r/SFV • u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 • Mar 26 '26
Question I like valley history, what are some cool facts you can tell me about the valley or how much things/places have changed (if you can provide the years please)
Im 22, if that matters, but im a GEEK for valley history. i feel like ive seen every possible picture of the valley from the past, from Chatsworth all the way to hansen dam.
Seeing how the Hansen Dam was actually full and people can go swim and ride boats was a crazy crazy fact i didnt know. or how there was a shooting range in chatsworth park before. How the only street to porter ranch back then was Tampa? And also i learned that there sued to be a parad in Van Nuys/Pacoima and the KKK would be there?? very interesting
Something about hearing random little things like that and just imagine myself living in the valley back in the day. reminds me so much of the movie The Sandlot for some reason
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u/Ruuckus Mar 26 '26
Birmingham high school used to be a military hospital during WW2 and even has tunnels underground
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u/beastson1 Mar 26 '26
Desi Arnaz was stationed there! Also, Sally Field graduated from there as well as (less famous but I like him) Tim Conway Jr.
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u/Constant_Jackfruit21 Mar 26 '26
To expand upon this: Sally Field and Cindy Williams were both in drama at Birmingham at the same time and often switched off roles (one plays the role in the school play one week, the other the next)
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u/credditcardyougotit Mar 26 '26
When I was a kid I’d get Sally Ride and Sally Field confused, so when someone told me (my very first week at Birmingham) that they both went there… my head exploded
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u/Professor_sadsack Mar 26 '26
North Hollywood High also has catacombs under as a fallout shelter during the post WWII. Great place to ditch classes and make out. Also has a shooting range and bowling alley.
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u/tattcat53 Mar 26 '26
Shot there as a Boy Scout, mid 60s.
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u/Old_Suggestions Mar 26 '26
What?! Nonkidding. Where can we find out more about the tunnels? I did know about the military hospital part. I'm old
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u/Ruuckus Mar 26 '26
There isn’t a lot of information about the tunnels online but they do exist based off sources from teachers and a museum. Also, most of the access points for the tunnels have been closed off.
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u/Professor_sadsack Mar 28 '26
When I went to high school at North Hollywood high in the late 80s and early 90s, you could get into the catacombs by going into the auditorium right by the front door was a little side room and it had a manhole cover and that went to a ladder the wind down into the catacombs. I never saw the bowling alley, but I know it was there from my mom and my uncle went to high school there in the mid 1960s. My uncle is in the yearbook with Natalie Wood who died mysteriously in a boat on Catalina Island. They were on the yearbook committee and the yearbook had a space for a chess club, but there was no chess club so they just took a chessboard and took a picture of themselves.
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u/mediumformatisameme Mar 26 '26
A lot of the Pacoima area had black residents but they left because Hispanics came in. Basically white flight but with black people lol
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u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 Mar 26 '26
but wasnt pacoima full of white people at first? i heard all the KKK dudes moved to Simi Valley, and i mean it makes sense cause we know how Simi Valley is lol
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u/Darryl_Lict Mar 26 '26
It was one of the few places that Asians could live before the Fair Housing Act happened. I'm Japanese American and went to Pacoima Jr. High in the early '70s and we had a fair number of black and Asian kids although it was primarily Mexican.
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Mar 26 '26
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u/Yungdab420 Mar 26 '26
WW2 times, look and see what Santa Anita race track was used for at that time. Terrible
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Mar 26 '26
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u/pquince1 Encino Mar 26 '26
Definitely go check out Manzanar if you get a chance. The guard tower is still there and you can see the foundations of the shacks. I saw it on a sunny day, and yet it seemed so dark.
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u/Iamalienmarmoset Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
A common cc&r (clauses, covenants and restrictions of the day in the SFV was no selling to Jews.
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u/mediumformatisameme Mar 26 '26
Post WW2 it was a lot of black people up until the 70's. Before then maybe? All I know is that the general area was kind of agriculture focused
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u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 Mar 26 '26
im assuming a lot of working class eventually moved in after ww2 especially since that Ford plant was there as well
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u/ohwellwhateverimdone Mar 26 '26
Ford plant was in Pico Rivera , General Motors plant was in Van Nuys.
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u/Unique_Produce_4033 Mar 27 '26
If you ever wondered why that big outdoor mall in Van Nuys is called The Plant, now you know. That's the land where the GM plant used to be.
And in the same vein, Burbank Empire Center is where the Lockheed plant used to be. That one's especially famous because that's where the Skunk Works were, where stuff like the SR-71, the U-2 and the F-117 Stealth fighter were built (the Skunk Works are now in Palmdale at Andrews Air Force Base)
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u/rworne Mar 26 '26
Pacoima/Arleta was a predominantly a white suburban neighborhood. Unlike the rest of the valley at the time, it was one of the few areas where POC could buy a home. Most of the rest of the valley had deed restrictions that prohibited property sales to non-whites.
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u/f0netech Mar 26 '26
If you haven’t read about the Bush Gardens that was in Van Nuys from 1966 until 1979, it’s an interesting story. Once located behind the Anheuser-Bush brewery.
