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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Plaza De La Cordillera

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SIGN FROM LONG GONE McKINLEY HOME FOR BOYS

DISCOVERING OUR VALLEY  2011

Bob Peppermuller is at it again, working to save San Fernando Valley "Redcar" history. Here he shares a sign indicating the location of the McKinley Home for Boys in Van Nuys (later Sherman Oaks. The McKinley Home opened at its location on Riverside Drive in 1923. It served abused and neglected children there until 1960, when it moved to its present location in San Dimas.

(Click on the image to enlarge the sign.)

“This sign is from the Pacific Electric passenger stop in the middle of Chandler Blvd. at Woodman Ave. The McKinley Home was south on Woodman at Riverside Drive. 

Typically the sign would be about 15 feet up on a pole holding the trolley wires. After the San Fernando line was abandoned, at 3pm on December 29, 1952 when power was cut, all the track material was removed down to about three blocks north of Santa Monica Blvd. on Highland Ave in Hollywood. This sign ended up in the Southern Pacific railroad yard in San Bernardino where the back was painted with a "No Parking" sign. It was saved from the being scrapped and ended up in a railroad swap meet where I purchased it.”   

Bob Peppermuller 2011 - North Hollywood