Town Historian Not Deterred by 230 Slow Years

James Henderson is deep into the history of Westlake Village, the bucolic city he helped found 20 years ago.

He is digging much of it out of yellowing stories from defunct local newspapers, neatly filed in Manila folders next to the computer in his home office.

“Just 11 years to go, “ said the 86-year-old first-time writer, whose account begins in 1770 and will end with the dedication in December of Westlake Village’s new $8.7-million City Hall and library complex.

The story gets off to a lively start, with starving Spanish explorers. It’s the city’s placid recent history that’s going to put Henderson’s literary gifts to the test. If it’s true that there is no literature without conflict, Henderson is in big trouble. Nothing momentous has happened in Westlake Village since the cat mutilations stopped in 1983. “In Westlake, issues are really very few and far between,” said Raymond Taylor, city manager since 1993.

But the city had a lively beginning. As Henderson explained, weary Spanish soldiers arrived in the Conejo Valley in mid-January 1770. They were short on provisions and had been slaughtering their pack animals for food. But even with growling stomachs, the men liked what they saw when they looked down from the rolling hills.

“They always had a priest with them because he was the only one who could read and write,” Henderson said. Father Juan Crespi recorded his first impressions on Jan. 14: “a plain of considerable extent and much beauty, forested in all parts by live oaks with much pasturage and water.”

Henderson is one of seven co-founders of the small but privileged city, incorporated in 1981 as the 82nd municipality in Los Angeles County. To celebrate its 20th year, the city has sent out invitations to an anniversary party (black tie optional) on Nov. 10.

Unlike nearby Calabasas, where the population has swelled more than 30%--to 20,000--since it incorporated 10 years ago, Westlake Village has changed little since its founding. A planned community built around a man-made lake, it is still small, wealthy and largely residential. In addition to a yacht club, its 8,500 residents have a median household income of $109,107--more than double that of Angelenos. The most unusual thing about Westlake Village may be that the city is part of the larger community of Westlake, which stretches into Ventura County. All 5.4 miles of the city are in Los Angeles County. The rest of Westlake is part of the city of Thousand Oaks, in Ventura County.

Henderson, a retired naval engineer, said the city was founded because of an attempted land grab by adjacent Agoura Hills, which was already considering incorporation. Agoura Hills became a city shortly after Westlake Village, in 1982.

Henderson, who lives in Westlake Village’s First Neighborhood, remembers the 1980 community meeting that spurred the citizenry to action. A speaker from Agoura Hills got up and described what he’d like to see done with Westlake’s golf course, which the developer advertised as the first to be lighted for night play. “He said that the golf course could be an airstrip,” Henderson recalled. “It could be an ammunition dump. That’s when our committee was formed.”

Once a year the city’s six surviving founders meet for an anniversary dinner, Henderson said, “and we always raise a toast to that guy who threatened us with an ammunition dump.”

Ray Prouty and his wife, Joyce, are the city’s official archivists. Like Henderson, they are unpaid volunteers. Although its recent history lacks high drama, things do happen there, 75-year-old Prouty said. There has been a protracted flap over where to place a fourth city park--one large enough to accommodate soccer, baseball and other team sports.

“People don’t want it close to their house, but everyone wants a park,” Prouty said. The matter has been tabled for now, since the city’s Oaks Christian High School offered to share its playing fields.

As to past conflicts, there was the 1995 brouhaha over the building of a Costco store in town. “Costco was an emotional thing,” Prouty said of the debate over the discount retailer. “Many people didn’t want a big-box store, but now everybody goes to it.”

According to City Manager Taylor, maintaining the community’s quality of life and its low crime rate are priorities. Citywide, residents worry about the lack of a local hospital--the closest is in Thousand Oaks--and the swelling traffic on the Ventura Freeway.

While the city may lack big problems, it does have a few larger-than-life figures in its past. Controversial publisher William Randolph Hearst once owned land there, selling it in the 1920s when it proved oil-free. And the city was largely shaped by billionaire magnate Daniel K. Ludwig, once the nation’s third richest man.

Ludwig’s American-Hawaiian Steamship Co. bought 12,000 acres in 1963 for $32 million--”It was a steal,” Henderson said--with a dream of building a planned “city in the country.”

City co-founder Berniece Bennett was mayor of Westlake Village in 1984 when Ludwig, who owned the golf course, threatened to lease it for commercial development. She and other concerned residents were horrified. Bennett flew to New York, where Ludwig lived, and argued that the loss of the golf course would damage the city’s distinctive ambience, hurt property values and boost traffic.

“We didn’t want to have to sacrifice for his gain,” Bennett recalled, “and he listened to me.”

Hoping for a 99-year lease, the residents walked away with a 200-year lease.

And Bennett remembers the rash of cat deaths and mutilations that began in the late 1970s. Over six years, more than 200 cats were found dead, prompting a Cat Concern Committee to offer a reward. No one was ever charged and the mutilations stopped in 1983. County sheriff’s deputies and other officials blamed hungry coyotes.

“To this day, there are some residents who don’t believe that,” Bennett said.