Any Southland street called “Beverly” owes a debt to Beverly Hills, the name Burton E. Green (1868-1965) anointed his new development with in 1906. But what was Green’s inspiration? Late in life, he was quoted as saying: “I happened to read a newspaper article which mentioned that President Taft was vacationing in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. It struck me that Beverly was a pretty name.” Nice story, but Taft wasn’t elected President until 1908 – two years after real estate agent Percy H. Clark began promoting Beverly Hills. Moreover, there’s no evidence that Taft ever vacationed in Beverly, MA before 1911. So who could Green have been reading about? Well, on July 29th, 1906, the Los Angeles Times reported that the famous oil heir John D. Rockefeller Jr. was summering in Beverly Farms. Five weeks later, on September 2nd, the Times quietly announced the establishment of Beverly Hills. (Beverly Drive was laid out around that time.) This means Green was inspired not by a president but by a millionaire, which tracks. P.S. I suspect it was Clark who actually came up with the name; he was remembered in his day as the real mastermind behind Beverly Hills. But Green outlived him by forty years and thus had plenty of time to take credit.
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