Running tour · Los Angeles

Hollywood Boulevard

1.6 mi run

Open in Stride Stories

The stories on this route

1. Pantages Theatre

   Look at the front at 6233: zigzag metal frames round the ground-floor windows, Egyptian lotus patterns on the second story, sculpted goddesses on the roofline. Alexander Pantages built it, the last movie palace built in Hollywood. It opened in 1930. Through the 1950s, it hosted the Academy Awards.

2. Capitol Records Building

   Look up at the round tower. Thirteen stories, wide curved awnings over every floor, and a tall spike on top.

3. Hollywood Walk of Fame

   Look down. Five points of coral-pink terrazzo, rimmed with brass, inlaid in a charcoal square. There are more than 2,800 of these, along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street.

4. El Capitan Theatre

   Look at this facade, one of the most elaborate on the Boulevard. Between the column tops, find small figures of characters from literature and the stage. The El Capitan opened in 1926 as "Hollywood's First Home of Spoken Drama." Then business faltered, and it began showing movies.

5. Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

   Look up at the twelve-story hotel at Orange Drive, with its arched windows and wrought-iron balconies. This is the Hollywood Roosevelt. On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Awards were held here, in the Blossom Ballroom. Douglas Fairbanks hosted. Tickets cost five dollars, 270 people came, and it lasted fifteen minutes.

6. TCL Chinese Theatre

   Look up at the pagoda: ninety feet tall, on two red pillars, with a roof plated in bronze. Between the columns there's a carved stone dragon, thirty feet tall. Two Ming dynasty guardian lions flank the entrance.

Stories researched October 2026 · every fact checked against a source