Abington’s Hollywood neighborhood has a glittering name and a complicated past

There are no movie stars in Montgomery County’s very own Hollywood.

But nearly a century ago, the Abington Township neighborhood did attract sightseers, drawn by the promise of the name as well as the vista of stylish new homes in pastel colors along avenues with sunny names like Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and San Diego.

And the story of a community that owes its existence to a love-struck builder named Gustav Weber and his ill-starred California dream has enough romance, drama, bad luck, and unexpected redemption for a film adaptation or streaming series.

There’s a local cast of characters with stories to tell as well.

“All of us who live here have a deep passion for this neighborhood,” said Michele Medori-Henrysen. An occupational therapist, she bought her home in 2013 and later helped organize outdoor movies on the block during the pandemic.

“I love telling people I live in Hollywood … and then they say, ‘Oh, you mean that neighborhood across Huntingdon Pike from where the Penn Fruit [supermarket] used to be?’”

Sharon Davis, who has lived around the corner with her husband, Richard, for 40 years, said: “We were living in Frankford and looking for an affordable house, and we bought this one for $60,000. They were asking $59,000, but we went over the asking price because we fell in love with the house.”

Most of the 174 houses built were single-story, single-family detached dwellings of less than 1,000 square feet, with two or three bedrooms and a single bathroom.

Sale prices originally started at around $3,000; houses in Hollywood now sell for about $300,000.

“They all look like Hollywood houses,” said Peggy Devaney, who bought her house 37 years ago. “But they built the houses with materials they would use in Hollywood, California.”

Like the palm trees reported to have been planted on the streets, the flat, tiled roofs and uninsulated walls were problematic in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

As a result, Devaney and many other homeowners have made modifications, including pitched roofs, second stories, additional bathrooms, and siding. The original stucco of at least one Hollywood house has been swathed in formstone or another composite material that resembles stonework.

The neighborhood’s architectural style is often given as Spanish Revival or Mission Revival. However residents describe it, they love Hollywood’s convenient location, sizable backyards, curvaceous streets, and neighborliness.

Township Commissioner Drew Rothman, who represents a ward that includes Hollywood, said the neighborhood “is the furthest thing from cookie-cutter” and “adds to the character” of Abington.

“Hollywood looks and feels like a comfortable place to be,” he said. “The houses are similar, but still unique. It’s cool.”

“Everybody is very friendly, and I take care of them,” said Leona Backukas, 83. She owns Hollywood House Dog Grooming — one of the handful of businesses in the neighborhood. “I don’t charge for clipping their dog’s nails, as long as they promise to make a donation to their church or synagogue or some other charity.”

Residents also said they treasure living in a place where people live in close proximity and generally get along. It’s not uncommon for siblings, grown children, or cousins of owners to buy in Hollywood as well.

The Bucks County Moravian-tile fireplace surrounds in many of the homes also are a selling point. And the Hollywood Tavern — at the neighborhood’s unofficial gateway on Huntingdon Pike — has been a convenient local gathering place for decades.

Dense, walkable, and offering ready access to transit, Hollywood is akin to a traditional urban neighborhood, and houses there continue to attract interest, said Aaron Gray Sr., a Realtor with Century 21 Advantage Gold in Elkins Park.

“These houses appeal to buyers looking for a certain style of home,” he said. “They’re one floor, and less than 1,000 square feet, and the affordability also is a big thing.”

First-time buyers, seniors looking to downsize, and professionals or young families who want to live close to but not in Philadelphia are potential Hollywood residents as well.

“But there aren’t a lot of these houses available,” said Gray.

An analysis by Mike Carlin, vice president of operations at Tri-County Suburban REALTORS in Malvern, found 29 closings on Hollywood properties since Jan. 1, 2018. Prices ranged from $185,000 in 2018 to this year’s most recent at $427,000, with $300,000 and above predominating in the last two years.

» READ MORE: Hollywood (Pa.): Ready for its close-up?

Other than the Hollywood he began to build on a tract of Abington Township farmland in 1928, Gustav Weber seems to have left little behind.

An account on the Library Company of Philadelphia website said Weber “conceived of” the development following a visit to the West Coast.

Competing narratives about the origin story long ago emerged: Weber sought to build Hollywood because his reportedly “much younger” wife hailed from there and was homesick. Or he built it because he was from there, too. Or perhaps neither of them were from there, and he abandoned his Hollywood dream after his spouse ran away with his brother.

Whatever: The stock market crash of 1929 likely was a major factor.

“Weber … was quite a guy,” developer Sidney Robin — who finished Hollywood in the late 1940s — said in a June 24, 1982, interview with The Inquirer.

The original builder “took off” and left “thousands of dollars in debts” as well as half-finished homes, said Robin.