please note that the photos are watermarked and may not be shared without the permission of Beverly Hills Heritage.

02/13/2024

Valentines Day is associated with chocolate, and in Beverly Hills, chocolate continues to be associated with Edelweiss Candy Kitchen, our City’s legendary chocolate makers, located at 444 North Cañon Drive in a small, architecturally unchanged, classic tile and glass brick storefront since the day it opened in 1942. Also unchanged is how their chocolates are prepared, handmade on the premises. And, yes, that famous “I Love Lucy” scene where Lucy and Ethel were overwhelmed by a speedy conveyer belt of chocolates was inspired by Edelweiss’s compact kitchen behind the shop. When Lucille Ball shopped at Edelweiss, she would enter through the rear door and walk through the back area where she saw the assembly line that sparked the idea for memorable scene.

01/25/2024

One of the best remaining examples of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, the Clock Drive‐in Market was designated Landmark No. 31 on the Beverly Hills Local Register of Historic Properties in 2016.

Designed by C.W. Wilson and Sons in 1929 and built at a cost of roughly $32,000, the L‐shaped market was set into the northeast corner of Hamilton Drive and Wilshire Boulevard, with parking provided in the front within a formal forecourt. The building’s most prominent feature was the namesake clock tower. A small gas station was located on the southwest corner of the lot. Unlike markets today, each department was operated by a different tradesperson, who provided baked goods, meats, fruits, vegetables, groceries, and the like. The second story of the building contained a large multi‐room residential apartment complete with Spanish Colonial style features. It was later converted into an office. The storefront was typical of markets of the era, having large garage-like doors that made the building open air. Customers could drive right up, do their shopping, and hop back into their cars.

By late 1930s, the character of the street had changed, and the usage of the structure changed as well, becoming an automobile showroom. The 1938 Beverly Hills city directory lists the Bill Davis Motor Car Company as occupying the property at 8423 Wilshire Boulevard. By the 1950s, it became a factory‐owned subsidiary distributor for the Citroen Cars Corporation, one of only two in the country at that time (the other in New York). In later years, the property operated as a Porsche‐Audi dealership until 2015. It is now a Bentley and Lamborghini luxury car dealership.

(Black and white photos: From the City report on landmark consideration; Color photos: Google street view)

12/21/2023

We revisit perhaps the most cherished decoration Beverly Hills displays each Christmas season, Santa and his reindeer flying above Wilshire Boulevard at Beverly Drive. Notice that originally there were eight white reindeer in single file. Now there are nine tan deer, eight pairs led by Rudolph.

12/14/2023

The full Beverly Hills 3-D laser projection show on the tower of City Hall for the 2023 holiday season features iconic local landmarks, showcasing the city’s heritage. (Click on the image to begin the video. For additional video clips of some of the “add on” programs that are available to visitors on site, please see the comments.)

11/19/2023

One of the great gems of Beverly Hills is Virginia Robinson Gardens, the home and botanical gardens of the founders of Robinson’s, the upscale department stores that once graced the region, including Beverly Hills. An excellent, extremely in-depth article about the mansion, built in 1911, and its extensive grounds, by Steven Keylon, editor of “Eden,” the journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society, is available at the link. In it, Mr. Keylon relates the history of the property and how its six acres became a botanical paradise and the source of plants for many local landscapes. (Tours of the estate are available by reservation only; see comments for the link.)