There is a part of Hollywood where the street simply gives up.

The cars stop below.

The garages line the hillside.

And if you live above them, you either start climbing—or use an elevator hidden inside what looks like an old Italian bell tower.

Yes. Hollywood has a secret hillside elevator.

At 2178 High Tower Drive, just above the Hollywood Bowl, the High Tower rises through a pocket of Hollywood Heights where homes are reached by stairways and narrow pedestrian paths instead of ordinary residential streets.

You may have driven past this neighborhood dozens of times without realizing what's above you.

Where Is the Secret Elevator in Hollywood?

Hollywood's unusual hillside elevator is located at 2178 High Tower Drive in the Hollywood Heights neighborhood, above the Hollywood Bowl.

The elevator is concealed within a five-story tower designed to resemble an Italian campanile, or bell tower. It connects the street-level garages with hillside residences reached by pedestrian walkways and stairs.

Known as the High Tower elevator, it was created to solve a practical problem: how to reach homes built on terrain too steep for ordinary residential streets.

The tower is part of a private residential setting, not a public attraction.

When the Hill Was Too Steep for Cars

The story begins in the early 1920s, when developers were carving residential tracts into Hollywood's steep terrain.

When Was the High Tower Elevator Built?

The High Tower elevator was built in the 1920s as part of the development of Hollywood's steep hillside neighborhoods.

Developer Fred S. Gallagher introduced the elevator as a practical way for residents to reach homes above High Tower Drive without relying entirely on long stairway climbs.

The tower was designed in the style of an Italian bell tower, making an everyday transportation solution look like an architectural landmark.

Its design reflects an unusual chapter of Los Angeles development, when some hillside neighborhoods were connected by pedestrian paths rather than conventional streets and driveways. Los Angeles planning records describe roughly 40 parcels in the High Tower neighborhood reached by walk streets rather than vehicle traffic.

But don't plan on pressing the button yourself.

The elevator is private and requires a resident's key.

A Neighborhood Without Driveways

That restriction is part of what makes the place so intriguing.

Is the High Tower Elevator Open to the Public?

No. The High Tower elevator is private and is intended for authorized residents, who require a key to use it.

Although its bell-tower appearance makes it an intriguing Hollywood landmark, visitors should not treat the elevator or surrounding residential property as a public sightseeing attraction.

The neighborhood contains private homes, garages, gates and access routes. Respecting those boundaries is essential.

You can appreciate the area's unusual hillside architecture from legally accessible public streets and walkways without attempting to enter the tower.

Most of Los Angeles was designed around the automobile. Up here, the experience flips. Walkways, bridges and staircases connect hillside homes through gardens and greenery. The farther you climb, the more the traffic below seems to belong to another city.

Architect Carl Kay later designed the Streamline Moderne residences clustered around the tower, giving the enclave its memorable combination of white curves, horizontal lines and an old-world tower rising between them.

It's Hollywood architecture doing what Hollywood does best:

mixing styles that shouldn't quite work—and somehow making the whole thing unforgettable.

The setting has also attracted cameras. High Tower Court appears in Robert Altman's 1973 film The Long Goodbye, where Elliott Gould's Philip Marlowe lives among these hillside paths.

Of course it does.

If you were designing a home for a Hollywood detective who needed to feel slightly removed from ordinary Los Angeles, you might invent a place like this.

Hollywood already did.

Imagine bringing home groceries here. In most of Los Angeles, you pull into the driveway. At High Tower, the hill gets a vote.

It also changes how a visitor sees the architecture. From the road, the tower can look like a decorative landmark. Follow the public paths where access is permitted, though, and its purpose becomes clearer: this isn't just an ornament on a hill. It's a practical answer to a difficult piece of geography.

That's the detail worth remembering. Hollywood's hills aren't merely scenery behind the famous streets. They have influenced the way entire pockets of the neighborhood were built, connected and lived in.

The Best Part Is the Climb

You don't need an elevator key to understand what makes the neighborhood special. Public stairways and walk streets around Hollywood Heights provide glimpses of the tower and the hillside landscape, although visitors should be careful to respect private homes, gates and resident-only areas.

Can You Visit High Tower Court in Hollywood?

You can explore legally accessible public streets and walkways in the surrounding Hollywood Heights area, but High Tower Court is a residential neighborhood rather than a public tourist attraction.

The area is known for steep pedestrian routes, hillside homes and distinctive architecture. Some public vantage points may offer views of the tower and its surroundings.

Visitors should obey posted signs, avoid gates and private paths, and never enter resident-only areas or attempt to use the elevator.

For a starting point, Discover Los Angeles has published a guide to High Tower and nearby Alta Loma Terrace. Check current access conditions before visiting, since public and private routes can be easy to confuse.

The High Tower and Alta Loma Terrace listing from Discover Los Angeles is a useful starting point if you're curious about the area.

And maybe walking is the better introduction anyway.

Because the strange charm of High Tower isn't really about avoiding the stairs.

It's about discovering that they're there.

A few blocks from Hollywood Boulevard, beside one of Los Angeles' most famous concert venues, there is still a neighborhood where the roads become footpaths, houses cling to the slope and an elevator hides inside a bell tower.

That's the Hollywood I want us to keep noticing.

If you like discovering the places hiding just beyond the streets you've driven a hundred times, subscribe to Hollywood Local Pulse. I'll keep looking up the stairways.