GLENDALE : Family’s Papers Trace Area’s History

A collection of documents tracing Glendale’s history back to its days as a Spanish settlement and once belonging to the family that owned the area will soon be available to researchers and historians.

The Glendale Public Library is in the final stages of cataloguing a collection of papers donated last year by actress Elena Verdugo, a descendant of Jose Maria Verdugo, a Spanish army officer who in 1784 was granted grazing rights to a 36,000-acre area that included much of what later became Glendale, Burbank, Montrose, Eagle Rock, La Crescenta, Glassell Park and Sunland-Tujunga.

Chuck Wike, a library spokesman, said most of the papers in the collection date back to the 1800s. They include land deeds, school primers, family letters, a passport, a dance program, the 1819 U. S. Army discharge papers of a Verdugo family member and an advertisement for real estate in the Glendale area, published in the 1920s.

There’s even a letter from one of the Verdugos to the pre-statehood governor of California, asking for financial assistance because he was in jeopardy of losing his property. “It’s like a slice of history,” Wike said.

Elena Verdugo starred in B-movies during the 1940s and ‘50s, and had a featured role on the TV drama series “Marcus Welby, M.D.” Verdugo, 69, lives in Rosarito Beach, Baja California, and had become concerned that the damp climate there would damage the artifacts.

“Because these documents are so very old, they need special care,” said Marie Fish, an administrator at the library’s central branch, where the Verdugo documents will be housed in the special collections wing.

The collection, which will be named in Elena Verdugo’s honor, will be open for viewing by the public in January, library officials said.