Page "Hollywood Hotel" Paragraph 2

The first section of the hotel was built by a developer eager to sell residential lots among the lemon ranches then lining the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains and opened in December of that year.

Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the small stucco structure fronted on a dusty, unpaved road with pepper trees that would eventually become Hollywood Boulevard.

Whitley was instrumental in the completion of the boulevard.

Within less than three years he would be compelled to build an additional wing onto this elegant hotel.

The first forty-room wing of the hotel was just completed when Whitley was determined it was time to expand.

He began construction of an additional 104 rooms and the work would continue for the next three years.

He enlarged it to cover the entire block, installing a wide lobby, a chapel, a music room, the famous ballroom and 125 guest rooms.

Whitley surrounded the hotel with wide lawns and carefully cultivated gardens, stretching over.

He operated the establishment as a resort hotel while the tiny community of Hollywood struggled to live.