Cahuenga Boulevard () is a major boulevard in

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California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, US. It connects the

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to the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

, with a southern terminus at Rosewood Avenue in Hancock Park. It simultaneously transitions into Ventura Boulevard and intersects with

Lankershim Boulevard Lankershim Boulevard is a major north-south arterial road the runs for in the eastern San Fernando Valley in the Los Angeles, California. Geography Lankershim Boulevard's northern terminus is at San Fernando Road in Sun Valley, Los Angele ...

at the border of Studio City and Universal City. If one follows Lankershim Boulevard, they reconnect to Cahuenga Boulevard and it continues until its northern terminus with Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood. “Cahuenga” is a Spanish transliteration of the

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Channel Islands of California, Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . In the precolonial era, the peop ...

village of '' Kawe'ngna'', meaning "place of the mountain". The Spanish used the village name Cahuenga to name the 227m tall pass between two of the Santa Monica Mountains, now called Briar Summit and Burbank Peak. Cahuenga Boulevard is so named because it transverses Cahuenga Pass.

Route

The majority of the route is bifurcated by the Hollywood Freeway, US-101. Cahuenga Boulevard East travels from Odin Street, near The Ford to Barham Boulevard, where it transitions into W. C. Fields Drive as it approaches Universal City. To reach the rest of Cahuenga Boulevard, travelers must cross the freeway via Pilgrimage Bridge, the Mulholland Drive Viaduct, or the Barham Boulevard Overpass. The western route of Cahuenga Boulevard transitions into Highland Avenue outside of the Hollywood Bowl. Cahuenga Boulevard emerges again at an intersection where Lankershim Boulevard crosses the

Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River (), historically known as by the Tongva and the by the Spanish, is a major river in Los Angeles County, California. Its headwaters are in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and it flows nearly from Canoga Park ...

. This section of Cahuenga Boulevard is a north-south route that passes under the

Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California, United States, that runs from the Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara/Ventura county line to Pasadena in Los Angeles County. It is the principal east–west route (designate ...

and travels through the east side of the valley until terminating with Victory Boulevard at the southern entrance to Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery. Cahuenga Boulevard passes through many neighborhoods. South of Cahuenga Pass, the boulevard passes through Hollywood, Whitley Heights, the

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills is a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It borders Studio City, Universal City and Burbank on the north, Griffith Park on the north and east, Los Feliz on the southeast, Hollyw ...

, and the Hollywood Dell. It connects to Studio City and Universal City in the

. The section north of the Los Angeles River passes through the neighborhoods of Toluca Lake and North Hollywood.

Landmarks

The southern portion of Cahuenga Boulevard has been referred to as the "heart of old Hollywood". The intersection between Cahuenga and Hollywood Boulevards had been an important intersection from the early history of Los Angeles, and by 1915 it already had a trolley stop, a bank and a hardware store. Trolley cars were used on the boulevards until the 1960s when replaced with bus. Historically a number of important Los Angeles buildings were located on the road including the Technicolor building from the 1940s through the 1960s and the World Book and News building. The Owl Drug Company at 6380–84 Hollywood Boulevard on the south-west corner of Cahuenga Boulevard was a notable Californian company in the 1930s. At the intersection of Cahuenga Boulevard with Yucca Street, just off of Hollywood Boulevard was the Halifax Hotel, owned by world-famous classical pianist

Van Cliburn Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. (July 12, 1934February 27, 2013) was an American pianist. At the age of 23, Cliburn achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold ...

. The

Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent films during the 1920s, in which he performed physical comedy and inventive stunts. He frequently ...

studio, originally belonging to

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

, was located on Lillian Way, one block east of the boulevard. The boulevard appears in several of his films. 1542 Cahuenga Boulevard, which formerly adjoined the Toribuchi Grocery at 1546, appeared in the 1921 Keaton film '' The Goat'', which featured Keaton running from the police past them. It is now a strip mall. In another Keaton film, ''

Three Ages ''Three Ages'' is a 1923 Black and white, black-and-white American feature-length silent comedy film starring comedian Buster Keaton and Wallace Beery. The first feature Keaton wrote, directed, produced, and starred in (unlike ''The Saphead,'' ...

'' (1923), Keaton is seen running from the police past the

Los Angeles Police Department The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

Hollywood building and former fire station, now the location of Edmonds Tower at 1629. Today, numerous nightclubs, bars, and restaurants are dotted along the boulevard south of Franklin Avenue. Notable clubs on Cahuenga include The Room,

Hotel Café The Hotel Café is a live music venue located off an alley on the Cahuenga Boulevard strip in Hollywood, California, United States, that has become known for helping to establish the careers of new singer-songwriters in the 2000s. It began as a C ...

, Velvet Margarita, and many others. The Hotel Café, at 1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd, is owned by Marko Shafer and Maximillian Mamikunian and opened in 2000. The Baked Potato, one of the city's most prominent jazz clubs, is situated near the intersection with the Hollywood Freeway, and the Hollywood Theatre of Note is also on the boulevard. At 1355 North Cahuenga Boulevard is the Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial, a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

building which was built in the Neo-Renaissance style in 1930. The Iliad Bookshop is located on the northern portion of Cahuenga Boulevard.

References

External links

Builders Of The Broad Highway
Film showing Cahuenga Parkway c1940 construction (~4:22 onwards)
LAistory: Pilgrimage Bridge
Cahuenga Parkway completion details {{coord, 34, 6, 6, N, 118, 19, 46, W, type:landmark, display=title Streets in Los Angeles Streets in the San Fernando Valley Streets in Hollywood, Los Angeles North Hollywood, Los Angeles Studio City, Los Angeles San Fernando Valley