[4] Carl Laemmle officially opened the Second Universal City (Lankershim Boulevard) on March 15, 1915, on the 230-acre (93 ha) Taylor Ranch property.

In 1912, Laemmle briefly operated three small studios - Bison, Nestor, and Oak Crest Ranch.

The Providencia Land and Water company, called "Oak Crest Ranch" in the trade papers, became the first Universal City location.

His first Universal City was too small, so he ordered a search for a new and larger property in the valley, a location with more space.

If it was a city, it was a haphazard one:[8] with the help of nearly 300 movie hands and actors, Laemmle erected makeshift buildings, set up cameras and began churning out hundreds of one- and two-reel silent westerns.

[citation needed] In the meantime, Laemmle added a zoo to the Oak Crest Ranch,[9] which was open to visitors to generate free advertising by word of mouth.

The Rotarians of Los Angeles were one of the groups permitted to visit the Oak Crest - Universal City.

Laemmle went on an eight-day whistle-stop tour from Chicago to Los Angeles the week before Universal City's grand public opening.

His promoters even sold the grand (and technically impossible) lie that Laemmle had persuaded the Secretary of the Navy to send a battleship up the Los Angeles River to fire a salvo on opening day.

His cheerful nepotism was immortalized in humorist Ogden Nash's couplet: Uncle Carl Laemmle has a very large faemmle.

The next few decades saw the arrival of hotels, an amphitheater, and Universal CityWalk (a faux city street and popular destination for tourists and locals).

Carl Laemmle thought the Providencia Ranch area was too small for his idea of "Universal City."

[12][13] The Providencia Land and Water Development Company property was used as a location for some early films, most significantly the battle scenes in the silent classic about the American Civil War, The Birth of a Nation (1915).

Prior to the summer of 1991, the West Hollywood Station handled all calls for police service from Universal City.

[20] The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) also shares jurisdiction with the LASD in providing protection to Universal City, operating the North Hollywood Community Police Station in North Hollywood, whose responsibilities include Universal City.