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H. J. Whitley

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Hobart Johnstone Whitley
Born(1847-10-07)October 7, 1847
Toronto, Ontario
DiedJune 3, 1931(1931-06-03) (aged 83)
Los Angeles, California
EducationToronto Business College
Known forHollywood
SpouseMargaret Virginia Whitley
Parent(s)Joseph Whitley
Eleanor Johnstone[citation needed]

Hobart Johnstone Whitley (October 7, 1847 – June 3, 1931) was a Canadian-American real estate developer best known for helping create the Hollywood subdivision in Los Angeles. On October 26, 1911 H. J. Whitley convinced the first movie studio to settle in Hollywood earning him the title "Father of Hollywood". [1] [2] [3]

Personal life

Whitley was born in Toronto, the seventh and youngest son of Joseph Whitley and Eleanor Johnstone. He grew up in Flint, Michigan, and attended Toronto Business College. Whitley became a naturalized citizen of the United States in the 1870s.

In the spring of 1886, Whitley married his second wife, Margaret Virginia Whitley.[4]

Whitley died on June 3, 1931 at the Whitley Park Country Club near Hollywood.[5] On his crypt is inscribed "The Father of Hollywood". [6] He was survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. [7][8]

Career

Whitley moved to Chicago, where he owned a hardware store and candy store. He became interested in land development, became a land agent for the Rock Island Railroad and was elected to its board of directors. He plotted and organized towns in the Cherokee Strip, and when Oklahoma became a state in 1912 he "declined the first governorship."

Whitley became one of the nation's most successful land developers. During the westward construction of frontier railroads from the late 1870s to the early 1890s, he founded scores of towns in the Oklahoma Territory, the Dakotas, Texas and California. Whitley was a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt while in the Dakota Territory. Whitley was at the first Oklahoma Land Run of 1889, April 22, where he claimed property. He built the first brick block building in the territory and was asked by the local people to be the first Governor of Oklahoma. He plotted the towns and built brick and stone business buildings in Oklahoma City, El Reno, Chickasha, Enid, Medford, and other cities on the Rock Island Railroad. Whitley traveled to Washington D.C. where he persuaded the U.S. Congress to allow the City of Guthrie, Oklahoma to be the new capital of the state of Oklahoma. It is estimated that Whitley founded over 100 towns in his lifetime.[9]

He was identified with the founding of Home Savings Bank, the First National Bank of Hollywood, the First National Bank of Van Nuys, and the State Banks of Owensmouth (Canoga Park), Reseda, and Corcoran. Whitley donated large parcels of land and money for civic use. The donations were used to finance public schools, libraries, parks, landscaping, streets, transportation, lighting and churches.[10]

Hollywood

Original 480-acre map of H J Whitley's property developed by his company, Los Angeles Pacific Boulevard and Development Company. Highland Avenue runs through the center of the property. The square at the lower right hand corner is the Whitley estate.

In the mid-1880s, Whitley arrived in Southern California. He was well known as a land developer. As president and major shareholder of the Los Angeles Pacific Boulevard and Development Company, he orchestrated the building of the Hollywood Hotel, the opening of the Ocean View Tract and construction of a Bank which were located on the corners of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland. Whitley beginning working on the project in 1893. It was a rural settlement of eighteen families. He subdivided 400 acres of open fields and gardens into a residential section. Hollywood Hotel on the same corner.[11] [9]

The neighborhood of Whitley Heights in the Hollywood Hills originated as a residential housing development financed by Whitley.[12][13]

Other property developments

In 1905, he and others began the development of 47,000 acres of land in the San Joaquin Valley and 50,000 acres in the San Fernando Valley.[14]

In 1909 the Suburban Homes Company, a syndicate, was formed and led by H. J. Whitley, general manager of the Board of Control, along with Harry Chandler, H. G. Otis, M. H. Sherman and O. F. Brandt.[15] Henry E. Huntington extended his Pacific Electric Railway (Red Cars) through the Valley to Owensmouth (now Canoga Park). The Suburban Home Company laid out plans for roads and the towns of Van Nuys, Reseda (Marian) and Canoga Park (Owensmouth). The rural areas were annexed into the city of Los Angeles in 1915.[16][17]

