The San Fernando Valley is considered the child city of metropolitan Los Angeles; a child that gradually grew and matured. From the development of farming and agriculture to the subdividing of land and finally to the market boom in commercialization and industrialization, the Valley has taken on its own course in history thus invented its own acclamation. In fact, Charles A. Bearchell noted, “If the Valley were a separately incorporated city, it would rank among the top six cities in the nation.” To understand the maturation of the Valley, one must note the population growth, specifically between the years 1910 to 1960, when the largest population increases were recorded in Valley history. Indeed, the population of the San Fernando Valley increasingly doubled or even tripled every decade from 1910 to 1960. This population growth is not the net result of a single factor. Three elements – access, development, and advertisement – between the years 1910 to 1960 created the perfect foundation for population growth in the San Fernando Valley.
In 1910, the San Fernando Valley population was at 3,300. A decade later the population grew to over 21,000. In 1930 the population figures were exact with meticulous census data. The April 1st 1930 census was 78,497. Subsequently between 1930 and 1945 a population increase of 159% was recorded bringing the population total at the end of World War II to 228,734 inhabitants. By 1950, the swift increase in growth continued when the April 1st census recorded over 402,538 residents; likewise in growth when the April 1st census of 1960 doubled again with a staggering populace of 840,531 inhabiting the San Fernando Valley. It was only until the early 1970s which the population did not double nor triple itself, but only grew by about 100,000. This slower growth may be correlated to the 6.6 magnitude 1971 Sylmar earthquake, among others, as Kevin Roderick of the Los Angeles Times noted in his text, America’s Suburb, “The San Fernando Valley serves, in fact, as the nation’s favorite symbol of suburbia run rampant. It is the butt of jokes for its profligate sprawl, kooky architecture, unhip telephone area code, and home grown porno industry, as well as for a mythical tribe of nasal-toned, IQ challenged teenage girls who like to shop.” However, the ill portrayed description of the recent San Fernando Valley by Kevin Roderick was not valid prior to the 1970s; hence the decades between 1910 leading up to the 1960s was an extremely pivotal period with respect to the vast population growth heightening the foundation of the Valley. Conclusively, the three key elements – access, development, and advertising – contributed simultaneously with each other (at one point or another) triggering an influx in population growth for the Valley.
The first fundamental theme in the immense growth of the San Fernando Valley is the means of access throughout the land. Access is both the physical means of entering and exiting the area via roads, highways and railways, and the accessibility of resources (water) to its inhabitants. To understand how highways, railways, and water escalated access throughout the land from the turn of the century up to the 1960s, one must examine the physical aspects of the land. Access to the San Fernando Valley is grouped into three noteworthy pass areas. The San Fernando Pass (also known as the Newhall Pass) at the northern tip of the Valley on the east side, the Santa Susana Pass at the northeastern portion of the Valley, and the strategically accessible southern artery to Los Angeles, the famous Cahuenga Pass.
The San Fernando Valley is merely located northwest of the city of Los Angeles. The floor of the Valley stretches 20 miles in length and 12 miles in breadth as the widest point. With a low lying area of over 200 square miles, this flat basin is sufficient enough to envelope the entire city limits of San Francisco, Washington, and Boston. At the northern border of the Valley stand the towering 15 mile extensions of the San Gabriel Mountain Range where elevations vary between 1500 feet up to 5000 feet in its northern extremities; which defied access to the Valley floor. George Pappas, who surveyed the land in the early fifties, notes, “The San Gabriel Mountain Range is truly a formidable barrier to the movement of man.” To the west of the San Gabriel Range is the merging of the Santa Susana Mountain Range, a considerably lower range in comparison to its unwieldy neighbor. The dividing point between these two ranges was known as the San Fernando Pass (known as the Newhall Pass today) and was site where access was achieved to the Valley by means of the railroad, the aqueduct, and later the highway.