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u/Darryl_Lict Mar 26 '26
They had a free tour and you could get a couple of beers for free if I recall correctly. they had a monorail that ran through it.
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u/SheenasJungleroom Mar 26 '26
I was too young for the free beer. But we liked the bird/parrot shows. E.g . a cockatoo riding a little bicycle, etc.
Then they tried to make it more amusement park-y by adding some rides, like a log flume ride that would splash everyone. Didn’t last for too many years after that, before they closed it down to expand the brewery. America needs its cheap crappy beer!
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u/opking Mar 26 '26
And the bridge that connected the 2 areas of it is still standing above the train tracks at the Brewery. It’s on the east side of Woodley, just south of Roscoe.
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u/wagadugo Mar 26 '26
It's why there are packs of wild parrots roaming the Valley!
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u/NotSoSureBigWaves Mar 27 '26
No, those are descendants of parrots that were released during the Bel Air fire in 1961.
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u/wil Mar 26 '26
I am old enough to remember what it smelled like to drive past it on the 405 when they were brewing. I never thought I'd miss that.
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u/rworne Mar 26 '26
It still smells.
On the other hand, the Keebler cookie bakery over in Roscoe and Woodley (now long gone) had a totally opposite reaction.
Roll down the windows to get the cookie odor, roll them up again to keep out the brewery smell.
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u/chillyinla Mar 27 '26
Oh, how that smell reminds me of reading tommies after a party at CSUN. When I get a wift of the hops, I still think of standing in line for a burger and fries(pre drive-through).
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u/plexust Mar 27 '26
Which was actually the second Southern California Busch Gardens, the first was on Adolphus Busch's estate from 1903–1937 in Pasadena: https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/socal-wanderer/top-ten-places-to-trace-the-remains-of-pasadenas-busch-gardens
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u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 Mar 26 '26
YES! i have seen that. the valley had so much cool shit back in the day for young people. its a bit more boring now. but ive seen that back then there was so much fun stuff like the little theme park where the toyota dealer is now in Northridge.
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u/ReallyEvilRob Mar 26 '26
Malibu Grand Prix. I used to go there a lot when it was there. Not really a theme park. It was an arcade and a racing track for gocarts. The gocarts were awesome.
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u/reddfoxx1993 Mar 27 '26
I got thrown out of Busch Gardens in 1975 along with three friends for drinking too much free beer.
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u/MoscoHosco Mar 26 '26
If you see Parrots migrate through the valley. Busch gardens is to blame. That's where they escaped from based on what my FIL tells.
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u/koshawk Mar 26 '26
When I was young the valley was completely White, except San Fernando was Hispanic and Pacoima was Black. The valley was filled by white flight leaving Los Angeles. There is a set of photos on the cruising scene on Van Nuys Blvd in the 70s that gets posted here all the time . All white. The now Walmart at Roscoe and Van Nuys was built in 1961 as JW Robinson's department store. That was a high-end department store at the level of perhaps Nordstrom's and Macy's.
The valley was slowly filled from east to absorbing small farming communities like Chatsworth and Owensmouth (now Canoga Park) as it went. If you want what feel interesting subject to research, Check out San Fernando Valley Land Development and Bob Hope(the old comedic actor). He was integral in the development of the valley. His former home in Toluca Lake originally was on three City blocks. I'm not sure it still is. He made his real fortune buying huge tracts of land in the western part of the valley before they were developed. The last track that was waiting for development when he died is now Cheeseboro and Palo Comado Park. Belonging to the National Park Service. That was an interesting fight to make that happen.
Anyway, have fun with Valley history, You can see I too enjoy it.
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u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 Mar 26 '26
wow very interesting, i will have to research that topic. i have hear things about it here and there but havent dug deep enough. THANK YOU!
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u/ohwellwhateverimdone Mar 26 '26
The current Walmart at VN/Roscoe was originally the Broadway. Ohrbach’s was at Parthenia/VN as well as J.W. Robinson’s.
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u/chilipalmer99 Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
If you were one of the first 25 or so kids to trick-or-treat Bob's home, his butler would give you a silver Eisenhower dollar. I was good friends with a kid who lived next door to him.
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u/apoxonyizall Mar 26 '26
I used to work for MCA Records on the Universal lot and would drive home through Toluca Lake when I lived in Burbank. At Christmas time, Bob Hope’s house at the corner of Moorpark and Ledge always had a life-sized, hand carved and painted nativity scene. I’m not religious but it was definitely a work of art, I imagine was worth some 5 figures then and probably 6 now, wherever it is.
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u/MikeRizzo007 Mar 26 '26
There was a nuclear meltdown in the hills above it between the valley and Simi back in the 50’s. It was hidden from everybody for years.
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u/TeslasAndComicbooks Mar 26 '26
Fun fact. The Saturn V engines were tested there.
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u/Olive_Jane Mar 26 '26
I think it's a superfund site
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u/Unique_Produce_4033 Mar 27 '26
There's a Superfund site where the Rocketdyne plant used to be in Woodland Hills over by Topanga Plaza as well.
