San Fernando Valley

Surnames/tags: California San Fernando Valley los_angeles_county_ california

Sister Site of the Los Angeles County Project. [1]

Contents 1 Timeline of San Fernando Valley, California 2 San Fernando Valley Founders and First Families 3 San Fernando Valley Neighborhoods 4 San Fernando Valley Street Names (where they came from) 5 San Fernando Valley Developers and Architects & Notable Neighbors 6 San Fernando Valley Bordering Cities and Founding Families 7 San Fernando Valley Historical Attractions 8 San Fernando Valley Online Records 8.1 San Fernando Valley Cemetery Records 8.2 San Fernando Valley Census Records 8.3 San Fernando Valley Land Records 8.4 San Fernando Valley Books and Newspapers

Timeline of San Fernando Valley, California

• 1542 Juan Cabrillo claims Southern California territory for the Spanish kingdom, beginning over three and half centuries of occupation. The Portuguese-born sailor goes on to “discover” the Catalina Islands, the sites of San Pedro and Santa Monica, and the Santa Barbara Channel Islands.
• 1720 Map of California from Frenchman Nicolas de Fer shows California as an island.
• 1784 CorporalJose María Verdugo establishes Rancho San Rafael in Burbank/Glendale.
• 1795 Campo de Cahuenga adobe house is built, and Rancho Encino is founded.
• 1769 The Spanish claim Alta California (present day California) in the “Sacred Expedition,” when explorer Gaspar de Portolà reaches San Diego. With him are two Franciscan padres,*Junípero Serra and *Juan Crespí, who record the expedition and found the first mission, The Sacred Expedition.
• 1797 Mission San Fernando Rey de España is created and housed on Rancho Encino. It is the 17th of the California missions.
• 1813 Father Muñoz and Father Nuez take the first census of the Valley which focused on Mission Indians.
• 1819 As a working ranch, Mission San Fernando reaches its economic peak.
• 1822 Spanish rule in California becomes Mexican rule with the rise of the Republic of Mexico and the country's successful War for Independence from Spain.
• 1826 The Mexican government expels Spaniards with government order.
• 1833 The Mexican government secularizes the missions, making them public property.
• 1842 Discovery of gold in San Fernando by Francisco “Cuso” Lopez in Placeritas Canyon sparks a town of 60,000.
• 1843 Jose Micheltorena, governor of southern California, decrees the restoration of southern missions to church control. This controversial move helps spark the revolution for California self-rule.
• 1845 Pio de Jesus Pico’s “Emancipation Proclamation” liberates Indians and simultaneously ends the Mission system. Land grants are given to Indians.
• 1846 Governor Pio Pico sells most of the San Fernando Valley land to Eulogio de Celis before the Mexican War.
• 1847 The Mexican American War results in California becoming part of the United States, along with more than half of former Mexican land. Though the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ends the war, it becomes an issue of contention when existing Californio rights are not honored as promised, and the Treaty is breached.
• 1847 Mexican Map of Mexico and the United States.
• 1847 Agreement of peace (Cahuenga Capitulation) between Fremont and Pico gives Americans control of California in the war. The treaty takes place at the house of Don Feliz (Campo de Cahuenga) near the Cahuenga Pass.
• 1849 The gold rush in Northern California draws people, and the Valley is cow country full of ranchos that feed them.
• 1850 California joins the United States; Los Angeles County (which includes the San Fernando Valley) initially comprises 4,340 square miles and the first United States Census measures its population at 3,530.
• 1851 Alexander Bell and David Alexander become the first American landowners in the Valley after Vicente de Osa sells Rancho Providencia.
• 1853 The Cahuenga Pass is opened for oxcart travel, and a wagon road is built over the mountains between Mission San Fernando and Rancho San Francisquito.
• 1854 Rancho Ex-Mission de San Fernando falls into hands of Andres Pico who becomes known for his hospitality and entertainment.
• 1854 The Lankershim family settles in California.
