COVER STORY : Preserving Our Past--From Washboards to Jet Planes

If you are planning to do a serious, historical study of the San Fernando Valley, plan on spending time in a former golf pro shop in Chatsworth, a trailer home in Mission Hills, a bungalow once used as a college office in Van Nuys and a former fire station in Canoga Park.

These are the headquarters for the all-volunteer local historical societies, mostly overseen by retired people and other longtime residents.

“They are very nice groups, mostly little old ladies,” said Robert Marshall, archivist at the Urban Archives Center at Cal State Northridge. “They are the keepers of the great stuff on the Valley.”

These historical societies and other similar groups might not be made up of trained historians or archivists, but they have worked arduously to find items that give clues to what life was like in the Valley before the subdivisions, cul-de-sacs and mini-malls of modern life. They have, in some fields of study, amassed more material than any local library, archive or museum.

“Our biggest contribution is that we let people know that our area has a rich history,” said Virginia Watson, curator of the Chatsworth Historical Society collection, located in a former golf pro shop in Chatsworth Park South, which used to be a private golf course.

Once a month, the members of the Chatsworth society dress in pioneer costume and give tours to the public of the American Indian artifacts, farm tools, dresses, kitchen implements, photographs, books and newspapers in their collection. They also guide people through a 19th-Century home that they have restored on the property.

“Our history was under a barrel before we started doing this,” Watson said of the society, founded in 1963.

“Some of these little societies have done amazing work,” Marshall said. “The San Fernando Valley society has a far better collection of photographs about the Valley than we do in our archive.”

Marshall said his archive--which does have several collections of documents from Valley organizations, businesses and individuals--did hope to establish a centralized index of the holdings of the various societies and groups. But budgeting restrictions have delayed those plans far into the foreseeable future. He would also like to start a program to give the groups training in modern conservation techniques.

“They work hard and have done it all on their own,” Marshall said. “But I am worried about how some of the stuff is stored. They don’t always like to hear that.”

For example, documents and old newspapers should ideally be stored in acid-free boxes. Acids often present in commercial materials such as cardboard can yellow documents and hasten their disintegration.

“Having some expert like me come in and tell them they are doing it wrong does not go over well,” Marshall said.

“It’s true that a lot of the groups don’t know the proper methods,” said Bobbette Fleschler, president of the San Fernando Valley Historical Society, headquartered in Mission Hills. Fleschler, at 34, is far younger than most of the officers of other local societies. She also has a degree in history and has taken several classes in modern archival techniques.

“But it costs a lot of money. We have just spent over $1,000 on boxes made out of acid-free paper. And it takes a lot of time and money to go to the workshops and courses that teach these things.

“Considering, these groups do great work. And if they didn’t do it, these historical things would have been lost forever.”

But even Fleschler is frustrated by the fact that Valley history is scattered among so many groups and locations. “If someone wanted to do a real, analytical history of the Valley and would go to all these places and do the searching and organization, it would take half a lifetime,” she said.

The following is a guide, in alphabetical order, to several local historical societies and other groups that have gathered local history in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.

* Burbank Historical Society: This society has an unusually spacious facility for its large collection of artifacts, many from the early days of the city named after an enterprising dentist and real estate tycoon. There are even life-size dioramas, including one of Dr. David Burbank at work in his dental office. The exhibits tend to be promotional, much like the salutes to local industry commonly seen in municipal airports.

There are still numerous interesting items, including a full-size bus made at the Moreland Motor Truck Co. that used to be in Burbank. The museum was supported, initially, by gifts from local real estate developer Gordon R. Howard and is situated on city land.

Gordon Howard Museum Complex, 1015 W. Olive Ave., Burbank. (818) 841-6333. Open 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays.

* Chatsworth Historical Society: Founded in 1963 to move and restore a historic church, it has amassed a collection that specializes in pioneer and homestead life. Included are about 600 slides used in lectures and special presentations, plus displays of farm tools, American Indian artifacts and dresses from the homesteader period. Society members give tours of a 19th-Century house they restored.

Chatsworth Historical Society, 10385 Shadow Oak Drive, Chatsworth. (818) 882-5614. Tours of the collection and homestead house from 1 to 4 p.m. the first Sunday of the month.

* Canoga-Owensmouth Historical Society: This youngest of local historical societies was founded in 1988 to preserve documents and artifacts held by the Canoga Park Woman’s Club. It also has many objects from the early years of the area (when it was known as Owensmouth), including real estate maps and brochures.

One of the prized possessions, shown in its headquarters in a former fire station, is a small plaque, depicting a stork arriving with a new baby. It was given to all who came to Owensmouth on March 30, 1912, the first day of land sales in the new town. The group will hold a conference next month of California historic societies meeting here to participate in workshops and discussions and to tour local sites.

