UCLA, bustling retail village give Westwood its staying power
The first recorded name of the area that would become Westwood was "ranch of the beautiful breezes."
After a short-lived incarnation as the town of Sunset, the land was sold in 1922 to the Janss brothers, the two men who would shape Westwood as we know it today.
They built the neighborhood from south to north, beginning with the construction of tracts in 1924.
But the game changer came a year later, on the north end of their holdings, when the Southern Branch of the University of California announced it was fleeing its crowded Vermont Avenue campus for a roomy, wooded lot owned by the Jansses.
The brothers happily sold to the UC regents for far below market cost; sales of subdivided lots shot up overnight, and Westwood was on its way.
While the campus of UCLA rose to the north, the Jansses made another far-sighted decision that would cement Westwood's status as a destination neighborhood: They created a Mediterranean-themed master-planned commercial development dubbed Westwood Village. — Scott Garner, Apr. 29
Read the full article at the Los Angeles Times website.