• 1855 A new road allows lines of stages, trains of wagons and pack mules to travel to Kern River gold fields.
• 1860 Geronimo Lopez’s adobe home becomes known as the Lopez Station for housing the stagehouse for the Valley.
• 1869 Lopez Station is Valley’s first official post office.
• 1872 Charles Nordhoff writes California for Health, Pleasure and Residence. This pamphlet extolls the benefits of living in Southern California.
• 1874 The Southern Pacific Railroad offers service from Los Angeles to San Fernando linking the Valley to Los Angeles more closely.
• 1874 State senators George K. Porter and Charles Maclay buy the northerly half of the Valley from the Celis heirs. Porter, and partners H.C. Hubbard.
• 1878 Severe drought in the valley leads to a wildfire that destroys 18,000 acres.
• 1883 The first newspaper in the Valley is established: the San Fernando Comet.
• 1884 Major flooding in the Valley occurs and devastates the cattle economy.
• 1887 A real estate boom partitions up the Valley, beginning with the Lankershim Ranch Land and Water Company, which buys land from the Los Angeles Farm and Milling Company.
• 1888 Irrigation map care of the David Rumsey Map Collection.
• 1897 Squatters of the Land Settlers league attempt to squat in the San Fernando Valley under the belief that it is public land for settlement.
• 1907 Los Angeles approves a 23 million dollar bond issue for aqueduct construction from Owens Valley. William Mulholland, engineer, works on Los Angeles Aqueduct.
• 1908 The Southern Pacific Railroad Station opens at Zelzah.
• 1909 Harry Chandler of the Los Angeles Times buys land throughout the Valley.
• 1915, the city of Los Angeles annexes the San Fernando Valley - a crucial development as this enables the Valley to gain access to the water coming from Owens Valley from the Los Angeles Aqueduct (completed two years earlier under the direction of William Mulholland).
• 1915 Universal City officially opens.
• 1916 Due to the influx of water provided by the LA Aqueduct, Valley residents begin growing oranges.
• 1918 The Valley reports record crops including 55,000,000 pounds of beans, and a variety of fruits and vegetables including apricots,citrus, peaches, potatoes, and sugar beets. Canning and poultry are also major businesses in the Valley.
• 1926 The town of Sherman Oaks and the street Sherman Way bear legacy to pioneer of the San Fernando Valley General Moses Hazeltine Sherman.
• 1927 Valley residents use gas as a means to beat Prohibition and create “moonshine.” The gas company teams up with police to monitor any unusually large consumption of gas.-
• 1928 United Airport is named. It will be re-named Union Air Terminal in 1934 and is now known as Bob Hope Airport.
• 1928 St. Francis Dam is built by the City of LA Bureau of Water Works and Supply in 1925-26. *1929 World wide depression devastates local and global economies. President Franklin Roosevelt puts out of work artists to work.
• 1931 Residents protest changing the name of Cahuenga to Highland because of the uniqueness of the name Cahuenga. Going back to Native American terms,
• 1940 Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory is established.
• 1940 Walt Disney Studios moves to Burbank.
• 1941 Old Trapper’s Lodge Motel with giant trapper sculptures is built as an attraction.
• 1945 Despite the wartime ban against strikes, set designers from the Conference of Studio Unions strike against Warner Brothers film studio for 30 weeks. On October 5, “Hollywood’s Black Friday,”.
• 1956 The San Fernando Valley Campus of the Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences (CSUN) opens.
• 1959 Two events at the Santa Susana Research Facility disperse radioactivity. In March the AE-6 Reactor Accident releases contamination. In July the Sodium Reactor Experiment suffers a partial meltdown; its estimated release is 240 times that of 3 Mile Island. To the public, it is disclosed as a "parted fuel element" being observed. Official records state that 13 of 43 fuel elements suffered damage. Additional fuel-element handling accidents occurred during the recovery process that resulted in radiological releases to the environment and surrounding communities.
• 1960 The Ventura Freeway, also known as the 101, opens.

