Insurance in Beverly Hills, California

Beverly Hills is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, surrounded by the City of Los Angeles. It is home to the shopping district Rodeo Drive. In 1900, Burton E. Green (1868–1965), Charles A. Canfield (1848–1913), Max Whittier (1867–1928), Frank H. Buck (1887–1942), Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927), William G. Kerckhoff (1856–1929), William F. Herrin (1854–1927), W.S. Porter, and Frank H. Balch, formed the Amalgamated Oil Company, bought the Hammel and Denker ranch, and began looking for oil. They did not find enough to exploit commercially by the standards of the time, though. In 1906, therefore, they reorganized as the Rodeo Land and Water Company, renamed the property "Beverly Hills," subdivided it, and began selling lots. The development was named "Beverly Hills" after Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts and because of the hills in the area. The first house in the subdivision was built in 1907, although sales remained slow. Gaspar de Portolà arrived in the area that would become Beverly Hills on August 3, 1769, travelling along native trails which followed the present-day route of Wilshire Boulevard. The area was settled by Maria Rita de Valdez and her husband in 1828. They called their 4,500 acres (18 km2) of property the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. By the 1880s the ranch had been subdivided into parcels of 75 acres (0.30 km2) and was being rapidly bought up by anglos from Los Angeles and the East coast.