Don Maximo Alanes was awarded a land grant from the king of Spain in
1843 known as El Rancho San Jose de Buenos Aires, stretching east-west
from what is now Sawtelle Boulevard to Beverly Hills, and from Sunset to
Pico Boulevards. Preserved into the 20th century under state senator
John Wolfskill's ownership, the rancho was sold to Broadway Department
Store founder Arthur Letts for $100 an acre in 1920 for estates he
called Holmby Hills after his British birthplace. His son-in-law Harold
Janss developed Westwood Hills in the southern tracts. Letts, a former
trustee of the Los Angeles State Normal School, which became UCLA,
agreed in 1925 to deed 375 acres of the hilly ranch land north of
Wilshire Boulevard to the college. Janss developed a university
town-style commercial village of 26 Spanish Revival buildings, some with
towers and neon signs that remain icons of today's Westwood Village.