CORRECTION ON CAMPO DE CAHUENGA POSTING

THE HOUSE WASN'T CAMPO DE CAHUENGA

A message from Richard Bogy:

"Hi Jerry….actually, the photo card of the Campo on the Museum website is definitely not the Campo….in fact, it is the Rancho Verdugo in Glendale, where stood the “Tree of Peace”, where legend has it the terms of the articles of capitulation where negotiated two days before the signing.
By the time that photo was taken the actual campo building was in complete ruins. We know that from several oral histories. I have a photo of my family taken in 1898 at what they note to be the Campo and the building is a partially collapsed tile roof and bare adobe stones only about chest high. The building in the postcard does not match the Campo footprints. The time-line is wrong, and the positioning of the building is also wrong to both the road and the hill.
The notation on the card is wrong. What is the house actually….it is the Rancho Verdugo (close to Glendale College ). .... It still stands looking exactly as it does in the photo and with the same hill still behind it.
Why the confusion, you ask? The Rancho Verdugo is the site of the “Oak” or “Tree of Peace”. It is believed that at the Rancho – under the oak – the articles were negotiated two days before the signing. At the turn of the 20th Century, the “tree of peace” was a popular attraction and seen as almost as important as the Campo, but it is all but forgotten now. The tree died and collapsed in the 1970’s, but pieces still remain and a plaque still graces the place where the “treaty” of Camp de Cahuenga was penciled.

ROBERT TAYLOR FILES BEGIN MUSEUM'S SAN FERNANDO VALLEY NOTABLES PROJECT

Robert Taylor and Greta Garbo in 1937 film Camille - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by Gerald Fecht - 2008 (click on image to enlarge)

Directed by George Cukor, the 1937 block buster film Camille helped to launch the career of a young Robert Taylor. He played the role of a handsome Frenchman, Armand along side of one of most famous women in movie history, Greta Garbo.
Robert Taylor had a ranch home in Northridge. The actress Barbara Stanwick sold her nearby ranch property to the film star Jack Oakie, when she married Robert Taylor and moved into his home.

One of the most exciting projects scheduled by The Museum of the San Fernando Valley, beginning in 2009, is our list of Valley Notables. We will be identifying the places where famous San Fernando Valley residents have lived, but collecting their biographies, photos and memorabilia about their lives and careers.
If you would like to nominate someone like Robert Taylor to the Valley Notables list, drop us an email at
jerry@anchoreducation.com
Tell us your nominee, and leave your address and telephone number at which you can be reached.

2009 - The Year of Valley History