RESEDA

Founding and Growth

The area now known as Reseda, like much of Los Angeles County, originally was inhabited by Native Americans of the Tongva tribe who lived close to what is now known as the Los Angeles River.

In 1909 the Suburban Homes Company, a syndicate led by H. J. Whitley, general manager of the Board of Control, along with Harry Chandler, H. G. Otis, M. H. Sherman and O. F. Brandt purchased 48,000 acres of the Farming and Milling Company for $2,500,000. Henry E. Huntington, extended his Pacific Electric Railway (Red Cars) through the Valley to Owensmouth (now Canoga Park). The Suburban Home Company laid out plans for roads and the towns of Van Nuys, Reseda (Marian) and Canoga Park (Owensmouth). The rural areas were annexed into the city of Los Angeles in 1915. On April 2, 1915 H. J. Whitley purchased the Suburban Home Company so that he would have complete control for finishing the development.

On land that was originally part of the San Fernando Mission, Reseda originated in 1912 as the town of Marian. It was named after Marian Otis Chandler, the daughter of the Los Angeles Times publisher, Harrison Gray Otis and wife of Harry Chandler. The name Reseda itself refers to the fragrant plant Reseda odorata (English name is mignonette) which was commonly found in gardens of the time and is native to many areas with a Mediterranean climate.

The geographic name “Reseda” was first used for a siding on a branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which ran between the cities of Burbank and Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley. In the 1920s, the name Reseda was transferred from the Southern Pacific Railroad to the Western Division of the Pacific Electric Railway “Red Cars Line”, which had expedited development after the building of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Later, it was used as the name of a stop on the Pacific Electric interurban railway running along Sherman Way.

Throughout this time the town’s name of Marian remained; then in 1921, when a Fourth Class Post Office was found to be necessary, the town’s name had to be changed. Ninety-two residents convened and agreed to rename the town Reseda.

The central business district began in 1915, at what is now the intersection of Reseda Boulevard and Sherman Way, with the construction of a hardware store. Soon a blacksmith shop and an auto repair garage were built nearby. Within a short time, these were followed by a grocery store and a drug store. There were no sidewalks or pavement yet; most were added between 1918 and the early 1920s. On the southwest corner of Sherman Way a wooden building housed the volunteer Fire Department until 1922, when the present brick building was erected as was the Reseda Bank. The wooden building, housing the Fire Department, was then moved to the southeast side of Sherman Way, where it remained until 1933. In May 1929, the city’s namesake roadway, Reseda Avenue, was renamed Reseda Boulevard by a Los Angeles City ordinance.^[11] Parts of the original 1920s and 1930s residential neighborhood remain and are found to the southwest of Sherman Way and Reseda Boulevard.

Reseda grew slowly, with the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression further slowing expansion.

During the late 1920s and 1930s, the area’s reputation developed for its production of lettuce, lima beans, sugar beets, and walnuts, becoming known as was one of the largest producers of lettuce in the United States by the late ‘30s. The Southern Pacific Railroad trains came up the middle of Sherman Way to pick up freight cars of lettuce on a daily basis during the lettuce harvest season. Around that time, manufacturing roof tile, canning poultry products, and processing walnuts began to emerge as viable businesses as well.