San Fernando Valley Founders and First Families

Jose María Verdugo Mariano Verdugo Jonathan R Scott

San Fernando Valley Neighborhoods

• Arleta

Arleta is a "moderately diverse" community in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, with a high percentage of Latino residents and of people born outside the United States.The neighborhood is considered average among the city's districts. There are five public but no private schools within Arleta. [2]

• Burbank

Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The city of Burbank occupies land that was originally part of two Spanish and Mexican-era colonial land grants, the 36,400-acre Rancho San Rafael, granted to Jose María Verdugo by the Spanish Bourbon government in 1784, and the 4,063-acre Rancho Providencia created in 1821. Historically, this area was the scene of a military skirmish which resulted in the unseating of the Spanish Governor of California, and his replacement by the Mexican leaderPio de Jesus Pico . Remnants of the military battle reportedly were found many years later in the vicinity of Warner Bros. Studio when residents dug up cannonballs. David Burbank purchased over 4,600 acres of the former Verdugo holding and another 4,600 acres of the Rancho Providencia in 1867 and built a ranch house and began to raise sheep and grow wheat on the ranch. By 1876, the San Fernando Valley became the largest wheat-raising area in Los Angeles County. But the droughts of the 1860s and 1870s underlined the need for steady water supplies. The Jonathan R. Scott tract, forming eastern Burbank along San Fernando Boulevard, called here the Camino Real. A professionally trained dentist, Dr. David Burbank began his career in Waterville, Maine. He joined the great migration westward in the early 1850s and, by 1853 was living in San Francisco. At the time the American Civil War broke out he was again well established in his profession as a dentist in Pueblo de Los Angeles. In 1867, he purchased Rancho La Providencia from David W. Alexander and Francis Mellus, and he purchased the western portion of the Rancho San Rafael (4,603 acres) from Jonathan R Scott . Dr. Burbank's property reached nearly 9,200 acres at a cost of $9,000. Dr. Burbank wouldn't acquire full titles to both properties until after a court decision known as the "Great Partition" was made in 1871 dissolving the Rancho San Rafael. He eventually became known as one of the largest and most successful sheep raisers in southern California, resulting in him stopping his practice of dentistry and investing heavily in real estate in Los Angeles. Dr. David Burbank also later owned the Burbank Theatre, which opened on November 27, 1893, at a cost of $150,000. Though the theater was intended to be an opera house, instead it staged plays and became known nationally. The theatre featured famous actors of the time including Fay Bainter and Marjorie Rambeau, until it had deteriorated into a burlesque house. When the area that became Burbank was settled in the 1870s and 1880s, the streets were aligned along what is now Olive Avenue, the road to the Cahuenga Pass and downtown Los Angeles. These were largely the roads the Indians traveled and the early settlers took their produce down to Los Angeles to sell and to buy supplies along these routes.[3] David Burbank

• Cahuenga Pass

"The Cahuenga Pass connects the Los Angeles Basin to the San Fernando Valley via U.S. Route 101 (Hollywood Freeway) and Cahuenga Boulevard. It is the lowest pass through the mountains.It was the site of two major battles: the Battle of Cahuenga Pass in 1831 (a fight between local settlers and the Mexican-appointed governor and his men; two deaths), and the Battle of Providencia or Second Battle of Cahuenga Pass in 1845 (between locals over whether to secede from Mexico; one horse and one mule killed). Both were on the San Fernando Valley side near present-day Studio City, and cannonballs are still occasionally found during excavations in the area. Along the route of the historic El Camino Real, the historic significance of the pass is also marked by a marker along Cahuenga Blvd. which names the area Paseo de Cahuenga."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahuenga_Pass

• Canoga Park

From 1797 to 1846 the area was part of Mission San Fernando Rey de España (Mission San Fernando). After the Mexican War of Independence from Spain, the 'future Canoga Park' land became part of Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando. In 1845, a land grant for the separate and historically rich Rancho El Escorpión was issued by Governor Pío Pico to three Chumash people, Odón Eusebia, his brother-in-law Urbano, and Urbano's son Mañuel. It was located in the area west of Fallbrook Avenue and later called Platt Ranch. In 1863 the syndicate San Fernando Homestead Association led by Isaac Lankershim and Isaac Newton Van Nuys purchased the southern half of the historic San Fernando Valley. They established seven wheat ranch operations and were the first to ship wheat to Europe from California. In 1869 Alfred Workman acquired the westernmost ranch, a 13,000 acres wheat farm in future Canoga Park Eucalyptus trees were introduced into the San Fernando Valley by Albert Workman, who imported seedlings from his native Australia and planted them on the Workman Ranch. In time, they spread though the Canoga Park area ranches, farms and beyond. It has been said that these trees are the parents of all eucalyptus trees in Southern California. The area was included in the greater part of the southern San Fernando Valley development syndicate, started when the LA Suburban Home Company bought out the Van Nuys Ranch in 1909. The entire south San Fernando Valley, from Roscoe Blvd south to the hills, with certain exceptions, were to be subdivided in anticipation of the Los Angeles aqueduct's completion in 1913. The purchasers of the land included Harry Chandler and *Harrison Gray Otis of the 'Los Angeles Times', Moses Hazeltine Sherman (a Los Angeles Pacific Railroad streetcar line builder), and Hobart Johnstone Whitley, an all purpose real estate developer who, from a start in the Land Rush of 1889 in Oklahoma to platting out 140 towns, including Hollywood. Owensmouth, as the junior San Fernando Valley city to Van Nuys, promoted itself with the "baby" motif—using storks in their advertisement. The "baby city" of the Valley remained a very small community. The lack of an independent water supply made annexation to the City of Los Angeles inevitable, and on February 26, 1917, it joined with its larger neighbor. The name was changed to Canoga Park in 1931. Eventually, the area's zoning was rural/agricultural and its industry was small farms involved in the production of fruits, vegetables, and melons, some livestock, horses, a movie/television studio, and a stunt location. [4]

