Title supplied by cataloger.; Photograph edited for publication. The Historic Hollywood Photographs Collection includes over 12,000 images from 1880 to 2012, chronicling both Hollywood's evolution from a dusty outpost to a global legend and Los Angeles communities and neighborhoods. The collection's official history began in 1972 after historian/photographer/author Bruce Terence inherited the photographs from his Hollywood pioneer grandfathers, developer Charles E. Toberman and actor Ernest Torrence. Over the decades, Torrence added his own photographs, creating the impressively comprehensive collection that is available today. In 2019, Torrence retired and sold the collection to Stephen and Christy McAvoy, both Los Angeles natives with a passion for history, photography, and preservation. Stephen (1945-2023) was a retired CPA and avid photo collector whose parents worked in the Ink & Paint Department at Walt Disney Studios from the 1930s to 1970s, while Christy, a trailblazer in the field of historic preservation and architectural consulting in Hollywood, is recognized as having co-founded Hollywood Heritage and the Historic Resources Group. Her dedicated preservation efforts also include having served as president of the Los Angeles Conservancy and the California Preservation Foundation, and as an Advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The McAvoys, with the help of their daughter, artist/photographer Carly Caryn, maintained the physical collection and its online access until May 1, 2024, when the collection was acquired by the Los Angeles Public Library. Aerial photograph looking east from Hollywood Boulevard (center) and Sycamore Avenue. Notable structures include the Garden Court Apartments (foreground, left), Grauman's Chinese Theatre (center), the Hollywood Hotel (upper left), the First National Bank of Hollywood (top), the El Capitan Theatre (center), the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (lower right of center), and the Hollywood Professional Building (foreground).
Central business districts Streets Stores & shops Dwellings Commercial buildings Office buildings Bank buildings Hotels Chinese Theatre (Los Angeles, Calif.) Gothic revival (Architecture) Roads--Interchanges and intersections Trees Palms First National Bank of Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) Art deco (Architecture) Architecture--Chinese influences Motion picture theaters Architecture--Spanish influences El Capitan Theatre (Organization : Hollywood, Calif.) Garden Court Apartments (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Apartments Hollywood Hotel (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Lost architecture Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hollywood Professional Building (Los Angeles, Calif.) Fisher, Lake & Traver King, Richard D Meyer & Holler Farwell, Lyman Morgan, Walls & Clements Dennis, Oliver Perry Meline, Frank S Kennedy, Raymond M Hawthorn Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Sycamore Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Highland Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hollywood Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) Aerial photographs
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