So this is Hollywood!
When I moved here in '91, the bus lines still broadly followed original streetcar lines, with the same numbers and names for original routes. STA finally got rid of the old scheme in 2006. Before the change, the bus that came to this neighborhood was called #1 Hollywood. The same route also passed through West Central.

I thus ass-u-me-d that Hollywood referred to the area near Natatorium Park, which contained short streets named Hollis and Sherwood. Seemed logical. Those streets started exactly at the original western terminus of the streetcar line.

Nope. All wrong. A chance reference in a newspaper column today led me to search more thoroughly. The search isn't easy because "Spokane Hollywood" leads to nothing but Bing Crosby. Nevertheless, hidden in the PDF weeds were a couple of appropriate historical refs.

Turns out Hollywood was right here, centered on this block. The northern terminus of the streetcar line was here, and streetcar line #1 was named after this area. You'd never know it from any visible or official signs or maps. "Hollywood" appeared only on the buses, and disappeared in 2006. Nothing around here (with the possible exception of Alameda St?) has a Hollywood-related name. The subdivision was Boulevard Park, not Hollywood.



Strange to think that I've lived in a place for 24 years without knowing the proper name of the place!

= = = = =

Later again, after finding a more precise old map: The streetcar line used the name for this spot, but the Hollywood Addition was just south of the Boulevard Park Addition. The Hollywood Addition was, and still is, a 4 block x 4 block rectangle, from Wellesley south to Longfellow and from 'E' Street west to Rustle. So finally we have the official source of the name! (Incidentally, Rustle appears as Rustic on some of those old maps. I don't know which one was the typo.)

Labels: Danbo, Heimatkunde

  ¶ 12:16 PM