• Chatsworth

The first European explorers came into the Chatsworth area on August 5, 1769, led by the Spanish military leader Gaspar de Portolà. With its establishment in 1797 and subsequent Spanish Land Grant by the King of Spain, Mission San Fernando (Mission San Fernando Rey de España) gained dominion over the San Fernando Valley's lands, including future Chatsworth. Old Santa Susana Stage Road trail up scenic Simi Hills in Chatsworth The Native American trail that had existed from the Tongva-Tatavium village called rancheria Santa Susana (Chatsworth) to another village, replaced by Mission San Fernando, became the route for missionaries and other Spanish travel up and down California. It was part of the El Camino del Santa Susana y Simi trail that connected the Valley's Mission, Los Angeles pueblo (town), and the southern missions with the Mission San Buenaventura, the Presidio of Monterey, and the northward missions. The trail crossed over the Santa Susana Pass to the Simi Valley, through present-day city park Chatsworth Park South and the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park. In 1795, the Spanish land grant had been issued for Rancho Simi, reconfirmed in 1842 by the Mexican governor. Its lands included part of current Chatsworth, westward from Andora Avenue. In 1821, after the Mexican War of Independence from Spain, the Mission San Fernando became part of Alta California, Mexico. In 1834, the Mexican government began redistributing the mission lands. In 1846, the Mexican land grant for Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando was issued by Governor Pío Pico. It was bounded on the north by Rancho San Francisco and the Santa Susana Mountains, on the west by the Simi Hills, on the east by Rancho Tujunga, and on the south by the Montañas de Portesuelo (Santa Monica Mountains). The Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando received a Federal land patent to retain ownership by the United States Public Land Commission in 1873 and was the single largest land grant in California. In 1869, the grantee's son, Eulogio F. de Celis, returned from Spain to Los Angeles.In 1874, the family sold their northern half of Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando to northern Californians, California State Senator Charles Maclay and his partners George K. Porter, a San Francisco shoe manufacturer, and his brother Benjamin F. Porter. The Porters’ land was west of present-day Sepulveda Boulevard including most of Chatsworth, and the Maclay land was east of Sepulveda Boulevard. The Old Santa Susana Stage Road or Santa Susana Wagon Road continued in use as an alternative to the route along El Camino Viejo from 1861 to 1875, replacing the older road as the main route between Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1876, the Southern Pacific Railroad opened a tunnel through the Newhall Pass, enabling rail connections from Los Angeles north to San Francisco, and rail travel soon replaced travel by stagecoach between Los Angeles and San Francisco. From this time, the stagecoach traffic to Santa Barbara once again used the coast route, and the Santa Susana Pass road was relegated to local traffic. The Chatsworth name, which hails from the stately Chatsworth House in England, was first recorded in 1888, when George R. Crow filed with the Los Angeles County Recorder's Office a map of the San Fernando Valley with a subdivision he called "Chatsworth Park." Later a W. B. Barber, the president of the San Fernando Valley Improvement Company who was believed to be from England, filed an additional map with the Recorder's Office called the "Plat of Chatsworth Park Townsite." A new wagon route bypassing the deteriorating Devil's Slide was opened in 1895. Initially called El Camino Nuevo (the New Road), it was later named the Chatsworth Grade Road, which continued in use until Santa Susana Pass Road (now Old Santa Susana Pass Road) was built in 1917. "[5]

• Encino

In 1769, the Spanish Portola expedition, first Europeans to see inland areas of California, traveled north through Sepulveda pass into the San Fernando Valley on August 5 and stayed two nights at a native village near what is now Los Encinos State Historic Park. Fray Juan Crespi, a Franciscan missionary travelling with the expedition, named the valley "El Valle de Santa Catalina de Bononia de Los Encinos" (The Valley of St. Catherine of Bononia of the Oaks). All of Crespi's name was later dropped except "Encino". Rancho Los Encinos (Ranch of Oak Trees) was established in 1845 when a large parcel of former Mission San Fernando land was granted to three Mission Indians by governor Pio Pico. Many ranchos were created after the secularization of the California missions, which began in 1834. Encino derives its name from the rancho. [6]