Canoga-Owensmouth Historical Society, 7248 Owensmouth Ave., Canoga Park. (818) 341-4677. Display on view from 2 to 4 p.m. the second Sunday of the month.

* Los Angeles Valley Historical Museum: Located on the campus of Valley College in what was the first administration building, this museum specializes in the history of the college but also has several cases of photographs and artifacts on general Valley history.

The collection, now overseen by Austin Conover, includes the desk equipment once owned by W. P. Whitsett, a major real estate developer earlier this century. Some of the most illuminating items are the colorful brochures Whitsett used to lure potential home buyers to “The New Town” of Van Nuys.

Los Angeles Valley Historical Museum, 5800 Fulton Ave., Bungalow 15 on the campus of Valley College, Van Nuys. (818) 781-1200. Open 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday on days the college is in session.

* Leonis Adobe: The group that operates this historical resource--a home that once served as headquarters for powerful and colorful 19th-Century landowner Miguel Leonis--is unusual in a couple of respects.

The organization does not have to go begging for funds to keep afloat. The house and adjacent land in Calabasas were given to the Leonis Adobe Assn. in the 1960s. The association collects rent from several businesses that have been established near the house. The group even pays some of the people who keep the home and grounds open to the public five days a week.

The association is one of the few historical groups to be frank about some of the more unsavory historical aspects of its holdings. A brochure given out by the knowledgeable docents portrays Leonis as a tough rascal who was not above stealing land from the public domain when it served his purposes. His armed guards roamed his property and roughly dealt with squatters.

When Leonis was taken to court or sued others--which happened regularly--he helped tip the scales of justice by supplying the judge and jury with ample food and drink.

His home, which he and his wife, Espiritu Chijulla, extensively remodeled around 1880, stands as an interesting example of rustic luxury from that period.

Leonis Adobe, 23537 Calabasas Road, Calabasas. (818) 222-6511. Open 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

* San Fernando Valley Historical Society: The oldest of the local historical societies, this group was founded in 1943. In 1965, it waged a successful campaign to save the Andres Pico Adobe, the second-oldest adobe home still in existence in Los Angeles. The society then moved into the adobe and, under an agreement with the city, keeps it in repair and gives tours. In return, the group is allowed free use of the adobe for offices and storage.

In December, the adobe was closed for earthquake proofing, which will take an estimated two years. Meanwhile, the society is using a trailer on the site as office space. Its collection of photographs, newspapers, postcards and documents is mostly in storage. In February, the group is scheduled to obtain the help of CSUN students to organize and catalogue its collection.

San Fernando Valley Historical Society, Andres Pico Adobe, 10940 Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills. (818) 365-7810. Not currently open for tours.

* Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society: This group, founded in 1975, has been one of the most active in taking on big projects. Headquartered at William S. Hart Park, it moved the entire Saugus Train Station (built in 1877) into the park in 1980 and now uses the building as its headquarters. It also moved onto the property a schoolhouse, chapel and three residences, all of which it is restoring. And it has plans, approved by the county, which owns the park, to move nine more historic buildings to the site. Its members are so passionate about preservation that in 1986, they formed a human chain around a Victorian farmhouse in an unsuccessful attempt to save it from bulldozers.

Its current displays are of a folksy nature and include much railroad memorabilia. They also have a card table where Wild Bill Hickok was supposedly playing poker when he was shot in 1876. (The table eventually found its way into the collection of a Los Angeles family that donated it to the society.)

Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society, William S. Hart Park, 24107 San Fernando Road, Santa Clarita. (805) 254-1275. Open 2 to 4 p.m. Sundays.

* Western Hotel/Museum: One of the first buildings in the city of Lancaster is now the city-owned museum, dedicated in 1989. The former hotel rooms have been furnished with items from the early part of the century, and there are numerous artifacts and photographs from the area’s history.

Many of the displays are of hotel memorabilia; indeed some rooms look like a tribute to Myrtie Webber, the longtime owner. But there is much of general interest, too. One gruesome display shows the jack rabbit drives at the turn of the century, during which hundreds of the rabbits were herded into corrals and then clubbed to death.

Another supplies theories for why the valley’s namesake, the pronghorn antelope, disappeared from the area in the 1940s. The swift-moving animal, which has been clocked at 45 m.p.h., was unfortunately not fast enough to outrun hunters who shot them from train cars in the 1880s. The antelope population was further decimated by hunters who came to the area during the building of the California Aqueduct from 1907-13. But the display suggests that the animal was probably killed off simply because it was so at ease around humans. Naturally curious and gentle, the antelopes would supposedly walk right up to hunters.

Also in the museum is a grammar school picture from about 1930 that shows a young Judy Garland in the second row (her family lived in Lancaster for a short time).

Western Hotel/Museum, 557 W. Lancaster Blvd., Lancaster. (805) 723-6250. Open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.