Sunset Boulevard is a

boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway. Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls. In American usage, boulevards may ...

in the central and western part of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is a ...

. It is a major thoroughfare in the cities of

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

and

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most prominent gay villages ...

(including a portion known as the

Sunset Strip The Sunset Strip is the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the city of West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with the city of Los Angeles near Marmont Lane to its western border with Beverl ...

), as well as several districts in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

Geography

Approximately in length, the

roughly traces the arc of mountains that form part of the northern boundary of the

Los Angeles Basin The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an anomalous group of east-west trending chains of mountains collectively known as the ...

, following the path of a 1780s cattle trail from the Pueblo de Los Angeles to the ocean. From Downtown Los Angeles, the boulevard heads northwest, to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

, through which it travels due west for several miles before it bends southwest towards the ocean. It passes through or near Echo Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Hollywood,

, and Holmby Hills. In Bel-Air, Sunset Boulevard runs along the northern boundary of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

's Westwood campus. The boulevard continues through Brentwood to Pacific Palisades, where it terminates at the Pacific Coast Highway intersection. The boulevard has curvaceous winding stretches, and can be treacherous for unalert drivers in some sections. Sunset Boulevard is at least four lanes wide along its entire route. Sunset is frequently congested with traffic loads beyond its design capacity. Sunset Boulevard historically extended farther east than it does now, starting at Alameda Street near Union Station and beside

Olvera Street Olvera Street (also ''Calle Olvera'' or ''Placita Olvera'', originally Calle de los Vignes, Vine Street, and Wine Street) is a historic street in downtown Los Angeles, and a part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, the area immediatel ...

in the historic section of Downtown. The portion of Sunset Boulevard east of Figueroa Street was renamed

Cesar Chavez Avenue Cesar Chavez Avenue (Spanish: Avenida César Chávez) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Downtown Los Angeles, the Eastside and East Los Angeles, measuring 6.19 miles (9.96 km) in length. Named in honor of union leader César Chávez, ...

in 1994, along with Macy Street and Brooklyn Avenue, in honor of the late

Mexican-American Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...

union leader and civil rights activist.

History

In 1877, Harvey Henderson Wilcox, one of the earlier real estate owners from "back East", decided to subdivide more than of land (mostly orchards and vineyards) along Sunset Boulevard, including what is today Hollywood and Vine. In 1890, Belgian diplomat

Victor Ponet The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

bought of the former Rancho La Brea land grant. His son-in-law, Francis S. Montgomery, inherited this property and created

Sunset Plaza Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spring ...

. According to a 1901 article in the ''

Los Angeles Herald The ''Los Angeles Herald'' or the ''Evening Herald'' was a newspaper published in Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1873 by Charles A. Storke, the newspaper was acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1931. It ...

'', Sunset only extended from Hollywood in the west to Marion Avenue in the Echo Park district in the east. The Board of Public Works proposed to extend Sunset east to Main Street in the Plaza by routing the road over the existing section of Bellevue Avenue,Alternate Link
via

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

. but the plan was delayed until approximately 1904, due to active opposition by affected land owners. According to the 1910 Baist Real Estate Survey Atlas, Sunset Boulevard reached the Plaza by that time, but it did so by two short and narrow segments which were not aligned with each other and thus did not provide a proper thoroughfare to it. In late 1912, several properties along the route were condemned so that the boulevard could be changed in both its width and its alignment.Alternate Link
via

. With these changes completed, Sunset Boulevard now reached North Main Street and continued as Marchessault along the northern end of the Plaza. This section, variously marked and signed as Marchessault Street or East Sunset Boulevard, remained open to traffic until the late 1960s or early 1970s. At that time, Sunset was realigned one block north and Marchessault was closed to motor traffic. In 1921 a westward expansion of Sunset began, extending the road from the then-current terminus at Sullivan Canyon toward the coast. This land, a portion of the original 1838 holdings of Francisco Marquez, stretched across a mesa and became known as the "Riviera section".

Will Rogers William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahom ...

, who had bought much of this land as an investment, later donated it to the State of California creating Will Rogers State Historic Park. Circa 1931, Sunset was a paved road from Horn Avenue to Havenhurst Avenue.

Cultural aspects

The

portion of Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood has been famous for its active nightlife since at least the 1950s. In contrast to other American cities where it referred to a concentration of radio retailers, in Los Angeles, Radio Row was understood in the 1940s–1950s as the area around the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street in

, where the broadcasting facilities of all four major radio networks were located. In the 1970s, the area between Gardner Street and Western Avenue was a center for

street prostitution Street prostitution is a form of sex work in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, benches, ...

. Shortly after a much publicized incident in late June 1995, police raids drove out the majority of prostitutes on the Boulevard. Part of Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood is also sometimes called "Guitar Row" due to the large number of guitar stores and music industry-related businesses, including the recording studios Sunset Sound Studios and United Western Recorders. The portion of Sunset Boulevard that passes through Beverly Hills was once named Beverly Boulevard. The boulevard is commemorated in

Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Holly ...