• Glendale

In 1798, José María Verdugo, a corporal in the Spanish army from Baja California, received the Rancho San Rafael from Governor Diego de Borica, formalizing his possession and use of land on which he had been grazing livestock and farming since 1784. Rancho San Rafael was a Spanish concession, of which 25 were made in California. Unlike the later Mexican land grants, the concessions were similar to grazing permits, with the title remaining with the Spanish crown. In 1860, his grandson Teodoro Verdugo built the Verdugo Adobe, which is the oldest building in Glendale. The property is the location of the Oak of Peace, where early Californio leaders including Pio Pico met in 1847 and decided to surrender to Lieutenant Colonel John C. Frémont. Verdugo's descendants sold the ranch in various parcels, some of which are included in present-day Atwater Village, Eagle Rock, and Highland Park neighborhoods of Los Angeles. In 1884, residents gathered to form a townsite and chose the name "Glendale" (it was bounded by First Street (now Lexington Drive) on the north, Fifth Street (now Harvard Street) on the south, Central Avenue on the west, and the Childs Tract on the east). Residents to the southwest formed "Tropico" in 1887. The Pacific Electric Railway brought streetcar service in 1904. Glendale incorporated in 1906, and annexed Tropico 12 years later. An important civic booster of the era was Leslie Coombs Brand (1859–1925), who built an estate in 1904 called El Miradero, featuring an eye-catching mansion, the architecture of which combined characteristics of Spanish, Moorish, and Indian styles, copied from the East Indian Pavilion at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, which he visited. Brand loved to fly, and built a private airstrip in 1919 and hosted "fly-in" parties, providing a direct link to the soon-to-be-built nearby Grand Central Airport. The grounds of El Miradero are now city-owned Brand Park and the mansion is the Brand Library, according to the terms of his will. Brand partnered with Henry E. Huntington to bring the Pacific Electric Railway, or the "Red Cars", to the area. Today, he is memorialized by one of the city's main thoroughfares, Brand Boulevard. [7] Harry Jeffrey Crow

• Granada Hills

The community began as dairy farm and orchard known as the Sunshine Ranch which grew apricots, oranges, walnuts and beans. Vestiges of former citrus groves can still be seen in orange, lemon or grapefruit trees in many residential yards. In 1916, the San Fernando Valley's first oil well was drilled in what is now Granada Hills. The oil well was located at the northern tip of Zelzah Avenue. Granada Hills was founded in 1926 as "Granada;" the "Hills" portion of the name was added 15 years later. [8]

• Mission Hills

The community is named for the nearby Spanish Mission San Fernando Rey de España (1784). It includes the Andrés Pico Adobe, the second oldest residence still standing in Los Angeles. The San Fernando Mission Cemetery, located a short distance away, is one of the oldest active cemeteries within the San Fernando Valley.

• Newhall

Named after businessman Henry Mayo Newhall, Newhall is home to the William S. Hart County Park, featuring tours of the famous silent movie maker's mansion. Newhall is also home to the Pioneer Oil Refinery (California Historical Landmark, No. 172), the oldest surviving oil refinery in the world and the first commercially successful refinery in California. Over the years, Newhall has been the location for many movies, including Suddenly (1954) and Disney's The World's Greatest Athlete (1973). The TV-series The Magnificent Seven was also for the most part filmed in Newhall. The Lyons Station Stagecoach Stop was a few miles away from where the town now stands. [9] Henry Newhall

• North Hills

In the late 18th and 19th century the site was part of the Mission San Fernando Rey de España lands, until 1846 when it became part of the Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando of Andrés Pico, near the Andrés Pico Adobe. Mission Acres was an agricultural community made by early developers who created 1 acre plots for agricultural activities, with irrigation supplied by the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913. The Californio Sepulveda family, going back to the founding of the Pueblo of Los Angeles, is the source of various Los Angeles place-names, including the post-war community of Sepulveda. Sepulveda Boulevard is the primary north/south street through North Hills, crossing Sepulveda Pass to the south. In 1992, residents of the western half of Sepulveda, west of the San Diego Freeway, voted to secede from the eastern section in order to form a new community named North Hills. [10]

