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 and Sycamore Avenue (foreground). Notable structures include the Garden Court Apartments (foreground), Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood Hotel, the El Capitan Theatre (lower center), Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and the First National Bank of Hollywood (under construction), Hotel Christie (center), the Security Trust and Savings Building at the northeast corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga Boulevard, the Knickerbocker Hotel, and the Taft Building (upper right of center).
Streets Dwellings Commercial buildings Hotels Apartments Stores & shops Trees Palms Roads--Interchanges and intersections Central business districts Hotel Knickerbocker (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (Los Angeles, Calif.) Motion picture theaters Chinese Theatre (Los Angeles, Calif.) Garden Court Apartments (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) First National Bank of Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) Building construction Architecture--Chinese influences Architecture--Spanish influences El Capitan Theatre (Organization : Hollywood, Calif.) Office buildings Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Security Trust and Savings Building (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hotel Christie (Los Angeles, Calif.) Security Trust & Savings Bank (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hollywood Hotel (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Bank buildings Taft Building (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Lost architecture Meyer & Holler Kelly, Arthur Rolland Meline, Frank S Parkinson, Donald B.(Donald Berthold),1895-1945 Parkinson, John,1861-1935 Morgan, Walls & Clements Walker & Eisen Cooper, John M Frasier. E. M Hollywood 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
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