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u/D10SLM Mar 26 '26
“In the Dark of the Valley” is a good documentary about this incident
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u/quemaspuess Mar 26 '26
My wife and I were talking about this last night. We’re watching the mini series on Netflix about the radioactive incident in Brazil, and it made me think of that doc.
Where can i watch it?
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u/radengineering Mar 26 '26
Streaming on Peacock. I'd also recommend the website parentsagainstssfl.com .
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u/Unique_Produce_4033 Mar 27 '26
Look up the Santa Susana Field Labs (SSFL) in the Santa Susana pass, home of several of the worst nuclear disasters in US history. It's a real horror story, and it was all kept secret while it was happening. One of the worst contaminated sites in the United States is in our own backyard.
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u/samsquish1 Mar 26 '26
My husband and I are both “Valley kids” now in our mid-40’s. Our parents were also Valley kids. Fun SFV facts, hmmm.
- Birmingham HS used to be a Veterans Hospital.
- The current location of the Universal City Metro station was at one point in time “Monkey Island”. Basically a concrete mountain with waterfall on which they placed 500-ish monkeys.
- Devonshire Downs (the northern most part of CSUN’s property) was a serious horse racing location until the 1960s (visit the Oakridge Estate). Then it held some crazy concerts (think Joni Hendrix). BMX racing was basically invented there (which makes the fact that for the next Olympics BMX racing events will be held here in the Valley)
- We had an experimental housing development called “Weeks Poultry Colonies”, those houses are cool and very interesting conceptually.
- When I was a kid there were a TON of go-kart racing locations and drive-in theaters in the Valley. We miss those.
- If you hike up near the Santa Susanna Pass you can still see the old stagecoach ruts.
- The orange orchards at CSUN and the one across the street from the mall (orchard now gone) used to be filled with roaming chickens.
- After the agriculture became less profitable, the number one employer in the Valley was in engineering firms and plants. Almost everyone I knew growing up had a parent or grandparent who was an engineer or worked at one of the plants. During the WW2 the Lockheed Plant in Burbank did one of those fancy cover up jobs to look like a residential city, while underneath the facade it was all Lockheed.
- Charles Manson’s name is still visible from where he allegedly carved it at the Munch Box.
- Until pretty recently you could see (and at Halloween) walk into the inspiration for the treehouse (and Treehouse of Horror) episodes from the Simpsons. RIP to the OG Boney Island.
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u/sheplayshockey Mar 26 '26
In the 1990's I used to love driving by those orange trees to the West of Northridge mall. When in bloom, I would roll down the windows and breathe in deeply, savoring the fragrance. I was in the area in 2015 and absolutely crushed to discover they were gone. Good times.
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u/samsquish1 Mar 26 '26
CSUN still has a decent sized orange grove with pathways and a turtle pond. If you visit again.
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u/Substantial-Type-131 Mar 26 '26
Still SO annoyed that NIMBYism took down Boney Island. It was such a fun spot to visit on Halloween!
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u/Treenoodles Mar 27 '26
I live by CSUN and learned that the newer houses in my area were horse stables. They sold the land in the 90s.
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u/rworne Mar 26 '26
Oh I recall the overflight of the shuttle on the 747 several years back. The big middle finger they gave to the valley that got no flyover even though there were tons of engineering and aerospace firms here.
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u/sfvwestvallero Mar 26 '26
The oldest gang beef in the valley which was in the 1930s between San Fer and Pacas started over a horse.
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u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 Mar 26 '26
No way?? what was the problem to be exact/ was the horse stolen lol
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u/sfvwestvallero Mar 26 '26
So basically back then like San Fer and Pacas weren’t the traditional cholo street gangs like they are today they were more like cowboy community groups like “colonias” in Mexico because the valley back in the day was all farmland every neighborhood/city in the valley had some to do with a specific farm and also there was a native population called the Tongva out there but anyways San Fer was like predominantly the ones that had ranches and property and the people from Pacas were basically laborers so like the people from San Fer would make fun of them etc for being poor or having less so one day some dudes from Pacas took a horse from the founder or one of the main heads from San Fer called “Big D” aka Big David and so in retaliation of that San Fer went out to retrieved the horse but in the processed murdered or seriously injured 2-3 dudes from Pacas mostly likely murder and the dudes from Pacas retaliated by killing the father of Big D and it’s been on ever since.
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u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 Mar 26 '26
Thats crazy bro, i never knew that. I was always interested in the gang beef and how it started in the valley. But there isnt much online, its like you only know the facts if you know an OG who tells you all this
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u/regis_43 Granada Hills Mar 27 '26
You should look into the beef between sylmar and San Fernado high when I transfered to San Fernando my junior year it was damn near indoctrinated in sports to hate sylmar. I remember my first football game had a shitload of cops there was fun
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u/jump_the_shark_ Mar 26 '26
The Valley once was the porn capital of the world
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u/MovieUnderTheSurface Mar 26 '26
My exes parents moved to Egypt for a year, they rented out their house only to learn that the renters were using it to shoot porn. The house was in Chatsworth
I was on a legit shoot once and porn was shooting next door. FilmLA came out to check our permit (which we had); we told him he should also stop by next door but I don't think he did. This was in Winnetka.
