Lasky-DeMille Barn - History

History

The barn was built in about 1895 on the Hollywood, California citrus ranch of Robert Northam. It housed horses, carriages, hay, and other farm supplies. It was sold in 1904 to Jacob Stern.

The barn was at the southeast corner of Selma and Vine Streets. In March 1913, the Burns and Revier Studio and Laboratory was established in the barn. In December of that year, Cecil B. DeMille, in association with Jesse Lasky, leased the barn and studio facilities for $250.00 a month establishing the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company and began production of The Squaw Man (1914), the first feature film to be produced in the Hollywood area.

In 1926, the barn was moved to the back lot of United Studios, where present day Paramount was later built. It went through several uses as a film set, research library, conference area and later the Paramount gymnasium.

In a ceremony attended by its founders, the Lasky-DeMille Barn was dedicated on December 27, 1956, as "Hollywood's First Major Film Company Studio" and designated California State Historic Landmark No. 554, representing the birth of the Hollywood motion picture industry and becoming the first landmark associated with it.

In October 1979, the barn was moved off the Paramount lot to a vacant lot in Hollywood. It was then moved by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to the parking lot of The Hollywood Palace theater, where it was boarded up and fenced in until a permanent site could be found.

Hollywood Heritage Museum

The Lasky-DeMille Barn was acquired by Hollywood Heritage, Inc., in February 1983. It was then moved to its present site at the southern end of the parking lot of the Hollywood Bowl, where it was restored and made into the Hollywood Heritage Museum.