In the section now renamed Valley Village, on Magnolia east of Whitsett, is an architecturally unique stage set of old retail Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley.
Probably built in the 1920’s, it incorporates European slate tiles and chimneys in a charming attempt to reproduce an English country village.
Imagine North Hollywood at that time. The main shopping area was still along Lankershim, several miles to the east. This tract was agricultural, and builders were subdividing the surrounding lands to create “ranchettes”, those large and gracious non-farm homes marketed to affluent people who wanted to buy a piece of the California dream. The shopping area, a stage set of fantasy, was built for the locals and also told a story.
80 years later, this is a highly desirable neighborhood. Yet the sad condition of these stores is a failure of our modern imagination. Where are the trees, the cafes, the lights, the signage to signify that this is a special place?
We still live in JK Galbraith’s time of “private affluence and public squalor”. Maybe the new city director of planning, Gail Goldberg, will direct her talents to these forgotten gems of LA.
Here in Van Nuys 
Um, ok, they are peculiar and cute, surely, but not to be equated to those on the Secretary of Interior’s Lists of National Historic Landmarks.
For the width of the street, the building height is rather dwarfed seeming and therefore playing little to form an urban edge.
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Glen-
I believe that the buildings were built in stages. I don’t think the entire strip was built at one time. There are also sidewalks in front of some of those structures that were paved in 1928.
Thanks for your information and corrections.
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According to the LA County Assessor’s Parcel Maps, the buildings on that corner were built in 1949.
That seems far likelier than the ’20s. Residential development in that area didn’t really take off until about 1935.
And BTW, the 10-, 20-, and 40-acre “ranchettes” sold by the Lankershim Land and Water Company starting in the 1890s weren’t intended as “non-farm” properties – they were promoted as ideal for growing stone fruits, walnuts, and other deep-rooted tree crops.
(Lankershim around the turn of the century was known as “Home of the Peach”.)
UC Northridge’s San Fernando Valley History Digital Library (http://digital-library.csun.edu/SFV/) has images of an 1890s-vintage flier emphasizing the agricultural potential of the area. (Search on “lankershim ranch flier” to find it.)
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And since la Goldberg and Gloria Jeff, general manager of the Dept. of Transportation, will be at a community forum at Monarch Hall on the Valley College campus on Monday the 26th from 6-8p.m., you can bring up this concern, among many others, especially related to the combination of planning and transportation.
I will be there.
Do agree though that that entire intersection needs a makeover, take your pick of where you want to start but yes, undergrounding the utilities would be as good as any place to start.
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Who needs trees when the street instead has scenic wood utility poles described in one of your previous blog entries?
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