Access near the San Fernando Pass was evident since 1874. The completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1874 suited the shipment of grains from the city of San Fernando in northern valley into the mills of Los Angeles exceptionally well. Two years later, Los Angeles, the Valley and San Francisco were connected together with the creation of a new tunnel through the San Fernando Pass, appropriately titled the San Fernando Tunnel. By the early 1900s, anyone could ride this route from Los Angeles to the northern tip of the Valley or vise versa, but not without a gender bias. Kevin Roderick describes, “Any male adult could ride the Southern Pacific 22 miles from Los Angeles to San Fernando for half price – the railroad figured a man curious enough to visit the remote, upstart town must be a live prospect.” Not only did this stretch of railroad create myriad travels between Los Angeles and the Valley, but would make this stretch invaluable to the northern cities of California, particularly San Francisco. By the turn of the century, access in and out of the San Fernando Valley via the San Fernando Pass attained new levels. Robert M. Widney, a distinguished landowner of the time, explained the importance of the Southern Pacific Railroad link through the San Fernando Pass into San Francisco, “Northern California is Los Angeles’ largest market; the Southern Pacific would attract the mountain trade to the town; its inhabitants often visit San Francisco; and newcomers usually arrive via the northern metropolis.
Arguably, even more important than the railroad in terms of access near the San Fernando Pass was the acquisition water into the vast areas of the San Fernando Valley. The gaining of water to the Valley would enhance its water supply and ease water scarcity for Valley farmers. Lands would become ever more irrigated resulting in a healthier control of farming and agriculture throughout the Valley. On November 5, 1913, water from the Owens Valley near the Sierra Nevada Mountain range in northern California flowed through the Mojave Desert and into the San Fernando Valley by way of the San Fernando Pass to its imposed destination and equitable owners – the city Los Angeles – totaling a 223 mile journey. This simple yet resourceful and ingenious plan of collecting water from mountain snowmelt and bringing it down the desert by way of steel pipes to Los Angeles was the plan of William Mulholland. Indeed, William Mulholland became a prominent hero in bringing water to Los Angeles. But accessibility to water would not come with ease in the San Fernando Valley. In order for the Valley to participate in the Owens Valley imported water, Los Angeles would sell their water to farmers of the San Fernando Valley. This would only be achieved with the political annexation of the cities in the Valley with Los Angeles. All cities with exception to the city of San Fernando, Burbank, and Lankershim, who enjoyed their own municipal water systems (Lankershim was later added in 1928 and changed its name to North Hollywood), were annexed to Los Angeles in 1915. Between 1915 and 1917, the Valley underwent a construction phase for its new irrigation system. University of California’s Lewis H. Height noted in his thesis regarding settlement patterns of the Valley, “The Valley was underlain by a complex network of irrigation pipes and an elaborate pumping system was installed to service the farms. The source of this water supply was the San Fernando Reservoir.” Water became available to nearly the entire San Fernando Valley by the summer of 1917 and heightened means of access among the Valley and its inhabitants.
Following World War II, the State of California funded the San Fernando Valley to begin a series of highway projects. Approximately a decade later, the San Fernando Pass was site to create better accessibility. There was no stopping the Golden State Freeway from grabbing property owner’s homes in 1958. Battles over eminent domain condemnations were common,” as Roderick stated. Interstate 5, known today as the Golden State Freeway (officially begins at the United States/Mexico border, eventually concluding at the United States/Canada border) is the north-south freeway on the east side of the Valley. The first section of this freeway was opened in 1959 in the city of Burbank, and was finally completed in 1963 going through the San Fernando Pass (Newhall Pass). Access by means of the highway in this particular area had reached a new level in transporting in and out of the Valley.
Undeniably, the San Fernando Pass during 1910 to 1960 was a new center in evolving accessibility, consequently accounting for the dramatic population increases to the Valley during this time period. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company laid tracks in 1874 in this area with heightened travels by 1910. The remarkable mastermind of William Mulholland brought the California Aqueduct to Los Angeles and the Valley by 1913 using the San Fernando Pass as a conduit. Finally, the highway transportation system of the Valley reached new levels with the completion of the Golden State Freeway near the San Fernando Pass in 1963 furthering accessibility to the Valley.
Another area worthy of attention for Valley accessibility during 1910 to 1960 is the boundary between the Simi Hills and the Santa Susana Mountains. The Simi Hills are a rugged but youthful low elevation mountainous area to the west of the Valley. This boundary of the Santa Susana Mountains and the Simi Hills, known as the Santa Susana Pass is another fundamental aspect in terms of access. This access point conducts travels in and out of the Valley, while politically, it is the end of Los Angeles County and the beginning of Ventura County.
Before travels in and out of this pass zone was made feasible by the railway and highway, the Overland Mail Company and their horses would journey the erratic and fluctuant passages of the Santa Susana Pass in the 1860s. Although the Santa Susana pass is less significant than the San Fernando Pass, it accounted for heavy traffic by railroad and highway during the periods of vast population growth. In 1985, the only exceptional year which falls out of context with respect to the 1910 to 1960 increase in access, the Santa Susana Pass’ accessibility was further heightened with the completion of the Simi Valley Freeway 118.