• North Hollywood

North Hollywood was once part of the vast landholdings of the Mission San Fernando Rey de España, which was confiscated by the government during the Mexican period of rule. A group of investors assembled as the San Fernando Farm Homestead Association purchased the southern half of the Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando. The leading investor was Isaac Lankershim, a Northern California stockman and grain farmer, who was impressed by the Valley's wild oats and proposed to raise sheep on the property. In 1873, Isaac Lankershim's son and future son-in-law, James Boon Lankershim and Isaac Newton Van Nuys, moved to the San Ferndando Valley and took over management of the property. Van Nuys thought the property could profitably grow wheat using the dryland farming technique developed on the Great Plains and leased land from the Association to test his theories. In time, the Lankershim property, under its third name, the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company, would become the world's largest wheat-growing empire. In October 1887, J.B. Lankershim and eight other developers organized the Lankershim Ranch Land and Water Company, purchasing 12,000 acres north of the Cahuenga Pass from the Lankershim Farming and Milling Company. Lankershim established a townsite which the residents named Toluca along the old road from Cahuenga Pass to San Fernando. On April 1, 1888, they offered ready-made small farms for sale, already planted with deep-rooted deciduous fruit and nut trees—mostly peaches, pears, apricots, and walnuts—that could survive the rainless summers of the Valley by relying on the high water table along the Tujunga Wash rather than surface irrigation. [11] Isaac Lankershim Susanna Lankershim James Boon Lankershim

• Northridge

Originally named Zelzah, the community was renamed North Los Angeles in 1929 to emphasize its closeness to the booming city. This created confusion with Los Angeles and North Hollywood. At the suggestion of a civic leader, the community was renamed Northridge in 1938. Northridge can trace its history back to the Gabrielino (or Tongva) people and to Spanish explorers. Its territory was later sold by the Mexican governor to Eulogio de Celis, whose heirs divided it for sale. The heirs of Eulogio de Celis sold the northernly half - 56,000 acres - to Senator George K. Porter, who had called it the "Valley of the Cumberland" and Senator Charles Maclay, who exclaimed: "This is the Garden of Eden." Porter was interested in ranching; Maclay in subdivision and colonization. Francis Marion ("Bud") Wright, an Iowa farm boy who migrated to California as a young man, became a ranch hand for Senator Porter and later co-developer of the 1,100-acre Hawk Ranch, which is now Northridge land. [12]

• Pacoima

In 1873, Senator Charles Maclay of Santa Clara purchased 56,000 acres in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley adjacent to the San Fernando Mission and in 1887, Jouett Allen purchased 1,000 acres of land between the Pacoima Wash and the Tujunga Wash. The land he purchased was from the Maclay Rancho Water Company, which had taken over Senator Charles Maclay’s holdings in the Valley. Allen retained 500 acres for himself and subdivided the remainder in one acre tracts. It was from this that the town of Pacoima was born. The subdivision’s original boundaries were Paxton Street on the north, Herrick Avenue on the east, Pierce Street on the south, & San Fernando Road on the west. The town was built in keeping with the new Southern Pacific railroad station. Shortly after the rail line had been established, the Southern Pacific Railroad chose the site for a large brick passenger station, which was considered to be one of the finest on their line. Soon large spacious and expensive two-story homes made their appearance, as the early planners had established building restrictions against anything of a lesser nature. The first concrete sidewalks and curbs were laid and were to remain the only ones in the San Fernando Valley for many years. In 1888, the town's main street, one hundred feet wide and eight miles long, was laid through the center of the subdivision. The street was first named Taylor Avenue after President Taylor, later it was re-named Pershing Street. Today it is known it by its present name- Van Nuys Boulevard. Building codes were established: requiring that homes built to cost at least USD$2,000. The land deed contained a clause that if liquor was sold on this property, it would revert to Jouett Allen or his heirs. Newspaper advertisement for Pacoima lots, 1905 But like the railroad station, the large hotel, the big two-story school building and many commercial buildings, most were torn down within a few years as the boom days receded. The early pioneers had frowned upon industry, which eventually resulted in the people moving away from the exclusive suburb which they had set up to establish new homes closer to their employment and Pacoima returned to its rural, agricultural roots. In 1916, the presently named Pacoima Chamber of Commerce was established as the Pacoima Chamber of Farmers. For many years, the fertile soil produced abundant crops of olives, peaches, apricots, oranges and lemons. The opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct brought a new supply of water to the area. With the new water supply, the number of orchards, farms and poultry ranches greatly increased and thoroughbred horses began to be raised. Los Angeles annexed the land, including Pacoima, as part of ordinance on May 22, 1915. [13]

