Los Angeles was originally supposed to get a Sunset Boulevard in 1886, as promised by the planned town of “Sunset”. But that town never materialized and its nominal boulevard ultimately became the stretch of Wilshire that courses through Westwood. So in 1887, Hollywood founder H.H. Wilcox, hoping to lure Angelenos out west to his new suburb by tying it in with sunset views, began running ads stating, “Look out for Hollywood, at Cahuenga Pass, on Sunset Boulevard.” That was the Sunset Blvd. we know today. It started out small – just a few blocks – but it gradually spread its rays eastward, swallowing up streets with names like Bread, Short, Elysian, and Marchessault until stopping at what is now Chinatown in 1904. Sunset’s westward expansion was another story: WeHo’s Sunset Strip was known as Santa Monica Avenue during the town of Sherman‘s brief heyday; west of Benedict Canyon, the long and winding road to the coast was part of Beverly Blvd. all the way up until 1934. Sixty years after that, Sunset’s eastern terminus was renamed in memory of Cesar Chavez.
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