The hilly part of Beverly Glen was once called Brown Canyon, after homesteader Cornelius Brown. In 1910, four years after Beverly Hills was established by other developers, Bertram Chapman Mayo (1865-1920), a wily promoter originally from Boston, borrowed its name for his own subdivision: Beverly Glen. Mayo, then business manager of the Oakland Enquirer, was a born schmoozer who had forged a relationship with the Southern Pacific Railroad, which at the time was relinquishing its right of way through those hills after abandoning plans to lay tracks from the Valley to Santa Monica. Mayo purchased the surrounding land from a guy named Smith and hired “200 Hindu laborers” to clear the way for roads and residential lots. (Historians believe the workers were in fact Sikhs.) Along with selling regular lots at full price, Mayo offered the barely habitable lots for next-to-nothing – provided buyers signed up for a subscription to Sunset magazine, published by the Southern Pacific. This was Mayo’s signature sales scheme and he soon left Los Angeles to pursue similar ventures elsewhere. Beverly Glen Boulevard was christened in 1918 after property owners petitioned to rename both Orange Avenue and Brown Canyon Road.
Find it on the map:
