East Hollywood is a densely populated neighborhood with approximately 78,000 residents that is part of the Hollywood area of the central region of Los Angeles, California. Among sites in East Hollywood are Los Angeles City College, Barnsdall Art Park, seven public and five private schools; a Los Angeles Public Library branch, and three hospitals. Almost two-thirds of the people living there were born outside the United States and 90% are renters. According to the 2000 census, the neighborhood has high percentages of people who had never married and single parents.
History
Spanish period
Sometime around his retirement in 1800, the Spanish government rewarded José Vicente Féliz, Comisionado of Los Ángeles, with the Rancho Los Feliz land grant. After Féliz's death in 1816, his family maintained control over the ranch.
Mexican period
In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence gave the Mexican Empire (which included California) independence from Spain. In 1822, the California's first legislature was formed, known as the Diputación de Alta California. The California mission system was secularized by 1834 and became the property of the Mexican government.
American period
Cession to America
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the California Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Los Feliz was filed in 1852.
In 1863, the executor of Antonio Féliz's estate, Antonio F. Coronel, sold the land to San Francisco real estate developer James Lick.
In 1882, Griffith J. Griffith acquired 4,071 acres (16.5 km2) of Rancho Los Feliz. While much of this land eventually became Los Feliz and Griffith Park, the southwest portion of the rancho was developed as the Lick Tract in what later became known as East Hollywood.
Around 1890, Joseph H. Spires purchased 36-acre tract encompassing a round, flattened hill and created an olive orchard which came to be known as Olive Hill.
Annexation and growth
In 1910, the towns of Hollywood and East Hollywood approved annexation by the City of Los Angeles. The 1910s saw the rapid development of East Hollywood, with the additions of Pacific Electric streetcars (1911), the California State Normal School (1914), Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (1914), and the Cahuenga Branch Library (1916). In 1919, the California State Normal School campus became the Southern Branch of the University of California, which added its general undergraduate program, the College of Letters and Science.
In 1924, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center opened.
In 1926, oil heiress Aline Barnsdall donated Barnsdall Art Park and the Hollyhock House — located on Olive Hill — to the city for use as a public library.
