(click on image to enlarge)1954 Notre Dame High School Arches Yearbook - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2010.
One would expect to find copies of school papers or commencement programs tucked into old yearbooks, but there are often other interesting things as well. For example, inside the back cover of a 1954 Notre Dame High School, Arches Yearbook, is this great aerial photograph of Sherman Oaks. Notre Dame High School is identified by the large oval playing field (still there in 2010) and the auditorium/gymnasium building. The school is located on the corners of Woodman and Riverside Drive. Woodman runs north and south into the foothills of Sherman Oaks.
1 comment:
There's no freeway in the photo. What you're confusing with the freeway is the LA River. The Ventura Freeway was built along the northerly side of the river in this area; construction on the freeway wasn't started until about 1957, and the segment in Sherman Oaks wasn't opened until 1960.
Notre Dame HS is in the middle of the shot (the running track is where the current football field is located). To the right, on Woodman, just next to the LA River is the old Woodman Avenue Elementary School, now the site of a portion of the parking lot at Westfield Fashion Square. Below Notre Dame is a big, empty field, which later became the site of Millikan Jr. High.
You can tell this photo was taken in 1954; Chandler Blvd has very few trees, and at the bottom left corner, you can see the railroad tracks for the Southern Pacific (which is now part of the Orange Line Busway). What's even more interesting is that the area along Valley Vista Blvd (the street that runs parallel to Ventura Blvd, just along the foothills) has few trees, and there are no homes at all in the areas of the hillsides (e.g., Stone Hills, Longridge, etc.).
Interesting photo, brings back a lot of old memories.
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