Meet My Neighborhood: Beachwood Canyon
By
Rona Edwards
Hollywood Sign from Lake Hollywood
There’s something comforting and familiar about sauntering up Beachwood Drive. Maybe it’s the neighborly feeling, the fact that people say hello as you pass them by or that you know the residents by their dogs’ names as they walk them up the magical, mystical street leading toward the Hollywood sign. However, Beachwood is more than the gateway to that landmark icon. There’s more than meets the eye here.
I live on Beachwood – the lower part, not the posh, tucked-in-the-canyon, manor home Beachwood. I’ve lived here for twenty years in a wonderful townhouse with entrances on both Gower Street and Beachwood Drive. Hollywoodland, as it came to be known, has housed some notable and some notorious celebrities, running the gamut from authors (Adous Huxley) to actors (Keanu Reeves) and rock stars
A variety of eclectic apartments on Beachwood Drive
(Madonna). Originally the neighborhood began as a real estate stunt, a housing development in the prime area of the Hollywood Hills. But it soon became a symbol worldwide of a town born from celluloid fairy tales. Tucked away in the recesses of the canyon lies a potpourri of homes from the heyday of Hollywood: from Normandy castles to vine-covered cottages to cubical 60’s hideaways on stilts. Mack Sennett was a co-owner of the Hollywoodland Development Company according to 2222Beachwood.com/believe.html, which lists all sorts of Beachwood statistics including the fact that Bugsy Siegel owned a speakeasy on Durand Drive from 1938-39. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., was born in a house (now an apartment building) at 2210 North Beachwood Drive and 2222 was once the home of Charlie Chapin (now a large apartment turned condominium). Sennett wanted to create a residential area for artists and Hollywoodland was born in 1923. Earlier, Albert Beach named Beachwood Drive in 1911, naming it after himself after he paved the drive into the hills.
Hollywoodland: Relax, Slow Down
Walking up this street, you can feel the presence of yesteryear and what life must have been like when your neighbors were Norma Talmadge or Pola Negri of the silent film era. At 2560 North Beachwood sits the very first silent movie theatre, currently the Hollywood Theosophical Center. Steeped in history, scandals, Hollywood legends, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, Beachwood retains the spirit of Hollywood and its origins. Lined with Palm trees and a wide drive that narrows as you reach the center of the canyon, Beachwood’s heart is in the old stone gates that were once the entrance to Hollywoodland. Here is where the Beachwood Market caters to the canyon residents and the iconic Beachwood Village Café dishes up breakfast and lunch in an atmosphere that has remained unchanged for the past twenty-five to thirty years.
What I love about the Beachwood Market is that they actually have real butchers who will cut you a piece of meat anyway you like it and make recommendations to you for your dinner party. Unheard of in today’s fast paced, homogenized climate. My mother used to love going to a butcher to buy her meats and it makes a difference, rather than buying the pre-packaged take it or leave it variety found at chain markets. She would come back with gorgeous cuts of tri tip and eye of the round, fat trimmed and packaged in white butcher paper. Now I can have the same experience and it’s in my neighborhood.
The wait staff at the Village Café is friendly and, if you’re a regular, the minute you walk in the door your beverage of choice is waiting. It’s regular home grown American food. Nothing fancy. The last time I was there, the waitress spoke to me as if I was a long lost friend and made sure my coffee cup was filled with piping hot Joe. Eating there is as relaxed as the canyon itself.
If you travel a little more north on Beachwood, you’ll find the Beachwood Stairs, 175 steps up to Hollyridge Drive located near a large Pine tree on the right-hand side. My neighbor used to walk up and down those steps five times to stay in shape; no small feat (no pun intended).
Continue on to the end of Beachwood and you’ll find the Sunset Ranch where you can rent a horse and ride the trails. I’ve always meant to do the sunset ride through Griffith Park but it’s like people who live in New York City who have never been to the Statue of Liberty. Since you know it’s always there, you keep thinking you’ll get to it eventually. Eventually never comes. Maybe this summer?
The castle
The lower part of Beachwood is lined with apartments and condominiums in a variety of decorative styles dating back to the 1920s. The illustrious past of Hollywood’s Golden age is marked by art deco columns of ornate Spanish and Mediterranean style 
buildings amidst the California craftsman homes and the squared off, angular apartment buildings (some turned condos) of the 50s and 60s and later. It’s a hodgepodge of every era since this development was launched. This is my Beachwood where I walk my dog, Bizou, a miniature poodle who loves the smells of the canyon and the King Charles Spaniel he bumps into now and then, and whom he adores. Beachwood is home to animal lovers, hikers, tourists, Hollywood types, young people just getting started, people with a dream. It’s a symbol of days gone by, a yesteryear where life was simpler and gas cheaper. Yet, once you walk Beachwood Drive, life becomes simpler, complexities and stress melt away, this is a neighborhood and everyone’s got your back.
This article was originally printed in the Los Feliz Ledger.
Rona Edwards is a movie and TV producer who has written for the Beachwood Voice, NeoWorld Review, Produced By magazine and is the co-author of the critically acclaimed book, “I Liked It, Didn’t Love It (Screenplay Development From the Inside Out).”
