RICHARD BOGY SPEAKS OUT ABOUT THE WEDDINGTON HOUSE

Ventura Boulevard 1957 - Postcard in the collection of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley - Gift of Gary Fredburg - 2008
"Studio City, California. This famous boulevard joins the San Fernando Valley with the blue Pacific - Highway 101.

RICHARD BOGY'S STATEMENT

More than a year ago we learned that the Weddington House – the “mother house” of North Hollywood - was scheduled for demolition. The community immediately responded and asked to have the house declared a historic landmark. The significance of the Weddington family to North Hollywood can not be overstated.

Since the house received landmark status we have worked to find an appropriate site for it. As we progressed a broader vision for the future of the house became obvious, to create a regional museum for North Hollywood and to make the Weddington home the site of that museum. The Weddington family pledged their historic artifacts and $100,000 to this cause. Informal discussions ensured with the Museum of the San Fernando Valley to operate a museum. This past December our efforts were blind-sided by news that an organization in Lincoln Heights - known as “Heritage Square” – was trying to take the Weddington home and have it moved to their property.

As people throughout this community heard of plans to move the house across the City, disbelief and anger seemed the most common responses. Few could understand why the City would allow a historic home to be carted away, or why a group with no ties to either the home or North Hollywood would try to take an artifact away from a community that is fighting so hard to preserve it. Neighborhood Councils, business and homeowner groups, Chambers of Commerce and more spoke out loudly against moving the Weddington home away from North Hollywood , but as the community rallied to keep the home, Heritage Square stepped up their efforts to have it moved to their site. At a recent Cultural Heritage Commission hearing Heritage Square made an extended presentation of why they should receive the Weddington house, but when preservationists in support of keeping the home in North Hollywood rose to speak they were asked to constrain their comments in the interest of time.

The last and best hope for North Hollywood to save the Weddington house is Councilman Tom LaBonge, who is working to find a way to keep the home where it belongs.

On March 2nd historical societies from across Los Angeles gathered at Heritage Square to network and share artifacts, but North Hollywood could not be represented there, because as we struggle to preserve our history we find ourselves in a fight to keep it. Heritage Square should immediately stop their efforts to take an important artifact – the Weddington house - from the community where it belongs.

Richard Bogy
Toluca Lake CA