H. J. Whitley took the lead in building the city of Corcoran, California. He purchased 32,000 acres (130 km2) to start the development and moved a member of his real estate firm, J. W. Guiberson, to the area. Whitley named all the city streets "avenues". The main street of the community is named in his honor.[18]

Whitley's last development was never finished. He bought thousands of acres and started the town of Whitley Gardens.[citation needed] It is about ten miles (16 km) east of Paso Robles, California. Around 1924, as Los Angeles Times columnist Lee Shippey put it:

Whitley became a Paso Robles enthusiast, after the waters had given him new strength. He bought 48,000 acres of ranch lands there and dreams of putting through one more great development project. He can't understand how fine fertile land with water on it, on a state highway and within reach of ocean winds can still be bought for around $50 an acre.[19]

It was said that Whitley had amassed "a private fortune running into the millions" but "most of this wealth dwindled in [this] one unfortunate investment at Paso Robles."[14]

Namesakes

[citation needed]

  • Hobart Blvd
  • Whitley Heights - a residential neighborhood, historic preservation overlay zone in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA.
  • Whitley Avenue - a north/south street, begins on Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood to Whitley Terrace in Whitley Heights.
  • Whitley Terrace - an east/west street, in Whitley Heights, Hollywood.
  • Whitley Terrace Steps - goes from Milner Road to Emmet Terrace.
  • Whitley Gardens - City 10 miles east of Paso Robles, CA.
  • Whitley Avenue - main street in Corcoran, CA.
  • Grace Avenue - H J Whitley's daughter Grace Virginia Whitley, Hollywood, CA.
  • Emmet Terrace -H J Whitley's son Ross Emmet Whitley, Hollywood, CA.
  • Milner Road - H J Whitley's private secretary Roy Milner, Hollywood, CA.

References

  1. ^ "Hollywood Region 27". California Historical Societies. 2020.
  2. ^ "First Hollywood movie filmed on Whitley Estate on October 26, 1911". Cinema Treasures. July 7, 2010.
  3. ^ "UCLA Library Special Collections Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library". UCLA Library. 1889–1946.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  4. ^ "The Father of Hollywood)". Los Angeles County Library. 2010.
  5. ^ "Death Calls H.J. Whitley. Real Estate Man Known as "Father of Hollywood". Pioneer in many Southland Developments" (PDF). Los Angeles Times. June 4, 1931. Retrieved 2008-07-17.
  6. ^ "Find a Grave Hollywood Forever Cemetery Gravesite of H.J. Whitley". 1931.
  7. ^ "Death Calls H.J. Whitley. Real Estate Man Known as "Father of Hollywood". Pioneer in many Southland Developments" (PDF). Los Angeles Times. June 4, 1931. Retrieved 2008-07-17.
  8. ^ "Whitley Dead at 83". New York Times. June 5, 1931. H. J. Whitley, California real estate man known as the "Father of Hollywood ...
  9. ^ a b "Our History". Green River MWC. 2018.
  10. ^ California Historian, Volume 54, Number 4, Conference of California Historical Societies (2008)
  11. ^ "HJ Whitley and the Original Hollywood & Highland, 'The Hollywood Hotel,' October 22, 2012
  12. ^ Patricia Bennett, "'The Hill, Hollywood's Mediterranean Village," Los Angeles Times, July 12, 1992, image 203
  13. ^ "About Whitley Heights". Whitley Heights Home Owners. 1992.
  14. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference CitizenObit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Mulholland, Catherine. The Owensmouth Baby - The Making of the San Fernando Valley Santa Susana Press, California, 1987; p. 18-20.
  16. ^ George L. Henderson (1 February 2003). California and the Fictions of Capital. Temple University Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-1-59213-198-3. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  17. ^ Judith R. Raftery (1992). Land of Fair Promise: Politics and Reform in Los Angeles Schools 1885 – 1941. Stanford University Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-8047-1930-8. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  18. ^ City of Corcoran, California [1]
  19. ^ "The Lee Side oO'L.A.; Whitley's New Dream," Los Angeles Times, September 9, 1930, image 22

Further reading

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