Finally, the most important pass route which surrendered to man’s need for access in the Valley at the beginning of the twentieth century leading up to approximately 1960 were the penetrations between Los Angeles and the Valley through the Santa Monica Mountains. The Santa Monica Mountains, which border the San Fernando Valley along the south, have a low altitude in elevation at less than 2000 feet. Several key penetrations were made by man through the Santa Monica Mountains, thus movement in and out of the Valley was accessible through the Cahuenga Pass, Laurel Canyon, Sepulveda Pass, and Topanga Canyon respectively from east to west along the mountain range. But the Cahuenga Pass is the one with most significance since the low altitude passage surpasses all others with ease of travel and alleviated transportation. The ease in accessibility made between 1910 to the 1960s from the Cahuenga Pass with first the railroad and later the highway was a key influential factor in the accretion of population during this period. The strategically based Cahuenga Pass was made increasingly accessible and frequented between the population growths of 1910 to 1960 because it connected the Valley with the business districts of Los Angeles and Hollywood.
In 1909, the Pacific Electric Railway (PE) began construction of a line which would connect Hollywood with the San Fernando Valley through the Cahuenga Pass. With a fare of 25 cents one way and 40 cents round trip, the first trolley was available for use in 1911. Heightened access to the Valley by way of the Cahuenga Pass once again matured as the population by 1940 exceeded over 155,000 residents. The Twenties saw an enormous road building era with the paving of dirt roads; soon after in 1940 the state of California built the first stretch of highway known today as Hollywood Freeway 101. Conceivably, no metropolitan area in Los Angeles County became more dependent on the automobile than the San Fernando Valley in post World War II. Along with the opening of the Hollywood Freeway in 1940, the Ventura Freeway 101, running east-west, was completed in 1960, creating an intersection between the two. Finally in 1962, the north-south running freeway known as the San Diego Freeway 405 intersected the Ventura Freeway and eventually crossed the Sepulveda Pass into West Hollywood, adding yet another access route for the Valley.
Between 1910 and 1960, the array of accessibility played an important role at resulting in the influx of population growth in the San Fernando Valley. The three significant pass regions of the Valley – the San Fernando Pass, the Santa Susana Pass, and the Cahuenga Pass – allowed water to the Valley floor and made travels in and out of the Valley better accessible. With crucial enhancements in accessibility to water with the California Aqueduct and better travels with the railroad systems and network of highway improvements in their respective pass zones, the Valley allowed an easier means of use between the 1910s to the 1960s (with exception being the Simi Valley Freeway of 1985).
As the previous ranchero owners of the San Fernando Valley reached their climatic end in land ownership towards the end of the ninetieth century, most of the land came into the hands of wealthy Americans who were willing to spend their large income with capacious plans of development. Subsequently, the next component which created the perfect foundation for population growth of the San Fernando Valley during 1910 and 1960 was development in subdividing. The Valley fully began its extensive development process in 1911 . In essence, development in subdivision from the 1910s and beyond increased land values and was a trend as the Valley held large capacious lands ideal for farming and agriculture, especially after the addition of water from the Owens Valley in 1913.
In 1951, at his retiring home in Florida, Charles Weeks, who had purchased more than 600 undeveloped acres of land in the 1910s, told the Valley Times, “I am now 78 years old and still firmly believe that a little land highly fertilized and developed into a productive garden affords the very best environment for the highest development of man.” Weeks’ statement concurred among inhabitants of the time by analyzing the population growth of the 1920s – the populace count of 1910 was over 3,000 and the count of 1920 was over 21,000. Another large development in early San Fernando Valley was the subdivision known as Tract 1000. Officially recorded on March 4, 1911, this subdivision was designated for the towns of Van Nuys, Owensmouth (today’s Canoga Park), and Marion (today’s Reseda). The area of about 47,000 acres, which was bought by the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company, was carefully platted and made into their respective town sites. Catherine Mulholland writes in her text that a Valley newspaper editor said upon the selling of Owensmouth, “Owensmouth promises to be one of the best towns in the Valley, surrounded by a specially rich productive country. The mountains and canyons lying near have been settled for years and all business will be brisk from the beginning.” Indeed, business would be brisk in this Owensmouth. In the mid-1910s, the entire valley population was less than 10,000, but as developments grew, so did population. Finally, in the official census of 1960, the city of Owensmouth (Canoga Park) recorded 56,627 inhabitants; an 11.4% increase from 1950. The subdividers of the San Fernando Valley; who were by in large among the richest men in the state; had a grandiose plan to turn the San Fernando Valley into a money making machine. This grandiose plan thereupon created the massive influx of population for the rich and ample Valley.
