The Controversy Surrounding Beverly Gardens Park

Today many residents and visitors in Beverly Hills enjoy the green space that makes up along Santa Monica Boulevard. But the creation of this park, once known as “Strip Park,” was a divisive community issue when it was developed. 

In August 1927, an initial request was made by the Beverly Hills Residential Protection Association for what would become Strip Park, a long stretch of land between the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards—known as “The Point”—and El Rodeo School. A zoning war ensued between northern-area petitioners who were not in favor of the park and wanted to protect the city from uncontrolled development of its newer subdivisions.   

Record crowds attended the September 1927 zoning discussion regarding the park proposal. Threats were made, confidential promises by City Council members were revealed and charges of pre-meeting decisions were hurled. Some proponents wanted churches, private schools, clubs, libraries and other public buildings on the strip. The petitioners of such facilities agreed that rezoning for only one church would satisfy them, but that businesses should be barred from the strip. They wanted the land to be a zoned residential area. 

Title deeds for individual lots were first purchased from the Rodeo Land and Water Company with the understanding that the area was for residential development. Litigation was predicted if rezoning was enacted by the council. There were rumors that the park would be a possible front to allow for the establishment of businesses. 

On behalf of many at the 1927 zoning meeting, one resident stated that a system of parks would be too wonderful to simply hand over to those in favor of enterprise development. An opponent to the park exclaimed that apartment buildings and other residential structures should be placed atop the weeds growing in the lots between Crescent and Palm drives. The council postponed its zoning decision pending a further investigation. 

A petition for a bond issue to develop Strip Park was initiated nonetheless. It stated that the purpose of acquiring park property was for the benefit of all people in Beverly Hills. Within two hours, signatures in support of the park were collected from 10 percent of those who lived in the area of where the park was to be located. The bond issue altered the situation and a further hearing was postponed until a later date. In January 1928, the Strip Park referendum passed 547 to 527, the largest number of votes ever cast in a city election at that time. 

Aggressive campaigns were run with phone calls that reminded voters to go to the polls. The ballot count revealed that those living closest to Strip Park voted 2-1 in favor of the park while those farther away voted 2-1 against the proposal. Southern Beverly Hills was now a political force, too. 

A Beverly Hills Citizen columnist wrote that proponents of the $720,000 bond issue for Strip Park were gracious in their victory by stating “their personal regrets, even in time of great satisfaction, that the coming of victory to them bring of necessity defeat to those whose considerations of their own aims and requirements compelled them to be their opponents—for, after all, they are neighbors and many of them friends.”  

The continuing purchase of lots in Strip Park by the city were controversial, with the first lot bought for $9,000. Condemnation hearings were in full swing as properties that were valued as high as $31,000 were being offered at an average price of $12,000. By March 1929, 14 of the 36 lots in Strip Park were already acquired with much residential rancor. City Attorney H.C. Waltz said that no decision had been made regarding the development of lots that were not yet purchased. Even the city made an appeal to a court judgment awarding $18,000 for a parcel initially appraised at $10,000. Still, the four lots then under litigation did not stop the park’s planned development.   

Strip Park’s landscaping cost $800, far less than estimated. Four pagodas, color-lit fountains, six drinking fountains and benches were built. Two large fountains were erected on Wilshire Boulevard and Doheny Drive. All healthy palm and eucalyptus trees remained. No public restroom facilities were built, nor were any recreation playground features included because other parks being built at that time would offer a place for children to play—La Cienega and Roxbury parks. A major contention was resolved when the sidewalk along the park was replaced by a crushed granite walk 65 feet from the curb, extending the length of the park.   

The common belief that this walk was once a bridal path is not true. The Beverly Hills Citizen reported in September 1927 that the Los Angeles Riding Academy and the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce wanted to obtain a bridal path along Strip Park, but the Beverly Hills Residential Protective Association objected to that, as well as any effort to jettison the plans for the Doheny Drive fountain for the horse path. Why? The 2.5 mile stretch of park through 36 park units and intersecting 18 streets should be without a bridal path because (as quoted in the Beverly Hills Citizen):

• The equestrian strip, unable to be kept clean of pony filth, would draw horse flies and spread disease, laying the children liable to an epidemic of infantile paralysis.
• Pedestrians and children using parks would be endangered by runaway horses coming from behind trees, shrubs and hedges.
• Horses and riders would be killed, and automobiles wrecked at each cross-street intersection.
• Adjacent residents would be disturbed at the early morning and late evening by the passage of horses.
• The whole beauty of the planned park would be totally destroyed, as well as the Doheny Drive Island with its approved sunken garden and fountain. 

At one council meeting, a resident was loudly applauded when he objected to a library possibly being erected on any lots of the future park site. He suggested that residents should fight against any candidate for City Planner who favored locating the city library there. A library commissioner retorted that the current library was renting space elsewhere and that Beverly Hills should place the library on a lot in Strip Park—property owned by the city—in order to save on rent.   

The lot where the  was to be located was rezoned to accommodate for a church and school. Arguments continued against the church as the proposal for the structure would not protect further rezoning following the expiration of the Rodeo Land and Water Company’s deed restrictions.  

There was much contention between residents and city leaders when it came to the development of Strip Park, which was soon referred to as Santa Monica Park in a May 1931 Beverly Hills Citizen article. Today the green space is known as Beverly Gardens Park. It is treasured for its public art and famous “Beverly Hills” sign where many tourists can be seen having their photos taken.

Thank you for reading this history of Beverly Hills, Russ