Brentwood Home Tours

The area that is now Brentwood was part of the Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, a Spanish land-grant ranch sold off in pieces to Anglos after Mexico’s defeat in the Mexican-American War. The area now popularly known as Brentwood was recorded in city ledgers as Westgate when it was annexed on June 14, 1916. Westgate was the city’s 17th annexation, and added another 49 square miles (127 square kilometers) to the territory of Los Angeles, including large parts of what is now the Pacific Palisades and a small portion of today’s Bel-Air. (Note: There is a Westgate Ave. in West L.A./Brentwood that remembers the original name of the district.)

Originally an agricultural district (soybeans, avocados, et al.), Brentwood is now one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and one of the prominent districts of the Westside. It has prosperous commercial districts along each of its major east-west thoroughfares (Wilshire, San Vicente and Sunset). It is largely populated by professionals and executives.

Local traditions include the Maypole erected each year on the lawn of the Archer School for Girls, carrying on the tradition set by the Eastern Star Home that it replaced, and the annual decoration of the coral trees with holiday lights. Inspired by the adjacent Los Angeles National Cemetery and the community of veterans resident at the nearby Veterans Admininistration center, Brentwood once regularly hosted a Memorial Day parade, complete with a flotilla of classic cars and an elephant named Tiny; the tradition is now only sporadically practiced due to funding problems.