The second subscribing factor in constituting to a perfect foundation for the population growth of 1910 to 1960 was the lucrative developments of the San Fernando Valley in commercialization and industrialization. Farming and agriculture was gradually surrendering to subdivision projects which praised development in commercial and industrial land use. By 1940, the population of the Valley census read over 155,000 inhabitants with a great post-war increase of 75,000 more recorded only five years later as many World War II veterans made the Valley their choice of residence. By 1950, it almost doubled to over 400,000, likewise a decade later. Before the 1940s, the San Fernando Valley was home to less than 4,000 total business firms. By 1951, the Valley tallied a total of 5,790 business firms, the highest being in the mid-valley city of Van Nuys. In 1959, the number of firms in the San Fernando Valley reached an all time high once again with 9,666 companies; consistently, Van Nuys being the highest amongst the cities in the Valley with over 2,000 firms. Correspondingly, as the population of the Valley grew so did development of the industries; notably the advantageous industries of motion picture and aviation. Appropriately, this great population boom is interrelated to the development of this array of industries.
In 1920, the city of Burbank had a flourishing population of 3,000 while the entire Valley had a similar populace just a decade prior. By 1923, real-estate developer Earl White persuaded several prominent motion picture producers to move to the town of Burbank and establish studios in the Valley. As population of Burbank grew, the motion picture industry came to be the third largest industry in the Valley behind ranching and subdividing by 1926. During the same decade, the small-scale town of Zelzah (current Northridge) held a population of approximately 600. But when the Valley’s booming motion picture industry rapidly grew, numerous movie personalities of the 1930s made Zelzah their residence, hence called it “the 100 most beautiful acres in the Valley” consequently resulting in others’ obsession to reside in the area, or at least the San Fernando Valley. Thus, it is not surprising that the movie industry had a dominating contribution in the population growth of 1910 to 1960. Consistent with the movie industry and the Valley, actor Bill Murray once stated, “If you had one brain in that huge melon on top of your neck, you’d be living the sweet life out in Southern California’s beautiful San Fernando Valley.” The sweet life was self-evident amongst many in the Valley because of its lush greenery and the added embellishment of the motion picture industry. The San Fernando Valley eventually came to be the rightful home of Warner Brothers, Walt Disney Productions, Columbia Pictures, and studios of the National Broadcasting Company.
Population increasingly doubled and tripled in Burbank during both wartimes and by the end of the fifties. In 1960, Burbank’s population according to the preliminary census was 89,895. Undoubtedly, development in business had played a key part in this growth. During the wartime efforts of WW II, Lockheed-California produced over 10,000 P-38 fighter aircrafts, most of them in the city of Burbank. The momentum of wartime production in the development of industry in the San Fernando Valley carried over to the fifties with a continuation in aviation production. In 1953, Lewis H. Height stated in his in-depth analysis of settlement patters in the Valley that the principle industry in the Valley, “Is still aircraft and aircraft parts manufacturing in Burbank and adjacent areas to the west.” Besides the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, another eminent post-war industry which contributed to the population growth of the Valley was the General Motors assembly plant which employed over 1,000 workers in Van Nuys.
Finally, the last element contributing to the population growth of 1910 to 1960 was advertising, particularly between the 1910s to the 1920s. Undeniably, the developers’ efforts would fall short if it were not for the extensive line of advertisements intended to lure people to the San Fernando Valley. These early beckoning and sometimes flowery ads targeted those with an appropriate income who were willing to take risks and make the valley their address. With the immense subdivision activity of the 1910s and 1920s, the Valley went on several advertising sprees to bait new land prospects. These advertising sprees consequently helped the population growths of the San Fernando Valley between 1910 up to the 1960s.
