Sherwood Drive

A portmanteau of “Sherman” and “Hollywood”. This street appeared in 1922 on Martin T. Hildinger’s West Hollywood tract, its name symbolizing the neighborhood’s transition from the railroad town of Sherman into the more cosmopolitan West Hollywood. The tract also introduced Huntley Drive and Roxbury Drive, which was soon changed to Rugby Drive. (Hildinger even named a portion of present-day La Cienega “Hilger Drive”, but it didn’t stick.) Martin Thomas Hildinger (1863-1932) was born in Ohio. He ran several mercantile stores across Kansas between 1886 and 1916, when he relocated to Los Angeles and got into real estate. From 1923 until 1929, Hildinger was sales manager for the Hollywoodland development, which gave us the Hollywood sign.