Cahuenga Peak
Cahuenga Peak is the 12th-highest named peak in the Santa Monica Mountains and is located just west of the Hollywood Sign. Cahuenga Peak is the highest peak in Griffith Park. It provides a spectacular 360-degree panorama of the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley.
History
Howard Hughes acquired the peak and surrounding acreage in the 1940s with plans to build a house for Ginger Rogers. However, Rogers ended their engagement and so the area was left undeveloped.Conservation
In 2002, a group of Chicago-area investors purchased the parcel along the ridge including Cahuenga Peak from the Hughes Estate for $1.675 million. The investors considered constructing five luxury estates on the property.Los Angeles city officials received hundreds of letters pleading for the peak's protection, which prompted a campaign by city leaders and conservationists to raise $6 million, an amount they thought sufficient to buy Cahuenga Peak and turn it into an extension of neighboring Griffith Park.
On February 13, 2008, the Chicago investors released plans to sell the property for $22 million.
That same month, The Trust for Public Land launched a campaign to purchase the land for $12.5 million. As part of the campaign, the organization draped the Hollywood Sign so that it read "SAVE THE PEAK", and the campaign was announced as successful within three months. Though funds came from many sources, including $1.7 million in public money, it was final-hour donations of $500,000 from The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and Aileen Getty and $900,000 from Hugh Hefner that enabled the purchase.
In July 2010, more than around Cahuenga Peak was officially added to Griffith Park.