Daeida Wilcox Beveridge
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Daeida Hartell Wilcox Beveridge (/daɪˈiː.də/;[1] 1861- August 7, 1914) co-founded and named the town of Hollywood, west of Los Angeles in 1887.
Biography
Born in Hicksville, Ohio, Daeida was the daughter of farmers Amelia and John Emerson Hartell, and attended private school in Hicksville and later public school in Canton, Ohio. She married prohibitionist Harvey Henderson Wilcox, and they moved to Kansas. In 1886 they moved to Southern California and purchased a 200 acres (0.81 km2) ranch of apricot and fig groves, outside of Los Angeles at the foot of the Hollywood Hills.
A few months after they acquired their new ranch, Daeida visited family and friends in her hometown of Hicksville. One legend tells that during the trip, she met a woman from the Chicago area, who lived on a country estate that she referred to as "Hollywood." Daeida liked the name, and upon returning to the Southern California ranch, named it "Hollywood".[2] A second legend tells of it named after the holly-like red Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) berries abundant in the wintertime Hollywood Hills. A third legend tells of Daeida learning the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon (now Lake Hollywood) and a prominent L.A. investor.
In 1887 at the age of 25, she and her husband began to lay out a new town on their ranch, with a subdivision map filed for "Hollywood, California" with the Los Angeles County Recorder's office. He subdivided the property into lots. Daeida landscaped them, planting the first cultivated flower beds and California pepper (Schinus molle) trees in Hollywood. She also created names for the new streets, such as Sunset Boulevard, to appeal to buyers.[2] Their ranch, purchased at $150 an acre, was sold for $1,000 a lot. The 1880s real-estate boom busted that same year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth.
She also had Hollywood's first sidewalk installed on Prospect Street in front of her home. That location, on now renamed Hollywood Boulevard, is the site of part of the present day Hollywood Walk of Fame sidewalks.
Harvey Wilcox died in 1891. In 1894, Daeida married Philo J. Beveridge, a businessman and prominent citizen of Hollywood and son of an Illinois governor, who shared her vision of community. The Beveridges had four children [2]
With her second husband, Daeida continued leading development efforts and was instrumental in establishing much of Hollywood's civic infrastructure, including the city hall, library, police station, primary school, tennis club, post office, city park, and one of the two original commercial districts. [2] She built the Hollywood National Bank and Citizen's Savings Bank, a post office, a theatrical playhouse, and the city's first sidewalks. For cultural enhancement, she also donated land for three churches, and her own residence's 3 prime lots on Cahuenga Boulevard and Prospect (Hollywood Boulevard) to the painter Paul de Longpré, for an estate including extensive flower gardens, and a Mission Revival style mansion with a public art gallery. It became one of the most popular tourist attractions.
She came to be called the "Mother of Hollywood." Daeida Wilcox Beveridge died on 7 August, 1914.[2]
The Los Angeles Times obituary stated that it was Daeida's dream of beauty that gave world fame to Hollywood, years before the first movie company arrived in 1913. Her associates had only kind words for her, "reliable, forcible, kindly, a woman of rare judgment, and a worthy opponent."[2]
Daeida Hartell Wilcox Beveridge was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1995.[3]
Namesakes
- Wilcox Avenue — a north/south street, 1 block west of Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood and Hancock Park, Los Angeles.
- Wilcox Post Office—Hollywood Station (United States Post Office, Hollywood, California).
- Wilcox Police Station—Hollywood Community Police Station.
- Daeida Magazine — Daeida.com: Daeida Magazine.com: Hollywood's People, Passions, and Its Past