's film '' Sunset Boulevard'' (1950), the

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musical ...

musical of the same name, and the 1950s television series '' 77 Sunset Strip''. Jan and Dean's 1960s hit song "

Dead Man's Curve Dead Man's Curve is an American nickname for a curve in a road that has claimed lives because of numerous crashes. Examples * A curve on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles memorialized in the hit song " Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean. The song ...

" refers to a section of the road near Bel Air estates just north of

's Drake Stadium where Jan Berry almost died in an automobile accident in 1966. The

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song " For What It's Worth", r ...

song " For What It's Worth" was written about a riot at Pandora's Box, a Sunset Strip club, in 1966.

Metro Local Los Angeles Metro Bus is the transit bus service in Los Angeles County, California operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . , there a ...

lines 2, 4 and 602 operate on Sunset Boulevard, with Line 2 running through most of Sunset Boulevard between Echo Park and UCLA, Line 4 between Sunset Junction and Downtown LA, and Line 602 from UCLA west. The Metro B Line operates a subway station at Vermont Avenue. At 4334 W. Sunset Boulevard lies the wall featured on the cover of the late singer-songwriter

Elliott Smith Steven Paul Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003), known professionally as Elliott Smith, was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of hi ...

's 2000 album ''Figure 8''. Since Smith's death in 2003, the wall has become a memorial for the artist; fans have left many personal messages there over the years.

Landmarks (past and present)

* Amoeba Records *

Beverly Hills Hotel The Beverly Hills Hotel, also called the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, is located on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California, Beverly Hills, California. One of the world's best-known hotels, it is closely associated with Cinema of the ...

* Blessed Sacrament Church * Book Soup *

Carney's Carney's is a hot dog and burger restaurant in a yellow Union Pacific rail car on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. It was brought to the site in 1978. A second Carney's, also in train cars, is located on Ventura Boulevard in Studio ...

* CBS Columbia Square * Chateau Marmont * Cinerama Dome * CNN * Comedy Store *

Crossroads of the World Crossroads of the World is an open-air mall on Sunset Boulevard and Las Palmas in Los Angeles. The mall features a central building designed to resemble an ocean liner surrounded by a small village of cottage-style bungalows. It was designed by ...

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film director, film and television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dire ...

headquarters * Dudley Do-Right Emporium * Earl Carroll Theatre *

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

* The Garden of Allah * Gazzarri's *

Gower Gulch Gower Gulch is a nickname for the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. History Since the days of silent film, the surrounding area had contained several movie studios, including the Christi ...

* Haldeman House * Hollywood Athletic Club *

Hollywood High School Hollywood High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. Histo ...

* Hollywood Palladium * Hotel Bel-Air * House of Blues *

Hyatt West Hollywood The Andaz West Hollywood is a 239-room Hyatt hotel located at 8401 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, California (at Kings Road). History The hotel was opened in 1963 by Gene Autry as Gene Autry's Hotel Continental. Leased to Hyatt Hotels Corpora ...

KCET KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE ...

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the s ...

* The London Fog * Los Angeles Film School * Marymount High School *

Metromedia Square Metromedia Square (later known as Fox Television Center from 1986 to 1996) was a radio and television studio facility located at 5746 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on the southeastern corner of Sunset and Van Ness Avenue ...

(the former Fox Television Center and

KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV ou ...

studios) *

Nickelodeon on Sunset The Earl Carroll Theatre was a historic stage facility located at 6230 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. It was built by showman Earl Carroll and designed in the Streamline Moderne style by architect Gordon Kaufmann in 1938. The theatre ...

Palisades Charter High School Palisades Charter High School (usually colloquially known as Pali or Pali High and abbreviated as PCHS) is an independent charter secondary school in Los Angeles, United States. The high school serves the neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades, ...

* Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Museum * Rainbow Bar and Grill * Rock Walk * The Roxy Theatre * Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine *Sherry’s Club (now 1 OAK nightclub) * Spago *

Standard Hotel Standard Hotels is a group of seven boutique hotels in New York City (Meatpacking District and East Village), Miami Beach, London, Maldives, Ibiza, and Hua Hin, Thailand. The hotels are operated by Standard International Management. The two ...

Sunset Junction Sunset Junction is an informal name for a portion of the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, California. It was home to the Sunset Junction Street Fair from 1980 through 2010. It is in the southwestern part of the district along Sunset Boulevard. ...

* Sunset Gower Studios * Tiffany Theatre * Tiki Ti * United Western Recorders *

* Viper Room * Whisky a Go Go * Will Rogers State Beach * Will Rogers State Historic Park

Notes

References

External links

* {{authority control Streets in Los Angeles Streets in Los Angeles County, California Landmarks in Los Angeles Streets in Beverly Hills, California Brentwood, Los Angeles Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles East Hollywood, Los Angeles Echo Park, Los Angeles Streets in Hollywood, Los Angeles Silver Lake, Los Angeles Streets in West Hollywood, California Westside (Los Angeles County) Film production districts Historical red-light districts in the United States Red-light districts in California Boulevards in the United States