[ Rooster Crowing ]
>> Hey, this is Don Larson, the local yokel. Welcome to Northridge. You're standing now at 8819 Etiwanda, Das Bauhaus. I own Das Bauhaus. My family has been on the corner of Etiwanda and Rayen for more than 100 years. Das Bauhaus is an art community. It is a rare thing to have this place. We have a stage inside. As you look up at it, you can clearly see lots of art and probably some interesting people walking around. We're 2 blocks south of the University, CSUN, so we get a fair amount of music and art majors that have been through Das Bauhaus over the years. And we have a big impact on the community. We work hard around our streets and we take our own leadership role in making art happen and cleanups for Reseda Boulevard. So, we are a very active house. I hope you can get a chance to come inside and see us some day. Das Bauhaus stands where my great grandfather's barn once stood. Just to the north of you, right at the corner of Etiwanda and Rayen, was his ranch house. When he moved here around 1910, he brought with him his 12 children, who were all adults. And they all began to farm and ranch and become store keepers on Reseda Boulevard. The building changes, like the rest of the valley, in the early fifties. CSUN begins to establish at about 1950. We know that it's coming. So, for those people looking forward into the future, the houses that we had were torn down on Etiwanda, where you're standing right now. And we were building apartment buildings. The first apartment building was our building, Das Bauhaus, which was originally Larson Apartments. And then across the street from you, you see the other building with the Greek canna [assumed spelling] mosaics. And that building is interesting because one of our famous people, you know, culturally, was this guy named Andy Williams. Andy Williams was best known, he's a singer, best known for the tune "Moon River."
>> Moon river, wider than a mile. I'm crossing you in style some day.
>> He's a wealthy man and he, like other people, sees the advantage of building apartments in Northridge, mostly because of CSUN. Andy Williams was our neighbor and it was always kind of a thrill for us that he would drive up in his big limousines at the time and pull up out in front. And he'd walk around his building, he'd say hello. He was a nice man, but he was kind of that new age of investors from the music and film industry that were beginning to build buildings, as well as houses, out in the valley in Northridge. Well, this is Don Larson, the local yokel. Again, welcome to Northridge and I'll see you again.
[ Footsteps ]
[ Rooster Crows ]
>> Hi, this is Don Larson, the local yokel. Welcome to Northridge. You are standing at the corner of Parthenia and Reseda. As you look around, you can see above you, the railroad tracks. Underneath, are the two murals. The west side, you see the depiction of Northridge future, which is CSUN, Northridge Medical, some of the financial institutions that are here in this kind of vision of our future. On the other side, you see more of the history of Northridge, which was the Indian population that was here before anybody else. They are an offshoot of the Chumash Indians. And they established their community's right up on top of you, before the railroad was there, at the Spring Well, which still exists right above you at Parthenia and Reseda. The railroad comes in, in the late 1860's. And the reason it stops in Northridge is because of that Spring Well. Again, it's still flowing and right above. When the water table comes up a little bit, you can see it flow. In fact, where you're standing right now at a very low spot, it will come right over the sidewalks. It is an active artesian well. So, that's how Northridge establishes itself. Northridge originally was just a rural number in the valley. Then the railway station, which is right where the Far West Plywood Company is above you, which is directly across from the well, was established in the late 1800's. This is how Northridge begins at this station. This is Don Larson, the local yokel. Welcome to Northridge. I'll see you again.
[ Footsteps ]
[ Rooster Crowing ]
>> Hi, this is Don Larson, the local yokel. Welcome to Northridge. You, are standing in front of the little white prairie church on Gresham and Reseda. This church was established as, the first Lutheran church of Northridge. At the time, it was North Los Angeles, then it was Zelzeh, but it's the little Lutheran Church. It is the Norwegian German Lutheran Church. It was built by the congregation that was established here. My great grandfather, Peter Oliver Larson, was one of those people. This church was hand built, on the same design of prairie churches that they built in other parts of the country. You can see this same, simple, prairie church all across America. And, it's interesting to think that, at one time, Northridge was just this little prairie town, full of immigrants from Norway, who were well known for their cooking, and their bakery, and their pies. As well as, their hard work as ranchers, and farmers. There are roughly eight names, kind of connected with Northridge and the establishment of Northridge. The church itself, was a lovely little place. It was originally this Norwegian enclave, then, in the 40's, it was sold to the Japanese, who were also here. And, they had a Japanese Christian Church, which stayed in operation in to the late 1970's, maybe. And then, it becomes the Korean Evangelical Christian Church, which you see in front of you right now. If you have a chance, if you see someone walking around the area, say hello. They're lovely people. Ask them if you can have a look at the church, they'll be glad to show you. It's an interesting piece of architecture, and culture. This is Don Larson, the local yokel. Again, welcome to Northridge, and I'll see you again.
