Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, USA, 1918 and 2018
Before there was a Beverly Hills, there was the Beverly Hills Hotel. In 1907, Burton Green created the Beverly Hills subdivision. Margaret Anderson set up the hotel as somewhere to stay as they scoped the subdivision for property. The Beverly Hills Hotel opened in 1912, while the city would not incorporate until 1914. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, two of the biggest celebrities at the time, constructed their home, “Pickfair,” near the hotel.
The Beverly Hills Hotel hosted waves of celebrities, from Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon, and royalty from around the world. The Sultan of Brunei bought the property in 1986. In 2014, he sent a wave of protest into the hotel after revising Brunei’s laws to include elements of Sharia law, a move protested by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Sultan has yet to give up ownership of the hotel.