Advertising during the 1910s and the 1960s in the San Fernando Valley played an underrated yet effective role at contributing to the population increase. Mike Davis, City of Quartz, clearly describes some of the adverting activity in the San Fernando Valley from an account of the Young Peoples’ Socialist League passing through the Valley, “…The YPSLs in their red Model-T trucks passed by scores of billboards, planted amid beet field and walnut orchards, advertising the impending subdivision of the San Fernando Valley owned by the cities richest men and annexed [to Los Angeles in 1915] the following year…” When the town of Girard (Woodland Hills) opened in 1923, a number of advertising campaigns were practiced throughout the Valley and Los Angeles to promote the valley town. Since Girard was the farther of most Valley towns, the advertisements, which read “Free ticket to see the town of Girard,” were posted all over Los Angeles bus stops such as 518 South Hill Street, where passengers would be picked up by a bus and transported to Girard . As population of the Valley increased, Girard of the twenties witnessed an increase in activities with the help of advertising campaigns as free bus riders of Los Angeles fled the new town. A country club for golfers, recreational horse riding, a swimming pool, and the Girard Inn were among the happening scenes in the small town during the twenties. The southwest corner of the San Fernando Valley had its share of advertising as well. Hidden Hills, which was no exception to the population growth of the Valley, set up a number of billboards to promote the substantial number of land offerings. The motif of these promotions was to promote subdivision of the land in 1950. The billboards near the city read, “1000 Acres of Living Room; Live in Hidden Hills Where Living is Fun!”
Promotion for the San Fernando Valley went further than advertising in newspapers, posters, and billboards. Some cities in the Valley attempted to encourage growth by naming their cities with quasi-fictional, charismatic, and attentive titles for their new lands. Most these names were slogans to lure new inhabitants to the San Fernando Valley with names which would tantalize the traveler. Part of the Valley’s charm is that sections are named for a fictional ape-man (Tarzana), an English manor (Chatsworth), an Indian settlement (Tujunga), and promotional slogans (Studio City, Sun Valley, Sunland).
Unfortunately with the 50 years of extensive population growth in the San Fernando Valley between 1910 and 1960, the Valley was no exception in being an area of racial bigotry. The predominant ethnicity in the San Fernando Valley during this period was White Americans. A chart regarding the ethnic composition of Los Angeles County at the end of the 1960s read 71% White, 18% of Hispanic origin, with the rest being African-American. The numbers were further more lopsided favoring the White Americans in the San Fernando Valley. The white population in the San Fernando Valley according to the census of 1950 was over 99% and the African-American population was less than 1%. The numbers were indifferent a decade later when the 1960 census recorded similar percentages.
There are a couple conspicuous reasons for the dominantly white population growth of the San Fernando Valley during 1910 and 1960. In principal, the San Fernando Valley from the turn of the twentieth century up to the 1960s was simply a racially biased area (the rest of the nation was not exactly racially coherent either). Restrictive covenants in housing titles which forbade the sale of housing or land property to persons other than white was advocated by the State of California. The prohibiting of sale to African-Americans during this period in the San Fernando Valley was all too common. The predisposed white class merely sought to move to the San Fernando Valley to ‘get away’ and enjoy the ‘promised life’ (as seen in billboard advertisements during this period), something the non-whites could apparently not afford. Lastly, as mentioned earlier, the San Fernando Valley during this period was profoundly focused in subdivision of the land. Prospects who purchased these lands were considerably wealthy men. These men, Victor Girard, Earl White, Harrison Gray Otis, Edgar Rice, and Charles Weeks among an array of others were rich white men as there were extremely few rich black men in Southern California who could or were willing to afford these estates. These circumstances led to a predominately white class in the growth of the San Fernando Valley from the turn of the century up to the sixties.
Today, the San Fernando Valley is arguably one of the most diversely concentrated areas in America. It is important to understand the factors which have led to the Valley’s tremendous population growth in order to understand the population patters of today. Regardless of the racial bias in the Valley, the growth between the periods 1910 to 1960 was astonishing. As noted, the San Fernando Valley population in 1910 was approximately 3,300. By the twenties it progressed to over 20,000 as postwar population of the Valley skyrocketed to over 228,000 and still doubling until the end of the sixties. Three elements – access, development, and advertisement – between the years 1910 to 1960 created the perfect foundation for population growth in the San Fernando Valley. Access to the San Fernando Valley via the three significant pass regions not only encouraged easier travel in and out of the Valley, but gave way to a lasting supply of water. Secondly, developments in subdivision, motion picture and aviation industries of the Valley during this period boasted population growth. Lastly, the vital advertising campaigns in and around the Valley helped depict the ease in accessibility and development which consequently gave way to heightened populace numbers between 1910 and 1960.
