The Hotel Belmont was the first noteworthy building to stand atop Crown
Hill approximately 2 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. Eventually,
the hotel was abandoned. It was later transformed into a private
Belmont School for Girls. After the school was destroyed by fire, the
grounds were left vacant except for five oil wells and a pumping plant.
In 1921 on Crown Hill, once the site of Hotel Belmont and the Belmont
School for Girls, construction began for a new high school. Two years
later, Belmont High School opened its door to about 500 students and 24
teachers.
Those first students were nicknamed "Sentinels" because they were able
to oversee the entire city from their "lookout" on Crown Hill.
For almost 45 years, until 1967 when it was destroyed to make room for
an expanding student body, the Campanile, a Belmont brick tower, was a
symbol of Belmont's beauty and unity.
|
