NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Historic Group Revives Interest in Treaty Site

The doors of the park building at Campo de Cahuenga are nearly always locked. Inside, the portraits of Lt. Col. John C. Fremont and Gen. Andres Pico spend most of the year in darkness.

To Guy W. McCreary, fourth-generation descendant of North Hollywood’s pioneer Weddington family, the portraits seem to peer reproachfully back at him through the gloom on the rare days he comes to press his face to the windows.

McCreary is determined to bring these long-dead soldiers back into the public eye.

As the new head of a recently formed group of Campo de Cahuenga enthusiasts, he has launched an effort to revive the memorial which marks their noteworthy contribution: the 1847 Capitulation at Cahuenga.

The treaty, signed by both men somewhere near the Campo de Cahuenga Memorial, officially ended hostilities between the U.S. forces of Fremont and the Mexican forces of Pico. Its terms paved the way for U.S. annexation of the California province.

The Campo de Cahuenga Memorial, located at 3919 Lankershim Blvd., was built with city funds in 1950 in honor of the treaty signing. Although the park built there was constructed in Spanish rancho style, it is only an approximation of what the original ranch house on the site may have looked like.

McCreary calls Campo de Cahuenga “the greatest little unknown place in the world.”

Owned by the parks department and officially recognized by the city of Los Angeles as a historic monument, Campo de Cahuenga now serves as a park and occasional meeting place for community groups. So far, it has never lived up to its promise as a historic landmark, McCreary said.

But late last year, McCreary and 20 others formed the Campo de Cahuenga Historic Memorial Assn., a group dedicated to making the memorial a destination for students and tourists.

Newly named Campo curator Jim Gulbranson is drafting a master plan outlining the group’s aims. Although the Jan. 17 earthquake caused some cosmetic damage to the site, it will not affect the group’s plans, McCreary said.

McCreary and Gulbranson talk of starting a docents program at the site, adding a snack bar and bookstore, renovating the interior of the park building and installing historic displays, dioramas, costumed mannequins and maps.

“We want to try to turn this into something where schoolchildren will come to see it,” Gulbranson said.

McCreary, who keeps a picture of Oliver North on his office desk, lauds the political prowess of President James K. Polk, and waxes poetic about Manifest Destiny. He is passionate that the memorial be revived lest the contribution of Pico and Fremont be forgotten.

After all, as it stands, Campo de Cahuenga hardly merits a second look from motorists whizzing by on Lankershim Boulevard. Few Californians seem to realize the full significance of the Capitulation at Cahuenga, he said.

“This was a symbol of what was to come,” McCreary argued. “It’s like the birthplace of California.”

Gulbranson said the group will seek donations and grants from longtime L.A. corporations, historical societies and educational foundations. The group aims to have a bona fide historic destination established by 1997, the 150th anniversary of the treaty, he said.

High on their list of goals is getting a visitors parking lot near the site, and making sure a future Metrolink station that has been proposed in the vicinity will include information to guide travelers to the memorial.

“People don’t understand what this was,” said Gulbranson. “We want to try to tell them.”