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Founded just before the turn of the century by H.J. Whitley and Daeida Wilcox, Hollywood was a paradise of rolling hills, citrus groves, and perfect sub-tropical weather all year round.

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Once the motion picture industry arrived in the 1910s, the area boomed into a bustling metropolis populated with tens of thousands of people, homes, and businesses.
Over the following decades, as it attracted aspiring screen stars, tourists, and during
World War II, those working in aerospace and defense (as well as their growing families), Hollywood scrambled to keep up with its obsolete infrastructure. 

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In the early 1950s, the proposed Hollywood Freeway (part of U.S. Route 101)
charted a path from downtown Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley
—and everything in its way had to go, whether demolished or relocated. 

 

But not everything lost is because of the freeway.

Buildings were redeveloped; businesses shuttered; people came and went.

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Before the 101 is a snapshot of that remarkable time.