Community Names and Reputations

I note with surprise your story that residents of Chandler Estates consider themselves as residing in Sherman Oaks. As a 58-year resident of the Valley, I can tell them they are whistling in the wind. Chandler Estates has always been in Van Nuys and was never a part of Sherman Oaks.

From 1933 until 1974, I lived on Chandler Boulevard, between Fulton and Ethel avenues in the home my father designed and built, which still stands. Our address was always Van Nuys, and our first telephone number was Van Nuys 1292. When the Valley began to grow in population, it became State 5-1292. “State” was the Van Nuys prefix.

Sherman Oaks was a real estate development name to begin with, in the area south of Ventura Boulevard and west of Van Nuys Boulevard. Over the years it extended eastward to Coldwater Canyon Boulevard. The northern boundary was at first the Los Angeles River. In the 1940s, long before ZIP codes, it extended down to its present boundary of Magnolia Boulevard. I can attest to this, having been a temporary mailman out of the Sherman Oaks Post Office in 1946.

In 1933, Chandler Boulevard, while having a number of large homes, was essentially rural, with little more than hot and cold running gophers to recommend it--other than its stately deodar trees (many of which died after the 1938 rains and flood, which raised the water table to within nine inches of the ground surface).

When the Pacific Electric line was finally abandoned, and the right of way was landscaped, more and more posh homes were built, especially between Fulton and Woodman avenues, where there had been nothing but acres of tomatoes, corn and a walnut orchard. Real estate agents began to call the area Chandler Estates.

Now the residents want a posh address to go with their posh homes. Fine. Why not?

But unfortunately for them, there is nothing whatever in past history to justify their claim.

KAY E. KUTER

North Hollywood