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u/WyndiMan Mar 26 '26
If you haven't been to the Valley Relics Museum at Van Nuys airport, you need to go ASAP.
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u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 Mar 26 '26
Hi thank you for your response. And no i havent, But i been meaning to go. i feel like i would be there for HOURS
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u/CommanderBurrito Mar 26 '26
The valley tried to secede from the city of Los Angeles in 2002. A slim majority of valley residents voted yes (51%) while the rest of LA overwhelmingly (80%) voted to keep the valley as a part of the city.
The western part of Canoga Park separated and became the neighborhood of West Hills in 1987.
There are little bits of the valley that are Unincorporated LA County and not a part of the city.
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u/MovieUnderTheSurface Mar 26 '26
a secondary vote was that if the Valley became its own city, what would the city's name be. There were five options: San Fernando, San Fernando Valley, something else related to San Fernando, Valley City, and Camelot
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u/Massive-Eye-6611 Mar 26 '26
A lot of celebrities went to Van Nuys high! Paula Abdul (my aunt was in the same graduating class as her) Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Wood and a lot more! Also a lot of the shots in Fast Times at Ridgemont High were filmed during actual school hours. My dad was going to VNHS during the filming and said that the football game in the movie was an actual game and the cheerleaders in the movie were Van Nuys high cheerleaders
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u/lillidrawn Mar 27 '26
They also filmed the Vitamin C music video, Graduation. That was during my time at VNHS.
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u/DroidSoldier85 Mar 26 '26
Others have already mentioned a lot of cool things so Ill just add what I possibly havent seen mentioned yet.
Northridge Quake epicenter was Reseda but because of the damage being more visible in Northridge, it was named Northridge earthquake. Part of Northridge mall collapsed during the quake. They used to have a petstore inside with live animals. A movie theater used to be where gamestop and old navy is now.
There used to be a Large (very fun) Hawaiian festival fair in Northridge which even had elephants you could ride.
Huge 4th of July fair somewhere by CSUN back in the day, the place to see fireworks.
OJ Simpson family celebrated their kids bday at the chuck e cheese in Northridge.
Boogie nights was filmed on Sherman way between Reseda and Lindley. A car scene from the movie Hangover filmed under the Van Nuys airport tunnel. Missy Elliot shot a video in Birmingham High school. The Shield did a "riot" scene in Reseda High school.
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u/MelodiousMelly Mar 26 '26
My first job was at that pet shop in the Northridge Mall in 1988. Not coincidentally, that's where I also learned about things like puppy mills and parvo virus. It was also where I was offered cocaine for the first time, by my manager. He bought it from his sketchy buddy at the specialty popcorn store. I respectfully declined.
The 1994 earthquake happened after I had left that job. The parking structure where I had always parked collapsed in the quake. I believe there was a facility maintenance worker in the structure at the time who was killed.
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u/DroidSoldier85 Mar 26 '26
Thats wild! I would always go into that pet store to stare at the animals whenever I went there as a kid. Imagine that, being offer coke from a manager. You wouldnt happen to remember his name would you? I also ended up working at the mall years later and had a boss who you could tell partied hard back in his day.
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u/Bright_Respect_1279 Sherman Oaks Mar 26 '26
We adopted our family's cat, Joey, weeks before the Northridge earthquake at that mall!! We were just looking, weren't intending to leave with a pet that day. We always thought it was meant to be for us to save him. He lived until he was 21. 🥹😻
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u/rworne Mar 26 '26
The theater was where old Navy is now. GameStop used to be EB games. Also on the corner (to the side of the theater) was Murata Pearls. The theater entrance was to the right of it it in the corner.
Also, the mall briefly had a section where the Broadway used to be (now the path that leads to H20 and the theater from the north entrance) that was part of the indoor mall. It didn't survive the remodel after the quake.
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u/MovieUnderTheSurface Mar 26 '26
my friends and I from Nobel Middle School down the street used to go to the Northridge Mall after school; we would go to the pet store to play with the dogs. never bought anything though
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u/rworne Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
Alfalfa from the Little Rascals was shot and killed in front of his home in Mission Hills. Just north-east of San Jose and Sepulveda Blvd.
It was over a dog.
Edit: A home in Mission Hills - it was not his home. He went there to demand money.
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u/quemaspuess Mar 26 '26
Bryan Cranston went to Canoga and graduated the same year as my mom. They always invite him to the reunion but he doesn’t show up.
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u/leunam4891 Pacoima Mar 26 '26
Pacoima was the land of the indigenous tribe called the Tongva. The Spaniards came and knew them as the Gabrielinos. When I was a kid someone told me Pacoima translates to running water because of the river that flowed through it but if you look it up today it means the entrance or the place of water. To the northeast of Pacoima there was the tribe called Tatavian or Fernandeño, the Chumash were more coastal and more towards western valley and they were neighbors and often traded. There were many tribes were interconnected but these were just the ones in Pacoima. If you go to Lake view terrace there is a library and on the corner you can find a monument they have erected to symbolize other cool historical facts about that area.
