Harvey Henderson Wilcox
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Harvey Henderson Wilcox (1832 - March 19, 1891) owned a ranch to the west of the city of Los Angeles, which his wife Daeida named Hollywood, and where the center of the American cinema industry developed in the early 1900s.
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[edit] Biography
Wilcox was born in New York State, the son of Aaron and Azubah Wilcox, and grew up in Lenawee County, Michigan. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker in the late 1840s. During the 1860s he moved from Bryan, Ohio to Topeka, Kansas where he and his wife, Ellen Young, sold real estate, operated a boarding house. He was one of several purchasers of land where the Village of Rossville, Kansas was established. He later served on the Topeka City Council as president of the council in 1870 and as clerk in 1877-1879.
In 1883, Wilcox came to Los Angeles, California. He had made his fortune in the real estate business despite having completely lost the use of his legs due to infantile paralysis. Wilcox purchased three tracts of land in Los Angeles and subdivided them. Much of the University District was built up through his efforts. Mrs. Wilcox was his constant adviser. Their only child, Harry H. Wilcox, died at age of 19 months and to solace themselves the Wilcoxes took long drives on Sunday afternoons. One of their favorite trips was out through the beautiful Cahuenga Valley. A certain fig and apricot orchard, centering at Prospect and Cahuenga Avenue was especially admired by them and they purchased it.
Wilcox died in 1891 and was buried on a lot in Rosedale Cemetery (now Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery) where his mother had been buried three years earlier. His sister, Sarah, and her husband, Elisha Luke, who was also involved in Los Angeles real estate, would be buried there later. On November 13, 1922, his remains were moved to a mausoleum in what is now Hollywood Forever Memorial Park near the town he had founded.
[edit] Hollywoodland
The city of Hollywood was incorporated in 1903. In 1910, the city of Hollywood was incorporated into the city of Los Angeles because the former was in need of a water supply. Hollywood became a suburb of Los Angeles at that time.
Though it is commonly thought that Wilcox named the subdivision "Hollywoodland", it wasn't until 1923 that real estate developers Woodruff and Shoults decide to build a housing development in Beachwood Canyon above Hollywood. They call their development "Hollywoodland" and advertised it as a "superb environment without excessive cost on the Hollywood side of the hills."
In 1924, they contracted the Crescent Sign Company to erect a huge sign on the hillside reading Hollywoodland. The sign company owner Thomas Fisk Goff (1890-1984) designed the sign in letters 50 feet high and illuminated by 4,000 bulbs. The light bulbs lasted only until they burned out or were stolen a year or two later and were never replaced.
In 1949 the sign was refurbished and the end of the word Land was omitted.
In 1978, the sign was fully rebuilt with sheet metal and steel beams and have been repainted and repaired regularly to this day.
The Hollywood sign is a landmark that is known around the world.
[edit] Death
Wilcox died in Hollywood, and was buried alongside his mother, Azubah (Mark) Wilcox, in Rosedale Cemetery. On November 13, 1922 his remains were moved to Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, today named Hollywood Forever Memorial Park.