[ Footsteps ]
[ Rooster Crowing ]
>> Hi this is Don Larson, the local yokel. Welcome to Northridge, I have another story for you. If you're standing up here at the railroad tracks, at the rail station, we talk about the bedroom community that begins to branch out, from Northridge. One of the stories that is not told very often, is the prostitution establishments we have in Northridge. To the south of the tracks, just off of Bryant street, and Reseda, the commuters that would come in and out of the trains, on the trucks, would say, if they were going further down the line to Chatsworth, or even as far as Oxnard, they would get off the train, right here, walk one block, and there were three or four bungalow houses, that were there. And, these were gentlemen's clubs. And these gentlemen's clubs had, you know, different women working in them. And, they would welcome the salesmen, and the businessmen that stopped, and they'd do their business together. The client could then get back on the train, and go see his wife, after that. And it was this, kind of a seedier side, of Northridge. There is something that happened out here to, they talk about the sex parties, that happened and the West Valley, was known for that. And, it becomes part of that scene that little bit of--gentlemen's hospitality that was provided in Northridge at the time. And, eventually moves on to, you know, the pornography industries that are still in Northridge and Chatsworth. This is Don Larson, the local yokel. Welcome to Northridge. See you again.
[ Footsteps ]
[ Rooster Crows ]
>> Hi, this is Don Larson, the local yokel. Welcome to Northridge. You are standing at the corner of Reseda and Rayen. You're looking up at the mural that we just recently painted. And that mural, it's a romantic picture of what Northridge used to look like -- Northridge Village. It has that rail station, which is an accurate depiction of that rail station. With the orange groves all around it. This is the -- kind of the postcard view of the valley at the time. There were also a lot of walnut trees here. You'll still see walnut trees around the area, and some of the original orange trees that were planted here. CSUN still has an original orange grove. So this romantic view of this painting was fairly accurate up until the mid 30s. Which at that time, the movie star community began to move in. You had the big names, like Clark Gable. Carol Lombard. Jack Oakie. Barbara Stanwyck. Edward G. Robinson. The Marx Brothers. They were all here. They found the opportunity to buy large parcels of land around Northridge. And build these great ranches that were known for horses. This ranching life we had out here, also brought with it the businesses connected with ranching. So in front of you, at the corner, where you're standing. We had tack shops for saddles and leather equipment you needed for horses. The grain and feed stores that were here. Little lumber stores. Hardware stores. Just within that 2 block area. The rail at the time, would bring in the goods and services we needed to the area, and drop them off, and then they'd disperse into the little shops. And then the big ranchers would come down and buy from the little stores. And along with that we had that kind of horse culture. So for a number of years we had Northridge days. It was a parade that started at Nordhoff and Raseda. And went down Raseda by horseback, to roughly Sherman Way. And it was all these famous movie stars and their horses. And they'd ride down the middle of Raseda Boulevard. And it was a rural parade, but it was pretty fantastic. It was a lot of fun. I remember it. As you're standing here at the corner of Raseda and Rayen, looking at the mural, we wanted to also touch on the development of the valley in the 40s. After World War 2, you have the developers coming into the valley, building homes for the returning GIs that were coming to Los Angeles, back from the war. The ranches were beginning to fade, and being turned into large housing tracks. You see them all around you right now. Most of these tracks were started in the mid 40's. And it had a lot to do with the aerospace industry, which was establishing in Chatsworth, and in Northridge. So this is Don Larson, the local yokel. Welcome to Northridge, and I'll see you again.
