It Started With a Mission

Moments in San Fernando Valley History

1797: San Fernando Mission is founded, 28 years after the first Spanish expedition of the San Fernando Valley made its way into the Valley via Sepulveda Pass. California will become part of Mexico 25 years later.

1834: The San Fernando Mission is secularized, and Andres Pico Adobe, named for the Mexican general, is built nearby.

1847: The Articles of Capitulation, which ended the Mexican-American War in California and paved the way for California to become a state three years later, are signed by Lt. Col. John C. Fremont and Andres Pico at Campo de Cahuenga at the foot of modern-day Universal Studios.

1861: Lopez Station opens, home to the Valley’s first English-speaking school and first post office.

1862: Under the direction of government surveyor Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a path wide enough for horses and wagons is cut into the mountains between the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

1867: A dentist named David Burbank buys 9,000 acres to use as a sheep ranch in the eastern San Fernando Valley, and that would later become the city of Burbank.

1876: Golden Spike is driven at Lang, near Saugus, signaling the completion of a Los Angeles-to-San Francisco train route.

1883: The San Fernando Comet, the Valley’s first newspaper, is launched.

1892: U.S. President Benjamin Harrison sets aside land for the Angeles National Forest.

1909: Los Angeles Suburban Homes Co. buys 47,500 acres in the southern half of the Valley, paving the way for massive housing tracts.

1911: San Fernando and Burbank incorporate as cities. 1912: The first of more than 2,000 films is shot at Iverson Movie Location Ranch in Chatsworth, opening the door for what would become the Valley’s booming entertainment industry.

1913: Los Angeles Aqueduct opens north of Sylmar, making possible the building of homes and annexation of the Valley by the city of Los Angeles three years later.

1928: Van Nuys Airport, originally named Metropolitan Airport, is established. Lockheed opens in Burbank, which gets its own airport two years later.

1941: Sepulveda Dam and reservoir are completed to hold storm waters in check, following a destructive flood in February and March 1938.

1944: Tapping into GIs’ homesickness, Bing Crosby croons his way to the top of the charts with the hit “San Fernando Valley,” which will help inspire mass nesting in tract homes.

1947: General Motors plant in Van Nuys begins production. At its peak in 1979, it will employ 5,100 people. A total of 2,700 workers will be laid off when the plant closes in 1992.

1952: Public transportation effectively comes to an end when Pacific Electric Railway “Red Cars” cease operation in the Valley. The last line, from Los Angeles to Long Beach, will stop in 1961.

1954: Busch Gardens theme park, the Valley’s first, opens at Anheuser-Busch brewery in Van Nuys. It will close in 1979 to make more room for the brewery.

1956: San Fernando Valley State College opens. Will be renamed Cal State Northridge in 1972.

1957: First section of Hollywood Freeway entering Valley opens.

1959: The first Valley section of the Golden State Freeway opens at Alameda Avenue in Burbank.

1962: Sam Yorty, the only Valley resident to serve as mayor of Los Angeles, is elected.

1964: Topanga Pass, the first enclosed air-conditioned mall west of the Mississippi, opens in Canoga Park, making mall shopping a new form of recreation.

1971: The 6.7-magnitude Sylmar-San Fernando earthquake kills 64 people and causes $553 million damage.

1975: Bustop, a grass-roots anti-busing group, is formed at Encino’s Lanai Road School. Within months, it will claim 30,000 members.

1978: In response to a Valley secession threat, the state Legislature gives the City Council power to veto such a request.

1982: Simi Valley (later Ronald Reagan) Freeway is completed.

1991: The beating of motorist Rodney G. King by Los Angeles police is televised worldwide.

1994: Earthquake measuring 6.7, with epicenter in Northridge, kills 72 people and causes $40 billion in damage.

1996: Two years after first proposed, a bill to eliminate the veto power the City Council has over secession is narrowly defeated.

1997: The last drive-in movie theater, the Winnetka 6 in Chatsworth, closes to make way for a state-of-the-art multiplex as the Valley’s population reaches 1.3 million.

Sources: “The San Fernando Valley Then and Now” by Charles A. Bearchell and Larry D. Fried, “The San Fernando Valley Past and Present” by Lawrence C. Jorgensen, and staff reports. Researched by STEPHANIE STASSEL / Los Angeles Times. Edward Beale illustration courtesy Dictionary of American Portraits, Dover Publication Inc.; Pacific car photo courtesy Donald Duke.