Burbank

Located a few miles northeast of Hollywood, Burbank has been called the Media Capital of the World. Companies with headquarters or key production facilities here include The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Nickelodeon and NBC. The city is also home to the Bob Hope Airport. Yet it has remained a close-knit community with a charming downtown district, large historic museum, and century-old Woodbury University.

Burbank has two distinct areas, downtown and civic center on the slopes and foothills of the Verdugo Mountains, and flatlands at the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley. The town was named in 1887 after Dr. David S. Burbank, a dentist who purchased extensive acreage from two Spanish land grants and began to raise sheep and grow wheat on the land. The town incorporated as a city in 1911. After periods as an agricultural and manufacturing community, the arrival of the entertainment industry in the ‘20s, followed by the establishment of the aircraft industry and a major airport in Burbank during the ‘30s, set the stage for growth. Lockheed built thousands of planes here through much of the 20th Century, and hundreds of major feature films and TV shows have filmed in Burbank, from Casablanca to Desperate Housewives. Today, the city is home to many employees of area studios who appreciate its small town feel just a ten-minute drive from Hollywood.

Neighborhoods include the Magnolia Park area, known for its shady streets and ‘50s storefronts, and the Rancho Equestrian District, prized for its numerous parks, connection to riding trails in Griffith Park, and adjacency to Warner Bros. and Disney Studios. Key shopping areas include the revitalized downtown Burbank; the San Fernando Strip, an urban village living/shopping mall; an upscale shopping district in the Empire Center neighborhood; and the Burbank Town Center near the downtown core.