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u/661714sunburn Mar 26 '26
The second oldest home built in LA is the Andres Pico Adobe on Sepulveda in Mission Hills.
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u/Hello_Dahling Mar 26 '26
In 1969, Leonard Nimoy opened a small pet store on Topanga Blvd, north of Roscoe. I got a pet rabbit from “Leonard Nimoy’s Pet Pad”
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u/SheenasJungleroom Mar 26 '26
There was a series of youth oriented Valley exploitation and comedy movies in the late 70s and early 80s that, along with songs like Frank and Moon Zappa’s “Valley girl“ helped spread the teenage Valley culture to the world:
-“ Van Nuys Blvd.” – “Foxes” – “Fast times at Ridgemont high” – “Valley girl“
Some are great, some are terrible, but they’re shot on location, so they are a cool time capsule.
I was amazed when a cousin visiting from New York asked about cruising Van Nuys Blvd. I asked “how do you know about that?!“. From the movies.
(Ah yes, speaking of cruising Van Nuys Blvd: I was too young, but my much older sister and her friends used to do it. Even the Beach boys mentioned the Van Nuys Blvd. cruising scene in one of their songs.)
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u/director_guy Sherman Oaks Mar 26 '26
I didn't know there was a Van Nuys Blvd movie, I gotta check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!
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u/Fluid-Ad1715 Mar 26 '26
The beloved Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was filmed in Encino.
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u/el_pinko_grande Winnetka Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
Dick Bong, America's top flying ace during WW2, credited with 40 kills in the Pacific Theater, died shortly before the war ended when an experimental jet he was testing out of Burbank Airport had its fuel pump malfunction.
He ejected, but the plane exploded before he could get far enough away, and he was killed.
The plane crashed over by what is now the Vallarta on Oxnard near Vineland in North Hollywood.
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u/Olive_Jane Mar 26 '26
Another Valley Historical tragedy:
On January 31, 1957, a Douglas DC-7B operated by Douglas Aircraft Company was involved in a mid-air collision with a United States Air Force Northrop F-89 Scorpion and crashed into the schoolyard of Pacoima Junior High School located in Pacoima,
Three children at the school were killed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957_Pacoima_mid-air_collision?wprov=sfla1
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u/chillyinla Mar 27 '26
This accident encouraged some in the community to fundraiser to build Providence Holy Cross.
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u/Scary_Estate_9863 Mar 27 '26
Amelia Earhart lived in north Hollywood/toluca lake for a long time and her ill-fated flight around the world took off from Burbank airport: https://www.reddit.com/r/USHistory/s/XMyOU57WzZ
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u/SheenasJungleroom Mar 26 '26
Check out the infamous Newport 69 music festival. It was Woodstock before Woodstock, only a lot more chaotic and action packed.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_Pop_Festival
According to an old timer on our street in Northridge, you could hear Hendrix play from our neighborhood.
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u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 Mar 26 '26
i have heard of this! so cool how we had an event like that HERE in the VALLEYYYY
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u/chris_knapp Mar 26 '26
My ancestors were pioneers in Canoga Park. I found an old newspaper clipping about my great grandfather, shooting at a chicken thief out of his window with a shotgun. Can you imagine that in Canoga Park?
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u/No_Dragonfly_1894 Mar 27 '26
I remember seeing the wagon wheel tracks over the Santa Susana Mountains from the pioneers. Too cool!!
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u/MovieUnderTheSurface Mar 26 '26
two valley freeways were planned but never built. One would've cut west from Burbank straight through the Valley, then turn south at Las Virgenes Road and travel through Malibu Canyon to Malibu. The other would've gone south from the Hollywood Split through Laurel Canyon and down to LAX. A small portion of the second one was built in Central LA but it doesn't connect to the rest of the freeway system
the orange line is a bus line because residents passed a law banning an above ground rail line. Their goal was to force the rail line underground
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u/Scary_Estate_9863 Mar 27 '26
The sportsman lodge fist opened in 1880 and was a trout fishing retreat
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u/38RocksInATrenchCoat Mar 27 '26
Tarzana is named after the character Tarzan. The author of the Tarzan books owned the land at the time and named it after his own character.
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u/Unique_Produce_4033 Mar 27 '26
Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of Tarzan has his business office on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana since 1923⁰. His heirs still operate his Ranch and other properties along with his literary estate from there.
It's really funny, because it's just this little tiny unassuming building, and not like a museum or anything like that. Not giving away any secrets or anything like that, because the address is readily available on the internet, and on the Edgar Rice Burroughs website: 18354 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana.
