THE MYSTERY OF TARZANA'S ORIGINAL NAME

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY        2013

Often, in very small bits, the history of the greater San Fernando Valley becomes more complete. This little promotional item, designed as a travel aid, adds to an on-going puzzle about the first name of the Tarzana community. Ralph Herman, noted South Valley historian, says that Tarzana was never called Runnymede as some claim. Yet, here again an artifact shows up with the Runnymede name.

 Mileage log - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013. 

Was "Reseda 284" a postal box? 

Note that Agoura Hills was called Greenwich Village and Woodland Hills called Girard. Felix for Food was located at 18413 Ventura Boulevard. This location is in the community of Tarzana, just east of Reseda Boulevard. 

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY ON 1932 OLMPICS MAP

2010  THE YEAR OF VALLEY ADVENTURES             Northridge100 (then North Los Angeles)

Porky Johnson, Gary Fredburg and I were looking at this 1932 Olympic Games map to see if it showed any events held in the San Fernando Valley.. no luck, but here are a couple of great details from the map and an historic postcard from July 1932.  (click on images to enlarge)

 Map of Olympic Games Los Angeles 1932 -  July 30 to August 14, 1932

 Priceless detail of the Olympics map showing the major towns in the San Fernando Valley. Woodland Hills was called Girard, Northridge was named North Los Angeles, and Sun Valley was identified as Roscoe. Van Nuys, the cities of San Fernando and Burbank, as well as Canoga Park and Calabasas are shown.

 On Thanksgiving day, we were talking with our relatives from Northern California and Iowa about professional football and the chance that Los Angeles might someday have a pro-team again. My wife's cousin said, "Why don't they tear down the colosium and build a NFL stadium there." The room fell deathly silent!  None of us whose lives are part of Los Angeles could conceive our city without the grand old stadium.