Includes: Tract Map Dana Point. S.H. Woodruff Community Developer. 69x87 cm. OCLC/WorldCat lists only 1 copy, at Yale. (Portion slightly darkened, a few small tears at folds.) 1929. * Three brochures for homes in Dana Point. * Letterhead of Dana Point Inn. * Three photographs of E.S. Woodruff, 2 of him in his car. * Photographs of the Hollywood Hills, with billboard advertising Hollywoodland and the unfinished iconic HOLLYWOOD sign on the hillside. * Brochure regarding assessment to residents of Beachwood Drive and Beachwood Terrace for storm sewer improvements, with map laid in. * List of foreclosed property for sale from the Guaranty Building & Loan Association, most in Hollywood. * Unused stock certificate in The Woodruff Co. * Two booklets from the California Lambs Club, of which Woodruff was a director. * By-laws and Membership Roster in the Hollywood Athletic Club, in which Woodruff was a member. * S.H. Woodruff's business card.
Interesting little archive relating to the enterprises of S.H. Woodruff. In mid-1926, Los Angeles realtor-builder S.H. (Sidney) Woodruff formed a group of investors as a means to finance the purchase, subdivision, and development of roughly 1,400 acres of coastal property at Dana Point, a town on the Pacific coast in Orange County, California. As the head of this group, known as the Dana Point Syndicate, Woodruff was instrumental in designing the Dana Point development and promoting its coastal amenities through a nationwide publicity campaign. The centerpiece of the development was to be the luxurious cliff-top Dana Point Inn, which was modeled on similar buildings located on the Italian and French Rivieras.
Although successful in its early stages, Woodruff's Dana Point development effort failed in 1930, due primarily to the effects of the 1929 stock market crash upon the finances of the investors. Despite setbacks, Woodruff still hoped that his project would come to fruition throughout the 1930s. His alternative financing methods failed, however, and in February 1939, Woodruff, as president of the Dana Point Corporation, received permission to sell off the syndicate's interests. In the end, thirty five houses and a number of commercial buildings were constructed by the Dana Point Syndicate, and the hotel itself never went beyond the foundation stage. Prior to his work with the Dana Point Syndicate, Woodruff was best known for his collaboration on the exclusive subdivision known as "Hollywoodland," which gained fame as a result of the large metal sign erected in the Hollywood Hills to publicize its location. (1924 - The "Hollywoodland" sign is constructed at a cost of $21,000 atop Mt. Lee. Thirteen 50-foot letters and four thousand 20 watt light bulbs pronouncing, in classic advertising phonics, "Holly"... "wood"... "land"... Hollywoodland." ) Little is known about Woodruff's life beyond his work in community real estate development. He was the son of a wealthy Michigan family, and by his own admission, had no thought of working until age nineteen, when his father lost the family fortune and went heavily into debt. He was trained as an architect in Buffalo and erected his first building in York, Maine. At some point, Woodruff moved to the West Coast and was involved in rebuilding portions of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, prior to his work in Southern California.