Westside Property

Culver City was founded by Harry Culver in 1913 and the city was incorporated in 1917. The first film studio in Culver City was built by Thomas Ince in 1918. In the 1920s, silent film comedy producer Hal Roach and Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) would build studios in Culver City. During Prohibition, speakeasies and nightclubs such as the Cotton Club lin... ed Washington Boulevard near the studios; as with West Hollywood to the north, their presence was a major factor in the city's resistance of annexation by Los Angeles. In the 1960s, much of the MGM lot was sold off to build condominiums and gated townhouse communities. The decline of neighboring South Central Los Angeles brought gang and narcotics problems to Culver City in the 1970s, and for some time Culver City (especially the city's eastern end) was considered a relatively undesirable area. However, in the 1990s, it launched a successful revitalization program in which it renovated its downtown as well as several shopping centers in the Sepulveda Boulevard corridor near Fox Hills Mall. Around the same time, the relocation of Sony's motion picture operations to the former MGM studios at Washington Boulevard and Overland Avenue also brought much-needed jobs to the city. Although property crime is still an issue (as in most areas of Los Angeles), Culver City is now a diverse, prosperous middle-class community. Roman CatholicHoly Cross Cemetery and JewishHillside Memorial Park Cemetery contain the remains of many celebrities and local residents.Read More