Rathbuns – Here in Van Nuys

Of all the areas of the San Fernando Valley, perhaps North Hollywood has undergone the most drastic changes, for better and worse.

The Los Angeles Public Library has thousands of images online of North Hollywood.

I pulled a few from the period 1948-1962.

California was undergoing convulsive expansion as the state population skyrocketed, and millions moved here for a better life. Freeways, schools, housing, shopping centers, all of it exploded in only one decade.

After WWII North Hollywood’s commercial area was centered along Lankershim Blvd. There were many locally owned shops, and they took pride in their windows and customer service.

The 1950s was also a time when public presentation of improvements was staged and photographed.

The widening of a street, a freeway that blasted through a park, an orange grove obliterated with thousands of new houses, the demolition of old houses for shopping centers, these were all accompanied by ceremonies with well-dressed men in suits, and the ladies in their hats, veils, dresses, pearls, earrings, lipstick, high heels.

In that time, 75 years ago, nobody imagined that one day parks would become homeless encampments, that vagrants would live in libraries and sleep on sidewalks, that marijuana would be as common as soda.

There was still an innocence about this country, a belief that people in power had the best interests of everyone in mind.

The development of North Hollywood started in the early 1900s and was one of the earliest coherent towns in the San Fernando Valley.

Its commercial district, along Lankershim Blvd. was lively, prosperous, and safe.

After WWII, there was a brief flowering of progressive design along the commercial strip which sought to upgrade buildings and attract new customers.

In these photos, taken from the LAPL archives of the Valley Press, one can see a healthy and happy environment that, sadly, could not compete against large department stores and huge parking lots that were built, starting in the 1950s, near Victory and Laurel Canyon.

Ironically, the return of the Red Line subway to North Hollywood has spurred the renovation and rebirth of the Lankershim area into an arts district which is far more sustainable than an auto-oriented shopping mall. Sears and the Valley Plaza are now the blighted ones who are on the verge of being redeveloped.

It takes a village to make a community, not just 3,000 parking spaces.

So here we look, with wonder and envy, at the North Hollywood that once existed.