Moses Sherman

Moses Hazeltine Sherman (1853–1932) was a land developer who built the Phoenix Street Railway in Phoenix, Arizona, and later built other lines and owned property in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood, California. He also served on the Los Angeles Water Board.

At the junction of his streetcar lines west of Hollywood, he built carbarns and created a city called, logically, "Sherman". A colorful area, think LA's present-day "Sunset Strip", the town would eventually evolve to become the city of West Hollywood. As part of his speculation in purchasing the southern San Fernando Valley in 1910, Sherman retained an interest in the neighborhood of Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley, which continues to bear his name to this day.

In the great San Fernando Valley development that Sherman, H.J. Whitley, Harry Chandler and others started in anticipation of the Owens River Aqueduct and cheap water by buying out the Van Nuys-Lankershim lands in 1910, General Sherman (as he was called) added an extraordinary streetcar line. Built over Cahuenga Pass, through North Hollywood to the 1911 townsite of Van Nuys, and on to the 1912 townsite Owensmouth, now Canoga Park, the streetcar line and the "$500,000 boulevard" named Sherman Way next to the tracks were the key to the development. By 1912, 45 minute streetcar service from Van Nuys to downtown and the "no speed limit" paved road (if you could get your "Model A" to do 30 mph) were key selling points.

This entire grand highway was called "Sherman Way" in his honor and while the "naming" of parts of this grand highway was changed, the road and electric railway right of way survives in what is now called Chandler Bl, turning into Van Nuys Bl through Van Nuys, turning on Sherman Circle,and then on to Canoga Park (right of way lost to progress) in the middle of what remains a street still called Sherman Way.

After disuse and low ridership, the line died out in the 1950s, to be replaced in the 1990s with the MTA's Orange Line, a cross-valley approximation.

The street Sherman Way, running east-west from West Hills to Burbank in the San Fernando Valley remains (though it covers only half of the original grand highway). Sherman Way, as does Hazeltine Avenue, which runs north-south from Sherman Oaks to Panorama City, was named after his daughter, "Hazeltine".

Persondata
Name	Sherman, Moses Hazeltine
Alternative names
Short description	Los Angeles land developer
Date of birth	1853
Place of birth
Date of death	1932
Place of death