• Panorama City

Panorama City is known as the San Fernando Valley's first planned community. In 1948, it was developed as such by residential developer Fritz B. Burns and industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Burns, seeing the tremendous potential fortune that could be made as large numbers of World War II veterans came home and started families, teamed up with Kaiser in 1945 to form Kaiser Community Homes. The vast majority of the houses were bought with loans issued by the FHA or the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the G.I. Bill. Homes in the area were sold with racially discriminatory covenants. A "Conditions, Covenants, Restrictions" document filed with the county recorder declared that no Panorama City lot could be "used or occupied by any person whose blood is not entirely that of the white or Caucasian race. Such restrictive covenants, which sometimes also limited ownership to people "of the Christian faith, were common in many communities at the time, and although rendered legally unenforceable by the Civil Rights Act of 1968 they may still be found on some older property deeds. De facto integration was accelerated by the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. The CRA-insured credit was provided to the entire community without regard to race or income, causing white flight as with many other areas of the San Fernando Valley During the period of forced school busing, Panorama City was exempted due to its diversity. [14]

• Reseda

It was founded in 1912, and its central business district started in 1915. The neighborhood was devoted to agriculture for many years. On land that was originally part of the San Fernando Mission, Reseda originated in 1912 as the town of Marian. It was named after Marian Otis Chandler, the daughter of the Los Angeles Times publisher, Harrison Gray Otis and wife of Harry Chandler. The name Reseda itself refers to the fragrant plant Reseda odorata (English name is mignonette) which was commonly found in gardens of the time and is native to many areas with a Mediterranean climate. [15]

• Saugus

Saugus was first named Newhall by Henry M. Newhall, who had bought the eastern half of the Del Valle family’s Rancho San Francisco from a series of speculators. After he moved the town south in 1879, he renamed its original site for his birthplace, Saugus, Massachusetts. [16]

• Sherman Oaks

A partner of the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company, Gen. Moses Hazeltine Sherman, developed Sherman Oaks. The company had subdivided 1,000 acres of land that would become Sherman Oaks. In 1927 each acre was sold for $780. Sherman's other major venture was the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad. In 1991, a group of homeowners living in the Chandler Estates area successfully petitioned former Los Angeles City Councilmember Zev Yaroslavsky to re-draw the boundaries of Sherman Oaks from Magnolia to Burbank Blvd to the north, and from Coldwater Canyon to Van Nuys Blvd to the west, with the goal of including their neighborhood. This request was not anything new to the San Fernando Valley; other neighborhoods had either sought to change their names, or sought to attach themselves onto more affluent neighborhoods to escape from what they saw as growing urban blight and the collapse of their social status. Residents in the area argued, however, that the area was originally part of Sherman Oaks, but was labeled Van Nuys instead through the creation of ZIP codes in 1962; some residents were able to produce a few property deeds to present their case. [17] Harry Chandler Moses Hazeltine Sherman

• Studio City

Originally known as Laurelwood, the area Studio City occupies was formerly part of Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando. This land changed hands several times during the late 19th Century and was eventually owned by James Boon Lankershim, and eight other developers who organized the Lankershim Ranch Land and Water Company. In 1899, however, the area lost most water rights to Los Angeles and therefore subdivision and sale of land for farming became untenable. Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct began in 1908 and water reached the San Fernando Valley in November, 1913. Real estate boomed, and a syndicate led by Harry Chandler, business manager of the Los Angeles Times, with Hobart Johnstone Whitley, Isaac Van Nuys, and James Boon Lankershim acquired the remaining 47,500 acres of the southern half of the former Mission lands—everything west of the Lankershim town limits and south of present-day Roscoe Boulevard excepting the Rancho Encino. Whitley platted the area of present-day Studio City from portions of the existing town of Lankershim as well as the eastern part of the new acquisition. In 1927, Mack Sennett began building a new studio on 20 acres donated by the land developer. The area around the studio was named Studio City.

