The sheet
This sheet draws Washington Boulevard and National Boulevard and the corner parcel at 8822 Washington Boulevard in Culver City. It is marked Sheet 1. No buildings are plotted.
The Culver City Historical Society places the lot at that corner and does not name a side of the crossing. The drawing is a sketch of the named streets, not a surveyed plan. The list names the sheets whose positions the sources do not fix on this sheet.
The lot
Marc Wanamaker, writing on 1 April 2006 for the Culver City Historical Society, calls the Hal Roach Studios one of Culver City’s lost landmarks, originally at 8822 West Washington Boulevard, at the corner of Washington and National Boulevards. In 1980 the site was marked with a historical plaque as one of the city’s most famous and important studios.
He writes that the Hal Roach Company was formed in 1914 and leased several studio sites in the Los Angeles area before settling in Culver City. The original company name was Rolin, from Hal Roach and the financial backer Dan Linthicum. In 1920 Roach formed a new company called Hal Roach Studios.
For April 1920 he names the administration building on Washington Boulevard, one large open stage, an enclosed stage, a set storage building, a laboratory, and department bungalows, plus a back lot with sets that were used again. By May 1920 a water tank he calls a pool, and some other departmental buildings, were there.
Wanamaker writes that the studio was closed in April 1959 because of bankruptcy. Hal Roach Sr. tried to get it going again, but by December 1962 it was permanently closed. In August 1963 the studio was demolished after several auctions and sales of the company’s assets.
Two sentences from the English Wikipedia article “Hal Roach Studios,” CC BY-SA: Hal Roach Studios. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Known as The Laugh Factory to the World, it was founded by producer Hal Roach and business partners Dan Linthicum and I.H. Nance as the Rolin Film Company on July 23, 1914.
The studio lot, at 8822 Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California, United States, was built in 1920, at which time Rolin was renamed to Hal E. Roach Studios.
