There’s room for the down-to-earth as well as for the celebrated.

One of the toniest celebrity addresses in Los Angeles gets its name from what wasonce an unassumingspring-fed marsh in a far-flungcorner of land baron John Lankershim’s vast rancho in early San Fernando Valley.

Thismuddy little lake’sjourney to becoming the centerpiece of Toluca Lake,agenteelgated communitypopular with the Hollywood elite, began when Gen.

CharlesForman purchased the land on whichitsat in 1889.

An industrious pioneer from NewYorkwhose exploits included sellingBrighamYoungthe lumber that built Salt Lake Cityand founding the Los Angeles Cable Car Co., Forman had amassed ahuge fortune over the years.

Money and common sense being no object, he had once packed up his massiveNevada mansion and moveditatgreat expense to the corner of PicoBoulevardand Figueroa Street, but as he aged he began looking for a countryplace wherehecould while away his golden years as a farmer.

The fertile land east of the CahuengaPass, with its lakeand the nearby Los Angeles River as irrigation sources, wasperfect.

Soon enough —and no doubt to hisdismay —the cityfollowed him out to the Valley,asengineers succeededinrunning atrolley line through the pass.

Beforelong, Hollywood studios, hungry for room for sprawling backlots and stages, began spilling over the hill, first with the openingofUniversal CityStudios in 1915 and later with motion picture mills owned by the Warner brothers, Walt Disney,MackSennettand others.

The boomingpopularityofcivil aviation also brought development, with three airports and countless manufacturing plants springing up across the Valley.

Real estatedevelopers seized on the opportunitytomarket luxuryhomes to the stars and aeronautic industryexecs, laying out in the 1920saplannedcommunitywith anewly manicured, asphalt-bottomed Toluca Lake at its center.

Amelia Earhartwas among the first to buy in the neighborhood, and soon, otherluminaries of screenand skyfollowedsuit. Bing Crosby,Frank Sinatra, W.C. Fields and, most famously,Bob Hope called Toluca Lake home at one time or another, and the neighborhood remains apopular destination for industrytypes looking for alow-key lifestyle with ashort commute.

In the late1940s and 1950sToluca Lake also became acenter of Valley car culture, with a concentration of drive-in restaurants and other car-oriented businesses on Riverside Drive.

The street was home to the first International House of Pancakes and today boasts the oldest remaining Bob’s Big Boy in the United States.

Neighborhood highlights Unseen scenery: It’s stocked with fish and adjacent to the lush greens of the Lakeside Golf Club, but scenic Toluca Lake is kept under lock and key behind a gated entrance, accessible only by residents. Ablast from the past: The Bob’s Big Boy parking lot is the site of a weekly classic car show that’s a must-see for gearheads.

Welcome to the neighborhood: Toluca Lake’s pleasingly unpretentious shopping district has a definite homey feel and includes one of the Valley’s best Irish bars.

Neighborhood challenge Ch-ch-changes: The recent listing of the Bob Hope estate raised fears that it could be subdivided and redeveloped, a situation that could arise again as more estates change hands, potentially threatening the unique, historic character of the neighborhood.

Expert insight Hilton & Hyland agent David Kramer, who earlier this year renovated and flipped a Toluca Lake estate once owned by Bing Crosby, is bullish on the neighborhood’s star appeal.

“While it’s always been known as an entertainment mecca, you’re certainly seeing young Hollywood embrace the area,” he said.

“In a lot of neighborhoods, the Hollywood aspect fades away, but not here.”

Kramer points to the Crosby property as a perfect example. The seller and the eventual buyer of the estate were both celebrities in their 20s. “It has a small-town feel that a lot celebrities find attractive.” Market snapshot In September, based on eight sales, the median price for singlefamily home sales in the 91602 ZIP Code was $1.073 million.

That was a 53.3% increase in price over the same month the previous year.

Report card Within the boundaries of Toluca Lake is Toluca Lake Elementary, which scored 837 out of 1,000 in the 2013 Academic Performance Index.

Nearby public institutions include R.L. Stevenson Elementary, which scored 905, and Rio Vista Elementary, which had a score of 898. East Valley Senior High scored 625.

hotproperty@latimes.com