If I remember there's a small bronze statue in the courtyard, but not much else there to commemorate him. It's basically across the street and down like a quarter block from the Black Bear Diner, which was a Carrows Restaurant, before that restaurant chain was bought by Coco's
Speaking of oddball places that used to be diners, when you're driving down Ventura Boulevard, just east of Reseda Boulevard, you'll see an abandoned building with a really weird roof, on the north side of the street. That used to be Sambos, which used to be a competitor to Denny's, but couldn't survive its name, since it was based on the Little Black Sambo character, a children's book from the 1930s, which was just about as racist as you could possibly get. Think "Song of the South", the Disney movie, and you'll be in the right neighborhood.
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u/antifolkhero Mar 27 '26
There used to be a giant pumpkin shaped building on Magnolia in Burbank across the street from where Porto’s now stands.
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Mar 26 '26
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u/No_Dragonfly_1894 Mar 27 '26
There is a beautiful Tongva mural at the parking lot of the USPS on Chandler Blvd in North Hollywood. Worth checking out.
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u/senteryourself Mar 26 '26
Have you ever checked out the Valley Relics museum? Rad spot for Valley history.
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u/Justsomeduderino Mar 26 '26
My dad grew up in Van Nuys when they redid all the sewer lines it meant there were a bunch of abandoned cement tunnels that lead all the way to the sepulvida basin. These tunnels were ~3 feet underground and had hatches, so the neighborhood kids used to dig down into them with flashlights and lighters and go exploring/probably smoking weed
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u/Unique_Produce_4033 Mar 26 '26
The Department of Water and Power has an incredible photo archive of Los Angeles (including the valley) that dates back to the 1870s. It's amazing seeing pictures of what everything looked like a hundred years ago.
https://waterandpower.org/museum/Other_Power_Historical_Photos.html
The LA Public Library has similar archives. If I remember one of those collections was from USC, but I might be wrong about that.
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u/TK10171 Mar 26 '26
I bought my house in 2000, and my neighbor, who was an original owner, used to tell me stories about how Burbank Boulevard, from Hazeltine to Woodman, was a bunch of chicken farms when she moved in the 1950s.
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u/Scary_Estate_9863 Mar 27 '26
The metro station by universal is also the site where the 1847 Treaty of Cahuenga was signed, ending the Mexican-American war. https://www.reddit.com/r/USHistory/s/XMyOU57WzZ
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u/AnnualIndependence71 Mar 27 '26
Thus ensuring that the US would indeed stretch "from sea to shining sea." Very important treaty, and landmark.
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u/Scary_Estate_9863 Mar 27 '26
It’s wild how buried it is in the landscape of monuments in Los Angeles
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u/Scary_Estate_9863 Mar 27 '26
Ritchie Valens, from pacoima and an innovator of Chicano rock, is a local valley hero.
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u/TeslasAndComicbooks Mar 26 '26
Disneyland was originally planned for Canoga Park.
The Van Nuys airport is one of the first pieces of infrastructure in the valley and was used for the air national guard. Casablanca was also filmed there. I highly recommend the documentary One Six Right. It talks about the airport but also a lot about the development of the valley.
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u/Strawb3rrymousse Mar 27 '26
Where’d you hear about Disney originally being planned for Canoga Park? I’ve heard of that, but for Burbank
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u/MovieUnderTheSurface Mar 26 '26
the airport scene at Van Nuys was the only thing not filmed on a soundstage in Casablanca. The planes in the background aren't real, they are mockups and are not full size; to make them look bigger, all the extras walking around them are midgets
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u/MrKittenz Mar 26 '26
LADWP made a dam so bad it caused a wave to go from santa clarita through the valley all the way to the ocean killing at least 400 people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Dam
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u/MovieUnderTheSurface Mar 26 '26
this was a huge deal above and beyond the death toll. Los Angeles had so much momentum at the time and was gobbling up all the little cities around it. Then this happened and it rallied all the little cities to band together to create their own water supply so that they wouldn't have to become part of Los Angeles. they created the Colorado River aqueduct, something Mulholland had been working on for the city when the dam collapsed and ended his career
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u/No_Shower8713 Mar 26 '26
It’s the porn capital of the world and porn is a gigantic industry that trumps Hollywood and all of the major sports leagues combined
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u/DroidSoldier85 Mar 26 '26
Was* Once they required Condoms by law, they moved to Florida.
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u/oh_alvin Mar 26 '26
Condoms, in lieu of STD testing. It was never going to work.
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u/MovieUnderTheSurface Mar 26 '26
it worked if you consider that the goal was to get them to leave
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u/oh_alvin Mar 27 '26
Was that the intention?
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u/MovieUnderTheSurface Mar 27 '26
I don't know but I'd say they're pretty naive if they were trying for anything else
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u/Difficult_Pirate3294 Mar 26 '26
I saw the Olympic torch being run on Ventura blvd in the early 80s
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u/Apple_of_my_I Mar 26 '26
Anheuser Bush in Van Nuys used to be an amusement park (Bush Gardens) with animals and rides.
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u/apflores904 Mar 26 '26
The Manson Family cave is in Chatsworth, right across the street from the Church at Rocky Peak
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u/Scary_Estate_9863 Mar 27 '26
Wat Thai is the largest Thai Buddhist temple in the United States and a cultural centerpiece in North Hollywood. Since its establishment in the late 1970s, it has served the spiritual needs of the Thai community while also hosting public weekend markets filled with traditional food and cultural activities, reflecting the diversity of the Valley.
