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, left), Grauman's Chinese Theatre (lower left of center), the Hollywood Hotel (lower left of center), the Hollywood Professional Building (foreground), the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (lower center), Hollywood High School (lower right), the First National Bank of Hollywood (center), the Hotel Christie (center), the Hollywood Methodist Church (left), the Montecito apartment building (left of center), the Fontenoy apartment building (left of center), the Security Trust & Savings Bank, the Guaranty Building (top), the Equitable Building (top), the Knickerbocker Hotel (top), Broadway Hollywood (top), Hollywood Plaza Hotel (top), and the Vine Street Theatre (top).
Streets Stores & shops Central business districts Dwellings Trees Palms Apartments High schools Commercial buildings Office buildings Automobiles Lost architecture Vacant lands Bank buildings Hotels Roads--Interchanges and intersections Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (Los Angeles, Calif.) Motion picture theaters Chinese Theatre (Los Angeles, Calif.) Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Garden Court Apartments (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Hollywood Hotel (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) First Methodist Church of Hollywood (Hollywood, Calif.) Hollywood High School (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Fontenoy Apartments (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hollywood Plaza Hotel (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Equitable Building (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.) Methodist church buildings Montecito (Apartment house : Los Angeles, Calif.) Hotel Christie (Los Angeles, Calif.) Walker & Eisen Bryant, Leland A Kelly, Arthur Rolland Powers, C.W Meyer & Holler Curlett, Aleck Meline, Frank S Miller, Marcus P Kennedy, Raymond M First National Bank of Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) Barber, Thomas P Hollywood Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.) Cherokee Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Las Palmas Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Highland Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Franklin Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Hawthorn Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Sunset Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.) Yucca Street (Los Angeles, Calif.) Sycamore Avenue (Los Angeles, Calif.) Orange Drive (Los Angeles, Calif.) 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.