[ Walking Sounds ]
[ Rooster ]
>> Hi. This is Don Larson, the local yokel, and you are standing at the corner of Etiwanda and Rayen. You're looking at a little green house with a very high-pitched roof to it, and there's a basement underneath that you can see. What's interesting about this house is that it's an original craftsman house. That building that you're looking at now has withstood a number of earthquakes, and it's still standing strong. The interesting parts of that house are that when you look at the main beams, you can tell in the porch I believe, the beams are tapered so that at the bottom it's wider than at the top. Tongue-and-groove construction using wood pegs to hold the big beams together. Originally that house had a little outhouse to it, as all the rest of them did too. Then in around the late 20s, the plumbing finally came through in this area. My dad was 13; he remembers that they tore up Etiwanda and laid in the big pipes for sewage and the delivery of, you know, pressurized water so you could turn that water on in your house, tap water. Up until then, they were still using the ground water. And all of that delivery system of the water mostly went straight down Sepulveda Boulevard. Van Nuys was first to get those pieces because that was the town. Then over to San Fernando, which was really a real town. And our little Northridge here, it took a little while for plumbing and water to be brought into the West Valley. But that happened around the late '20s, and they had to repipe all these homes to bring in the water and take away the waste. This house is a great example of the craftsman quality, and it's a lovely house, and I hope it stands for another 100 years. So this is Don Larson, the local yokel. We'll see you again.
[ Footsteps ]
[ Rooster Crowing ]
>> Hi, this is Don Larsen, The Local Yokel, and you are standing at 8819 Reseda Boulevard. You're looking at a little building. It's the only freestanding building you'll notice on Reseda Boulevard. It's also on a raised foundation that no one else has. On the front, you're going to see boulders that were used instead of square bricks. The building was put in in about the late or mid 20s. It was the first LAPD for the area. So the photo that you're looking at is of a little, skinny LAPD cop, and a big, burly man behind the counter. The cop is Minton Nagen [assumed spelling] His family are also founders of Northridge, and the big, burly dude behind the counter is my Uncle Bernard, and they are standing at his store, which was right next to the substation, the grain and feed store that was there at the time. This building, if you get inside, you can look up at the ceiling, which is now exposed, to see the angles of the wood that's up there. If you look at that stuff carefully, you'll see the outline of the substation office that was once there. We're not really sure if they had an actual jail inside there, but there was a holding tank, and from there, if you were in trouble, they'd take you down to Downtown LA, but not much happened in Northridge here at the time. So this is Don Larsen, The Local Yokel. Welcome to Northridge. I'll see you again.
[ Footsteps ]
[ Rooster Crows ]
>> Hi, this is Don Larson, the local yokel. And you're standing on Gresham. Right in between Etiwanda and Reseda on the north side of the street. There is now a big, white apartment building. But right where that stood, in the middle of the block, was the little one-room schoolhouse that you have pictured in front of you. The lady in that picture is my Auntie Clara. She is the first school teacher for the area. You can see it's a pretty simple building. A little clapboard building. Gresham, at the time, is the Central Boulevard for Northridge. Everything from Etiwanda up to the little Lutheran church on the other side of Reseda, Gresham was it. That was the high point of Northridge. Pretty quickly, around 19 -- around the middle of the 1920s, the school moves to a much larger school building on the corner of Nordhoff and Reseda. That is the first elementary school for Northridge. So Don Larson, the local yokel, and I'll see you again.
[ Walking Sounds ]
[ Rooster Crows ]
>> Hi, this is Don Larson, the local yokel. And you are standing now at the end of Canby. You're looking up at a white, two-story house. That's the farmhouse for John Nagan [phonetic]. The Nagan brothers and their sister, Ella, are original people here in Northridge. That house was moved from Raseda Boulevard, directly across the street to where it sits now, in the early 90s. It's a great example of an early farmhouse. John's farm was on Reseda between Rayen and Nordhoff. And it went over to roughly Wilbur. Somewhere along where the wash is behind you over there. The Nagan's were nice people. A good family. They did a lot for Northridge in those early days. You can look up at that farmhouse and you can see, eh, just the hard work it took to build it. So this is Don Larson, the local yokel. And I'll see you again.
[ Walking Sounds ]
