The Fox Apartments stand as a rare remaining example of the 1920s-style mixed use commercial buildings that once lined streetcar routes. Architect Kirby T. Snyder designed the building, and builders completed it in 1925 along the Pacific Electric Railway on Santa Monica Boulevard. Its construction coincided with the University of California announcing plans for its new Southern Branch in Westwood, an event that spurred a wave of growth in the area in anticipation of UCLA’s arrival.

The building’s architectural character reflects a commercial vernacular style and a strong pedestrian focus. Designed before the car dictated daily life, the structure orients everything toward people walking along the street. The two-story layout places shops on the ground floor with apartments above, and the storefronts sit directly at the sidewalk’s edge. Each shop offers its own entrance framed by large display windows, creating street-level activity that shaped neighborhood commercial corridors in the 1920s.

The Fox Apartments are named after the property that it once overlooked. In 1924, William Fox purchased the initial 99 acres for the creation of the Fox Studios lot, stretching from Santa Monica Boulevard to Pico Boulevard, bringing a major industry to the neighborhood and spurring a wave of development. The lot would grow to nearly 300 acres over the next two decades. Years later, the northern portion of Fox lot was redeveloped as the quintessentially modern Century City, which has become a neighborhood in its own right.

The building at 10251-10257 Santa Monica Boulevard was documented in SurveyLA (with the address of 1749 South Ensley Avenue and the name “Fox Apartments”). It was determined to be significant under Criteria A/1/1 and C/3/3, in the context “Commercial Development, 1850-1980” and theme “Streetcar Commercial Development, 1873-1934,” as a “Rare example of early commercial development located along a former streetcar line in Westwood; few examples of this type from this period remain.”

In 2025, the Los Angeles Conservancy commissioned Historic Resources Group to prepare a Historic-Cultural Monument nomination for the Fox Apartments. The Conservancy fully supports this nomination and advocates for the preservation of the property as a significant mixed use residential and commercial resource.