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 northeast across Hollywood From La Brea Avenue (foreground). Notable landmarks include the Garden Court Apartments (lower left), Grauman's Chinese Theatre (left of center), Hollywood Methodist Church (left), First National Bank of Hollywood (center), the Hollywood Hotel (center), the El Capitan Theatre (center), Hollywood High School (right of center), the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (left of center), the Hotel Christie (center), Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and school (right of center), the Security Trust and Savings Building, the Guaranty Building, the Knickerbocker Hotel, the Taft Building (top), Broadway Hollywood, and the Hollywood Plaza Hotel (top right of center)
Streets Dwellings Commercial buildings Hotels Stores & shops Trees Palms Roads--Interchanges and intersections Central business districts Garden Court Apartments (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Apartments Hotel Knickerbocker (Los Angeles, Calif.) Motion picture theaters Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Morgan, Walls, & Clements Chinese Theatre (Los Angeles, Calif.) First National Bank of Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) Guaranty Building (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Building construction Office buildings First Methodist Church of Hollywood (Hollywood, Calif.) Catholic churches Methodist church buildings High schools Catholic schools Blessed Sacrament Church (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) El Capitan Theatre (Organization : Hollywood, Calif.) Blessed Sacrament School (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Security Trust and Savings Building (Los Angeles, Calif.) Security Trust & Savings Bank (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hotel Christie (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hollywood Hotel (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Bank buildings Taft Building (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Lost architecture Meyer & Holler Parkinson, Donald B.(Donald Berthold),1895-1945 Parkinson, John,1861-1935 Meline, Frank S Morgan, Walls & Clements Walker & Eisen Cooper, John M Frasier. E. M Hollywood Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.) Sunset Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.) Highland Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Wilcox Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Vine Street (Los Angeles, Calif.) Orange Drive (Los Angeles, Calif.) Cahuenga Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.) Ivar Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Farwell, Lyman Dennis, Oliver Perry Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) Aerial photographs
If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.
Share your story
Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.
