The Mountain View inn was a three-story wood-framed Shingle style hotel located on Hollywood Boulevard for 25 years. It was built on land acquired from John B. and Ida Brokaw, whose ranch home was across the street, on what was called the Brokaw Tract No. 2.
Investor Leon P. Bishop of Utica New York owned the land and had the 25-room hotel built in 1906.
Hollywood Boulevard was then known as Prospect Avenue. Brokaw Place was an alley just west of the Mountain View Inn that connected Hollywood Boulevard and Carlton Way. LA Times 9/5/1906
Originally addressed as 620 E. Prospect Avenue, the hotel was leased to Benjamin Fowler and his wife Louise, formerly of Redlands. It opened in 1907.
LA Times 5/31/1907.
The Mountain View Inn. California State Library image.
Rates started at $10 a week in 1908. It had steam heat, a telephone and croquet grounds. LA Times 2/2/1908
Benjamin Fowler died in October 1911 at age 69. His wife, Louise Ely Fowler continued to run the hotel with the assistance of the couple’s married daughter, Mabel Foster, through April 1925.
A fire in March 1912 destroyed the second and third floors; no one was injured. The Mountain View Inn was quickly rebuilt and reopened for business in May 1912.
Fire. LA Express 3/14/1912.
“Recently opened” here meant re-opened after the fire. Hollywood Citizen 5/24/1912
The Mountain View Inn parcel in 1913. Detail from a Sanborn Fire Insurance map. Library of Congress.
LA Times 2/21/1915
Some of the earliest residents were actors from David Horsley’s Nestor Studios, established in 1911 at Sunset and Gower; it would also be convenient to the old Warner studio at Sunset and Bronson.
Hollywood Citizen 6/11/1920
Hollywood Citizen 4/29/1921
Hollywood Daily Citizen 11/22/1921
The Mountain View Inn can be seen c. 1937 across the street from the Palms Grill at 5831 Hollywood Boulevard. LAPL photo.
The Mountain View Inn remained a residence up until the end. Veteran actress Augustine B. Mudge was still living here at the time of her death, in April 1952, at age 79.
The building was demolished on July 10, 1952. The adjacent Gordon Warren Chevrolet dealership at 5950 used the space to expand their car lot.
Hollywood Citizen News 7/10/1952
Hollywood Citizen News 7/10/1952
J. H. Graham 
The 1912 newspaper fire image matches the look of the structure in the b/w photo, with the colorized postcard showing what must be the re-built look. The view from the Palms Gardens also captures a block structure that seems to fit for the Chevy dealership to the westside. And the final 1952 image appears to be focused on the wrong spot (right of the market/auto dealer structure) for pointing out the Inn location. I didn’t think the Citizen News would have made such mistakes but it might be kind of difficult to get them to correct it now, or even find anyone who worked for the paper back then…I only delivered them on my bike.
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Ignore this…I corrected it in the next post. So now I’m curious as to what that block structure to the west was in 1937 since the Chevy guys were still east of the inn back then.
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I haven’t gotten that far yet but Ford was west of the Mountain View Inn later.
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