• Sun Valley

In 1874, California State Senator Charles Maclay (for whom Maclay Street in San Fernando is named) acquired 56,000 acres of land across the San Fernando Valley. The area extended from Sunland Blvd. all the way west to the Chatsworth Hills. East of Sunland was Rancho San Rafael, a large land grant to José María Verdugo by the Spanish Crown. By 1876, the Southern Pacific Railroad was constructed through the eastern San Fernando Valley, linking Southern and Northern California. The area once had a general store named Roberts Store, and the town was named Roberts until the 1890s when the name was changed to Roscoe. The current name of Sun Valley was chosen in 1950 by residents

• Sylmar

Sylmar is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Historically known for its profusion of olive orchards, Sylmar can trace its past to the 18th century and the founding of the San Fernando Mission. In 1890 olive production was begun in a systematic manner. In 1893, a group of Illinois businessmen purchased from the trustees of the Maclay ranch either 1,000 or 2,000 acres east of the railroad tracks on San Fernando Road just south of Roxford Street and in 1894 began planting olives trees on up to 1,700 acres. Experts were brought from France to supervise the work.Calling themselves the Los Angeles Olive Growers Association (in 1898 Paul Milltimore was the president and George L. Arnold the secretary), they built a packing plant and sold olives under the Tyler Olives label, later changing to the Sylmar Packing label. Sylmar’s olives became noted throughout the state for sweetness and purity. Chinese pickers were hired to harvest the crops, and up to 800 U.S. gallons of olive oil a day were produced. The pickling plant was located on the corner of Roxford Street and San Fernando Road. By March 1898 about 200,000 trees had been planted, and by 1906 the property had become the largest olive grove in the world.

• Tarzana

Tarzana /tɑːrˈzænə/ is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California. Tarzana is on the site of a former ranch owned by author Edgar Rice Burroughs . It is named after Burroughs' fictional jungle hero, Tarzan.

• Harrison Gray Otis

[18]

• Toluca Lake
• Tujunga/Sunland

The neighborhood lies between the Verdugo Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains. It is contiguous on the east with La Crescenta-Montrose. Sunland and Tujunga are divided by Mount Gleason Avenue, with Sunland on the west and Tujunga on the east. Mount Lukens within Tujunga is the highest point in Los Angeles at 5,074 ft In 1925 there were no sidewalks or curbs in Tujunga, but by 1927 half of the streets had been paved. A state highway ran through the town. M.V. Hartranft, for whom Hartranft Avenue was named Streets within the Sunland and Tuna Canyon annex to Los Angeles were renamed in June 1929. The main east-west road, previously known as Michigan Avenue, became Foothill Boulevard. Other streets were renamed as follows: Los Angeles Street to Apperson Avenue, Sherman Street to Hartranft Avenue, Center Street to Grenoble Avenue, North Street to Wentworth Avenue, Third Street to Woodward Avenue and Hill Street to Hillrose Avenue. Sunset renamed to Commerce St. Manzanita Drive was renamed McGroarty Avenue in honor of John Steven McGroarty , who lived nearby. [19]

• Van Nuys

The town was founded in 1911 and named for Isaac Newton Van Nuys, one of its developers. It was annexed by Los Angeles on May 22, 1915, after completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, providing it with the water required for further growth. Van Nuys was the first new stop on the San Fernando Line of the Pacific Electric Railway red cars system, which boosted its early land sales and commercial success. Van Nuys became the Valley's satellite Los Angeles municipal civic center with the 1932 Art Deco Valley Municipal Building (Van Nuys City Hall), a visual landmark and Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. [20]

• Isaac Newton Van Nuys
• West Hills

The neighborhood was formerly the home of many Native American tribes, and during the early Spanish and Mexican era was part of the Mission San Fernando Rey de España. In the American era, West Hills was part of Owensmouth, which was renamed Canoga Park in 1930. [21]

San Fernando Valley Street Names (where they came from)

• Isaac Newton Van Nuys Van Nuys Blvd
• Isaac Lankershim Lankershim Blvd
• Susanna Lankershim Lankershim Blvd
• James Boon Lankershim Lankershim Blvd
• David Burbank Burbank Blvd
• Harry Chandler Chandler Blvd
• Moses Hazeltine Sherman Sherman Way
• Henry Thomas Oxnard Oxnard Street
• Frederick T. Woodman Woodman Avenue
• John Baptiste Amestoy Amestoy Avenue
• Domingo Amestoy Amestoy Avenue
• William Mulholland Mulholland Drive
• Guy Brinton Barham Barham Blvd
• John Steven McGroarty McGroarty Avenue
• Charles Maclay Maclay Street.
• Jonathan R Scott Scott Road in Burbank.

San Fernando Valley Developers and Architects & Notable Neighbors

San Fernando Valley Bordering Cities and Founding Families

San Fernando Valley Historical Attractions

San Fernando Valley Online Records

San Fernando Valley Cemetery Records

San Fernando Valley Census Records

San Fernando Valley Land Records

San Fernando Valley Books and Newspapers

Sources

Memories: 1