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East Gate Bel Air

East Gate Bel Air or Old Bel Air, is a very small and very wealthy (and the most prestigious) area within Bel Air homes. It is made up of old world estates developed mostly before World War II. These Bel Air estates are large, heavily-gated compounds where tall hedges allowing only an occasional glimpse of the homes, creating an air of inaccessibility, wealth and power. Founded in 1923 by Alphonzo E. Bell, Sr. the original Bel Air real estate tract of East Gate Old Bel Air, was composed of 128 lots on Bel Air Road starting north from South Beverly Glen and Sunset Boulevard through the impressive huge iron East Gate entrance. The five roads which branch from the East Gate are Saint Pierre, Saint Cloud, Bellagio (to Stone Canyon), Copa De Oro, and N√Æmes Roads. Though many of these 128 lots have since been combined into single properties, the original Bel Air allotment is what distinguishes East Gate Old Bel Air from the rest of present day Bel Air homes, which was gradually added by Bell starting in 1931 with Stone Canyon, previously known then as Bel Air Woodland. By 1937 Bel Air real estate extended westward all the way to Sepulveda Boulevard, its westernmost boundary today. At its southernmost edge, where Copa De Oro Road meets Sunset Boulevard, East Gate Old Bel Air homes border the campus of UCLA. At its easternmost edge it borders equally prestigious Holmby Hills estates. This combined contiguous area of East Gate Bel Air and Holmby Hills homes straddling North Beverly Glen Boulevard (at a verdant bend of Saint Pierre Road and De Neve Square Park), represents easily the highest concentration of property value and wealth in Los Angeles, if not the United States.