Hollywood History Gone

By Mary Mallory

In a blink of an eye, Hollywood history can disappear. Just a few months ago, 10739 W. Kling Street stood proudly in North Hollywood, one of Hollywood’s oldest homes moved to its current location in 1929 as the area around Hollywood Blvd. became increasingly commercialized. Constructed in 1907 by the Sackett family, leading citizens of the small village of Hollywood, it witnessed the evolution of Hollywood from a farming community to a glamorous movieland city in 1928, and the growth of North Hollywood from rural suburb to upscale neighborhood over 93 years. In the rush to build a small apartment building near a transit corridor, vital Hollywood history was demolished.

The home at 10739 W. Kling served as the residence of early Hollywood pioneers the Sackett family for almost 50 years, helping to put the small burg on the map. It was constructed in 1907 by Horace David Sackett, a savvy entrepreneur who opened Hollywood’s first hotel. Born December 29, 1843, in Blandford, Massachusetts, the ambitious Sackett first moved to Connecticut and operated a successful mercantile and farming business for several years before looking to make a new start.

In 1887, the determined Sackett moved his wife Ellen and five children to Los Angeles, not long after founding father Harvey H. Wilcox opened his 160-acre sub-development called Hollywood to the general public. Sackett recognized a great opportunity in the new tract, purchasing his first property from Wilcox in September 1887 and eventually moving his family to the rural community in May 1888. Around Christmas 1888, Sackett bought three contiguous properties on the southwest corner of Prospect (now Hollywood Boulevard) and Cahuenga Avenues for $2,000 on which to construct a hotel, the village’s first.

Sackett Hotel - 1901

Looking to serve potential land buyers coming to the small burg on the dummy railroad which transported them from Los Angeles, Sackett opened the first hotel in the Cahuenga Valley, a three-story wood hotel with a mansard roof that also served as a mercantile. Sackett’s store faced Cahuenga, while his hotel’s lobby and parlor fronted Prospect. The eighteen-room second floor featured one community bathroom. Out back, a barn and corral contained service animals. Pepper trees planted by Wilcox surrounded the property, offering shade to produce he grew to sell in the store. Around 1900, young Dr. Edwin O. Palmer rented space in the hotel for a doctor’s office.

In 1897, Sackett turned a small corner into Hollywood’s first post office. Young daughter Mary served as assistant to Lineaus Matthews, Hollywood’s first postmaster, then working for his successor Philo Beveridge, and finally, Harvey Friend, who replaced Beveridge in 1905. She would remain a postal worker for the remainder of her career.

Sackett replaced the small cabin his family lived in with a gracious two-story bungalow he constructed in 1907 at 114 S. Wilcox Ave, just around the corner from their hotel and mercantile. The six-bedroom, wood-shingled home offered a peaceful respite from the increasingly busy intersection and street, with Prospect renamed Hollywood Boulevard in 1910.

When the Hollywood Hotel opened a few blocks away at Prospect and Highland Avenue in 1902, Sackett’s business dropped precipitously, forcing him to eventually shutter the business in 1905 and sell to Henry Gillig. Gillig allowed it to remain virtually unoccupied for five years until his death in 1910, when investor J. P. Creque purchased the property for $28,000, demolishing the hotel and erecting a $30,000 two-story brick structure soon leased by the Hollywood National Bank.

The Sacketts in front of the hotel.

After Horace retired, the Sacketts continued living at the home as Hollywood grew increasingly commercial around them. In 1912, the home gained the new address 1642 N. Wilcox, as street names were changed and addresses updated after Hollywood was annexed by the City of Los Angeles. Horace remained an investor and businessman until his death in 1918, just as Hollywood itself exploded with film production companies, evolving from a plain farming community into a cosmopolitan, upscale city. HIgh-end shops, banks, and swanky hotels replaced small mom-and-pop stores along Hollywood Boulevard, just like with the Sackett Hotel. By 1928, the Sackett family decided to escape busy Hollywood for a more peaceful location.      

Pulling a permit from the City of Los Angeles on January 2, 1929, the Sacketts picked up their residence and moved it to 10739 W. Kling Str. in North Hollywood, approximately ten miles away. Daughter Mary revealed the arduous process of moving the home to the San Fernando Valley Times in its November 8, 1945 issue.

“(The movers) took the roof off to get the house under trees…and started it rolling. It took them a day to get as far as Dark Canyon (now Barham Boulevard) - then a night to move along Kling street. The house looked like a wreck. I was afraid they could never get it upright again - but they didn’t even break a dish in the kitchen closet…It’s a two-story house with an attic and basement. There are eight bedrooms, two sleeping porches, a sunroom, a kitchen porch, and a dining room porch.”

Just six months after the house was moved, Horace’s widow Ellen passed away in the home. Over the next several decades, however, Mary Sackett and her brother Warren and his wife continued to reside in the vintage family home through the 1950s, even taking in renters. By the late 1950s, the home passed into other hands, going through several owners over the next several decades. The grand dowager stood proudly by as apartments were constructed around it.

Home at 10739 W.Kling St before it was demolished.

As of the start of the pandemic, 10739 W. Kling St. watched over the corner of Denny Avenue. In April and June last year, however, the new owner had already received permission to construct an apartment building and began pulling permits to demolish it and begin work on the new structure. Walking in the area Sunday, I discovered the house completely gone, replaced by a giant pit for the underground parking structure. What once told a marvelous story of resilience and rebirth as a witness to changing history, stands no more. Sadly, this is the future outcome of many historic buildings around the city, as new construction under Transit Oriented Corridor plans gives little to no protection to historic structures. A historic icon is now gone, its story ended.