McKINLEY HOME FOR BOYS - ONCE IN SHERMAN OAKS

BUILDING A GREAT MUSEUM FOR THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

 McKINLEY HOME FOR BOYS

"An Investment With Assured Dividends" Story of McKinley Home"  Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Neil Ally 2014  (click on images to enlarge them.)

 Administrative Building - McKinley Home for Boys - Structure was standing in 1956

In 1900, a retired minister Uriah Gregory and his wife Alice founded what was to become the McKinley Home for Boys in Artesia, California. In 1922, the Kiwanis Club of Los Angeles spearheaded a campaign resulting in the purchase of a 157 acre ranch in what is now Sherman Oaks.

Boys who lived at the McKinley Home were normal kids who had lost their parents or whose families could not care for them.

The Boys Home property at the corner of Riverside Drive and Woodman Avenue (Southwest of present day Notre Dame High School), remained until the late 1950s.

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The Museum of the San Fernando Valley 

Plaza De La Cordillera

18860 Nordhoff Street 

2nd Floor 

Northridge, CA 91324

GLENDALE'S OAKMONT COUNTRY CLUB

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY              2013

Oakmont Country Club c. 1922 - Vintage postcard - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013 (click on image to enlarge it.)

To learn more about the history of Oakmont Country Club, click HERE.

Do you care about The Museum of the San Fernando Valley and the preservation of Valley history, art and culture?  Let us know.

 John Raymond Leal says:
"Good luck with finding a permanent location - your area deserves no less."

NELL SHIPMAN FEMINIST FILM MAKER OF THE EARLY 20th CENTURY

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY                2013

Nell Shipman's conservative Canadian parents worried about their "head strong" daughter. Nell's history was to prove them correct. As the British Empire struggled in the first World War, Nell decided to come to Hollywood. If the family rented a traditional home in Glendale, they believed they had a chance to influence their daughter's ambitions. They failed.

From 1917 to 1920 the Shipman family rented Nell what was to be the historic Doctor's House now in Brand Park in Glendale.

From the "little white house" on Wilson street, Nell launched an amazing life. She would become a silent screen actress, a writer, produced and director of avant guard motion pictures.

 Nell Shipman - 1892 to 1970

 Nell found herself liberated from family influences when the great influenza epidemic took the life of her mother and a stroke felled her father. By 1920 Nell was rid of her unwanted husband, a great scandal in those days. She used a modest inheritance to hire a staff and dive into film making. Nell Shipman demanded the fair treatment of women and children, and was a champion for early 20th century animal rights.

SNOW AND FLOODING IN HISTORIC VAN NUYS

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY                     2013

1918 and 1919 were years of severe winter weather across America. The great influenza epidemic had taken the lives of thousands of Americans, particularly in the colder states. In 1919 snow covered the mountains surrounding the San Fernando Valley and terrific floods followed. Damaging floods followed in 1922 and 1924.  Much of the flooding was caused by lack of foresight by the land developers who founded the ready-made town site of Van Nuys. Flash floods created havoc along streets such as Tyrone Avenue well into the 1960s.

 

 "Red street car on Van Nuys Boulevard during snow storm. Year approx. 1924." Marked T. R. Sutton. Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Tammy Bain - Littleton, Colorado 2013. (click on image to enlarge it.) Collection of Robert March.

 "Looking north on Van Nuys Boulevard from south west corner of Aetna Street. Appox. 1922"  Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Tammy Bain - Littleton, Colorado 2013. (click on image to enlarge it.) Collection of Robert March.  - I think this shows snow piled from previous storm.

Van Nuys Grammar School - Looking east from Van Nuys Boulevard. date unknown. Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Tammy Bain - Littleton, Colorado 2013. Collection of Robert March. (click on image to enlarge it.)  

 "Looking north on Van Nuys Boulevard, from Aetna Street, during flood. Southern Pacific Railroad Depot in the center of the picture.  Year appox. 1919.(click on image to enlarge it.)  

Marked T. R. Sutton. Older note "Mrs Sutton". Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Tammy Bain - Littleton, Colorado 2013. Collection of Robert March.

Note the facade of the building to the extreme left. Such images not only advertised commercial products but were used to "enlarge" the size of the new town.

 Enlargement of image showing the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot, during the flood.

"Flood waters on Van Nuys Boulevard. Looking north from Delano Street - year appox. 1919" Marked T.R. Sutton - in pen Mrs Sutton." Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Tammy Bain - Littleton, Colorado 2013. Collection of Robert March.


These next photographs, below are not dated. I did a cursory search on the LA Library digital website and can't find matches, but they strike me as being c. 1930s to '50s.

Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Tammy Bain - Littleton, Colorado 2013. Collection of Robert March. "Van Nuys Boulevard - Eastside between Friar and Sylvan Streets."

Van Nuys Boulevard on the East side. Between victory Boulevard and Gilmore Street.

Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Tammy Bain - Littleton, Colorado 2013. Collection of Robert March. (click on image to enlarge it.)   

 North East corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Gilmore Street.

Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Tammy Bain - Littleton, Colorado 2013. Collection of Robert March. (click on image to enlarge it.)  

CIRCLE DRIVE HOUSE AND AQUEDUCT IN 1922

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY           2012

Special thanks to Gary Fredburg, Director of Acquisitions for The Museum of the San Fernando Valley, for the gift of these two important photographs taken in 1922.

 

Caption:  "Home at Circle Drive on the way from Lankershim to Van Nuys. 

Roses everywhere. May 1922." (click on image to enlarge it.)

Comment by Richard Hilton:  "Circle drive is where Chandler curves around onto Van Nuys Boulevard.  Just north of that was the Whitley mansion which I think this is, but the connundrum it had already been sold to someone else and they were selling it in April, 1922.  The elevation of the blog photo is exactly the Whitley mansion, but the windows on the second story, even though close, have been modified from the original look as built.  The driveway seen in your photo, is the lefthand section of the circle drive which was in front of the house."

 The house above has been identified as the The Whitley House in Van Nuys.

 

Caption: "Los Angeles Aqueduct near Saugus. July 27, 1922"

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY RIPE OLIVES

2010  THE YEAR OF VALLEY ADVENTURES
By 1922, when the magazine Canning Age published its story on Sylmar, California, the San Fernando Valley had the largest olive grove in America.  Under the brand of San Fernando Valley Olives, Cristo Fusano sold his highly superior olives and olive oils across the world.

You can read some of the story of Cristo Fusano at:

http://www.fusanoolives.com/story.htm

When Mark Davis and I talked about these cans of olives that he donated to The Museum's archives, we recalled how along San Fernando Road in San Fernando and in Pacoima, there were for years stands selling California oranges, walnuts and olives. I remember my parents on Sunday automobile drives would stop in Sylmar to bring home lemons and olive oil. 

In the year 1867, a New York newspaper reporter arrived at the Mission San Fernando, in what is now called Mission Hills. He was accompanied by two highly ambitious political men, George Stoneman and Jefferson "C" Davis.  Davis, not to be confused with the president of the Confederate States, had been a Union general during the Civil War only two years earlier. The New York Times reporter wrote:
"We sat long, one delicious evening in December, under the olive trees at tat place, smoking cigarettes rolled by Stoneman, chatting about the war, and getting slightly boozed upon aguardiente furnished by General Andres Pico..."