Whitley Heights

Hobart J. Whitley was a lesser famed booster of the San Fernando Valley, but he probably most responsible for its success and growth. He was engaged in the sales of the subdivided lots in the Valley as the original manager of Suburban Homes Company, of which he was one of the leading members with four others: General Harrison Gray Otis, Otto F. Brant, General Moses Hazeltine Sherman, and Harry Chandler.

His name, though, is rarely found in the Valley or its history, unlike his contemporaries: Mr. Whitsett or Mr. Lankershim or Mr. Van Nuys (each a major early Valley developer).

What Whitley is most known for is the development of the Hollywood Hills, specifically Whitley Heights. In the late 1880s, it was Senator Wilcox who founded, subdivided, and named the community turned city turned community called Hollywood. But Whitley got his name on a section of that community. And in turn for subdividing most of the southern portion of the Valley, the very freeway that traverses his subdivisions now literally cuts through his Hollywood gem.

Though it's a City-designated historic district, Whitley Heights is appropriately sliced in two by the Hollywood freeway, the southern offshoot of the Ventura Freeway.

The original palm trees of Whitley Heights were recently trimmed. Now the question is: will the original concrete streets ever be repaired and not paved over with asphalt?