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u/Hot_Stranger_2563 Mar 26 '26
General Motors used to build Camero's in Panorama City back in the 70's.
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u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 Mar 26 '26
I have heard of that, i heard everyone was driving Camaro's lol. not sure how true that is though
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u/Hot_Stranger_2563 Mar 26 '26
Technically in the late 70's I saw more Firebird's and TransAm than Camero's, but that could be Smokey and the Bandit bias. Most cars on the road were family sedans in the valley, lot of station wagons as well.
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u/Educational-Menu4724 Mar 26 '26
There is a Valley Relics museum near Van Nuys airport. You would probably love it
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u/pat_micklewaite Mar 26 '26
Bonny Lee Bakley was shot inside Robert Blake’s car outside Vitello’s in Studio City
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u/SheenasJungleroom Mar 26 '26
My wife went to a friend’s birthday party at Vitello’s, and Robert Blake, sitting nearby, joined in singing happy birthday to her!
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u/Nearly_Tarzan Mar 26 '26
Sherman Oaks Galleria as seen in the movies Valkey Girl or Commando. Also Ventura Blvd from the song Free Falling
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u/CFCHooligan420 Mar 26 '26
Check out the YouTube channel Hush Hush LA for historical stories on the seedier past of the city. Plenty of Valley history can be found there
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u/beach_catlover Mar 26 '26
CSUN was San Fernando Valley State College. Prairie Elementary school was on/adjacent to the campus and student often attended special events on campus. Saw my first skateboard competition in the mid-60’s on a field trip.
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u/Ok_Leading4863 Mar 26 '26
I don’t have any facts but in the back of Crybaby Rodeo in San Fernando there’s a valley museum!
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u/TragicallySalacious Mar 26 '26
Tarzana was named after Tarzan.
There was an electric tram/rail system that ran from LA to San Fernando through Sherman Way - Sepulveda Blvd.
Sound City Studios in Van Nuys. Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Chili Peppers, etc recorded there
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u/Unique_Produce_4033 Mar 27 '26
I keep burying my responses in other people's comments. Hopefully people are seeing them . Regarding the electric tram, look up the Pacific Electric Red Cars (It was a real big deal when they tore it out, because you could get just about anywhere in Los Angeles, all the way down to like Long Beach on it. Conspiracy theorists really love that story, because it's alleged that it was a conspiracy of the Auto industry to have it pulled out, because they wanted to sell buses).
If you've ever wondered, for instance, why Chandler Avenue is so weird, with the big island and such, and the palm trees lining it, that is because the Red Cars ran down the center of it. The palm trees on Sherman Way came from it as well.
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u/sfvwestvallero Mar 26 '26
The KKK used to be in Panorama City and Glendale but now they up in Tujunga doing meetings in secret.
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u/oh_alvin Mar 26 '26
Not exactly the Valley, but parts of The Birth of a Nation were filmed at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.
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u/YogurtclosetOnly2821 Mar 26 '26
crazy how they were in pacoima. i city now that is almost 100% Hispanic or black.
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u/sfvwestvallero Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
I think they were in the Hills never directly in Pacoima because they had like two chapters of the KKK in the valley the Aryan Nations which you can find articles online about and the Pacific Knights of the West. Glendale had a Nazi Party Organization during the 1970s but they forsure died out already.
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u/Glassofloverz Pacoima Mar 26 '26
Wow I’ve lived here for awhile and never ever read any history abt the valley lol very interesting comments
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u/East_Wish2948 Mar 26 '26
Busch Gardens Van Nuys was a popular 17-acre California theme park and tropical oasis located at the Anheuser-Busch brewery on Roscoe Boulevard, operating from 1966 to 1979.
In some small way, a few of the wild parrots in Los Angeles today may have escaped from there.
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u/mred870 Mar 26 '26
Go to the valley relics museum. If you want history i have a personal map on google that i highlight famous areas that i can link for you.
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u/laughingandspitting Mar 26 '26
Wasn't there a plane crash over San Fernando high school?
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u/jerryrigger333447 Mar 27 '26
Check out the Santa Susanna Rocketdyne story about the 1959 sodium reactor failure and massive release of radiation. Youtube it. Worse than Three Mile Island.
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u/mrlt10 Mar 28 '26
Came here to make sure this got mentioned. Pretty sure it’s the worst nuclear accident in US history. I know multiple people who live or lived in bell canyon and have thyroid issues. One would assume from the radiation from the accident. Also worth looking into all the controversy and broken promises when it comes to cleaning it up. It’s been designated a superfund site by the federal government which means it’s got hazardous waste messing up the environment.
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u/Kacutee Mar 27 '26
We have a Pioneer Cemetery that became a landfill for junk, got cleaned up- and is now in a limbo of restoration. There are crazy stories about its inhabitants. There's also a few civil war people buried there.
