List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in the San Fernando Valley

This is a list of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in the San Fernando Valley, California, USA. It also includes Historic-Cultural Landmarks in the adjacent Crescenta Valley. In total, there are 68 Historic-Cultural Monuments (HCM) in the San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys. A handful of additional historic sites in the valleys have been designated as California Historical Landmarks or listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The sites that are within City of Los Angeles borders are covered by two commissions of the Los Angeles Department of City Planning: the North Valley Area Planning Commission and the South Valley Area Planning Commission. [ [http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/HCM/dsp_hcm_result_Citywide.cfm?APC=North%20Valley DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING City of Los Angeles, HISTORIC-CULTURAL MONUMENT (HCM) REPORT, Area Planning Commission: North Valley] and [http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/HCM/dsp_hcm_result_Citywide.cfm?APC=South%20Valley HISTORIC-CULTURAL MONUMENT (HCM) REPORT, Area Planning Commission: South Valley] ]

Overview of the Valley's Historic-Cultural Monuments

The Historic-Cultural Monuments in the San Fernando Valley are spread across the Valley from Chatsworth in the northwest to Studio City in the southeast, and from the City of Calabasas in the southwest to Tujunga and La Crescenta in the northeast.

When the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board was formed in 1962, its first-designated sites were HCM #1 (Leonis Adobe) and HCM #2 (Bolton Hall), both located in the San Fernando/Crescenta Valleys.

The oldest building in the Valley is the Convento Building at the Mission San Fernando Rey de España, which was built between 1808 and 1822. Other monuments directly related to the Mission San Fernando include the kiln in Chatsworth used to make bricks and tiles for the mission, the wells and settling basin in Sylmar used to supply water to the mission, and the Pioneer Cemetery where Mission Indians as well as Valley pioneers are buried.

In addition to the structures at the Mission, two adobe structures, Rómulo Pico Adobe built in 1834 and Leonis Adobe built in the 1840s, rank among the oldest in the Valley.

Eleven of the monuments located in the Valley have also been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are: Leonis Adobe, Bolton Hall, Rómulo Pico Adobe, the Convento Building at the Mission San Fernando, Campo de Cahuenga, Minnie Hill Palmer House, Los Encinos State Historic Park, Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation, the Old Stage Coach Trail through the Santa Susana Mountains, and the North Hollywood and Van Nuys branch libraries.

Churches and other places of worship are well-represented on the list, including the Chatsworth Community Church (1903), Faith Bible Church in Northridge (1917), the Saint Saviour's Chapel at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, and the David Familian Chapel at the Valley's first Jewish synagogue in North Hollywood.

The role of trees in the development of the Valley is celebrated with monument listings for a 1,000-year-old oak tree in Encino (removed in 1996), 114 Himalayan Deodar trees along White Oak in Granada Hills, 76 mature olive trees along Lassen Street in Chatsworth, and 300 pepper trees lining in Canoga Avenue in Woodland Hills.

Tower of Pallets

One of the more unusual items to receive Historic-Cultural Monument status was a tower of 2,000 wooden beer pallets, designated as HCM #184 in 1978. In 1951, Daniel Van Meter built the tower at his property on Magnolia Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, using beer pallets discarded by a nearby Schlitz brewery. Van Meter, who had been convicted in the 1940s under the Subversive Organizations Registration Act and served time in San Quentin, stacked the pallets in concentric circles until he had built a 22-foot high cone-shaped tower with a winding staircase around the outside.cite news|author=Jessica Garrison|title=Does It Stack Up as Art? A 22-foot tower of wooden pallets, which became a historic monument in 1978, may have to topple to allow development|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/26/local/me-pallets26|work=Los Angeles Times|date=2005-01-26] When fire inspectors sought to have the pile demolished as a fire hazard in 1977, Van Meter appealed to the Cultural Heritage Commission, arguing that the tower surrounded a "Tree of Heaven" and the 1869 grave of a Native American child. One Commissioner recalled that Van Meter was "a character," and his tower, which had goats climbing on it, was "a scream." Another commissioner, noted architecture writer Robert Winter recalled that recognizing the stack of crumbling, termite-infested Schlitz beer pallets was "the funniest thing we ever did" and suggested, "Maybe we were drunk."cite news|author=Richard Simon|title=For a Collector, His Is an Odd Pallet|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1988-02-19]

After Van Meter died in 2000, the pile became the subject of both pride and ridicule. In 2001, columnist Patt Morrison offered the "unforgettable 22-foot-high tower of wooden beer pallets" as a symbol of the Valley's proposed secession movement. [cite news|author=Patt Morrison|title=City Isn't the Only Side With Secession Secrets|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=2001-01-21] The "Los Angeles Times" in 2002 derided the tower: "France can boast of the Eiffel Tower, New York has the Empire State Building, and Sherman Oaks has the Tower of Wooden Pallets."cite news|author=Steve Harvey|title=Only in L.A.: The Valley's Once-Mighty Tower of Pallets Has Fallen on Hard Times|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=2002-11-14] In 2005, Van Meter's heirs sought permission to demolish the tower and develop the site, then valued at $7 million. Van Meter's relatives rejected the contention that the tower was art, instead describing the pile as "a rotting vestige of one man's egotism" that festers "like a sore on the community's body." When no influential preservationists or art scholars came forward to defend the pallets, the Commission allowed the removal of the pallets, and an apartment building was built in its place. [http://www.preservela.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=37]

Current and former Historic-Cultural Monuments

Non-HCM historic sites recognized by state and nation

ee also

*List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles
*List of California Historical Landmarks
* List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in the Harbor area
* List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in South Los Angeles

References

External links

* [http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/HCM/dsp_hcm_result_Citywide.cfm?APC=North%20Valley Los Angeles HCM Report for the North Valley]
* [http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/HCM/dsp_hcm_result_Citywide.cfm?APC=South%20Valley Los Angeles HCM Report for the South Valley]

* [http://www.laalmanac.com/LA/lamap2.htm City of Los Angeles Map] at Given Place Media