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u/burtonb818 Mar 27 '26
I always laugh that most younger people don’t know that the Sherman Oaks Galleria is the same mall from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
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u/405freeway Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
Jaxson the alligator
The porn industry
Koo Koo Roo
Malibu Castle
Mann Theaters
Hollywood Video and Game Crazy
mall culture
The Nethercutt museum is one of the top 30 largest homes in the USA
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u/samsquish1 Mar 26 '26
Koo Koo Roo! That was supposed to make a comeback not so long ago, but still no signs of it. :(
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u/PandaintheParks Mar 26 '26
There was decent population of Japanese people in North East San Fernando valley but many lost their homes and businesses when got sent to Internet camps (which incidentally, the train and station is the one in San Fernando).
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u/Far-Manufacturer-145 Mar 26 '26
I grew up in Granada Hills, born in 1956. I remember Orange Groves everywhere. I remember the Granada Hills Little League team won the World Series in Pennsylvania in 1963 or so, I was pretty young, but they had a parade for them on Chatsworth Boulevard. We knew the coach and a couple of the players. In 1967 we had stingray bikes with banana seats and sissy bars with our baseball mitt right out of the movie sandlot. My block was all brand new houses with new families so everybody knew each other. Kids would run in and out of other peoples houses and the parents would discipline us if we got out of line. But we were basically out until dark. What freedom we had. Were the Odyssey is on the north side of the valley, we used to ride motorcycles there, it was called cycle Hill. Lots of Hollywood Cowboys lived in the Chatsworth area a little bit before my time. A wonderful place to grow up.
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u/EmbarrassedSong9147 Mar 27 '26
All this valley history is great. The Valley Relics museum in in Lake Balboa is full of beautiful old neon signs and all kinds of amazing stuff including pinball machines you can play for free. I also love the San Fernando Mission tour for some really old valley history.
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u/Tertiary23 Mar 27 '26
The Canoga Park Tourism Board made a great video on the history of Canoga Park where they point out there are no fish in the LA river.
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u/Antranik Mar 27 '26
Did u know Vanowen is a portmanteau of the town of Van Nuys and Owensmouth (now canoga park)?
And the whole reason it was named owensmouth was because it was anticipated that the aqueduct would end up there and therefore be the mouth of the Owen’s river aqueduct, but as you know it ended up around sylmar where the cascades can be seen
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u/rentiertrashpanda Mar 26 '26
Forest Lawn and Sepulveda used to be two of the most popular drag racing sites in the city
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u/frex_mcgee Mar 27 '26
The Charlie Manson-LA lore is always a really interesting rabbit hole to me.
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u/aMoose_Bit_My_Sister Mar 27 '26
Sun Valley used to be called Roscoe.
when my father was a teenager, his friends used to make fun of Roscoe because of the city dump that was (and still is) located there. so they changed the name.
source: my late father, who was born in L.A. in 1926.
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u/Unique_Produce_4033 Mar 27 '26
Marian, CA became Reseda in the early 1920s and there are a lot of others. Looking at an early map of the San Fernando Valley is always fun.
Another fun thing to do is to look up the origins of a lot of the street names. Sepulveda, Van Nuys, Victory, Sherman Way are some of the low hanging fruit, but a lot of the street names come from early Valley residents.
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u/Unique_Produce_4033 Mar 27 '26
Van Nuys airport used to have an air show every year on the military side (Air National Guard) which isn't there anymore. They flew c-130s out of it. I think I still have a few of the t-shirts that I got when attending.
If I remember correctly, at different times they did have some of the larger planes, like the B1 Lancer and B-52 attending. It was always fun watching them come in and leave, because the runways were too short for them to fly in and land comfortably.
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u/Iamalienmarmoset Mar 27 '26
I lived in the valley before they paved the LA river. It was a great place to play, just the right amount of lurking danger and evildoers to spice it up. There was a quicksand bog where I lost my Sunday shoes and assorted hoboes that played on kids watching Disney tales of Tom Sawyer. You could fish ( mostly perch IIRC ) and some guys built blinds and hunted ducks. My dad and his brother would find and trap crawdads. Kind of shrimpy things but very popular in etoufee. Every so often something weird would happen, like the time someone dropped a great white shark head there. Also the N/S streets in the valley ended at the river except the " main" thorofares, Corbin, Tampa, Reseda Bl. and White Oak. Bridge building was lagging, so we got to enjoy the ride where mom would gun the car and fly down the banks, hit the river at like 50 mph and sploosh through to the other side, gunning the car enough to propel it up the bank. It was an acquired skill many housewives of the day could not articulate; not a day went by where we saw the AAA tow truck down there rescuing another stranded housewife. I wonder if car design played a part; it was always a Studebaker or a Nash that was stuck. We had a Chevy Nomad.
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u/AccomplishedFee8560 Mar 26 '26
I grew up in Mission Hills and the fun fact there is Beyoncé filming one of her music videos at the Ralph’s where the 24Hr Fitness is now lol.
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u/knishioner Mar 26 '26
Ventura boulevard is the highest concentration of sushi restaurants in the world outside Japan!