Today's Los Angeles Times notes the passing of Linda Menary, who ran the ramshackle barnyard petting zoo and pony ride called The Farm that has been at Tampa Avenue and Lanark Street in Reseda for about four decades. She died May 1 of a heart attack suffered while driving to Bakersfield for a horse auction. Her animals at the Farm...

The blog Here in Van Nuys turns its gaze east to North Hollywood to point out the creeping destruction of a neighborhood of older, Spanish-style homes where actresses Carol Burnett and Agnes Moorhead once lived. The photo stream at Flickr focuses on Huston and LaMaida streets....

The cover of the Studio City Sun features the impending closure of longtime bookstore Dutton's. Davis Dutton, whose parents opened on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in 1960, met his wife Judy in the library at North Hollywood High. Once the final sale concludes they will relocate to the San Juan Islands in Washington state....

The Craigslist posting says that everything must go "including shelves, racks, display cases, counters. We're trying to make some money so please feel free to come in and make offers." The cover of the Studio City Sun says the store was around 62 years. Last day will be Feb. 28....

The Hot Dog Show at Coldwater and Ventura, June Ellen Donuts, the Roger Jessup and Manfull dairies and Murmak Hardware have been added to the honor roll of Valley landmarks that are no longer around. The list at Gone but not Forgotten goes from Adams Airport to the Zulu Hut and even includes entire vanished places on the map such...

Citybeat's Steve Appleford pens an appreciation of Dutton's, the North Hollywood bookstore that is closing come March after 45 years. Excerpts: Owner Dave Dutton and his wife, Judy, are simply moving on to their home on Washington State’s beautiful Puget Sound, and are quickly emptying the shelves with a 50-percent-off sale that should have the store closed before April. “Books...

Gary Ritter Sherman emails: I saw that someone was trying to find out where the Wild Goose Restaurant was located. It used to be on the south side of Ventura Blvd at Fulton, across the street from Casa Vega, and I heard was named after John Wayne's Yacht. I'm still looking for photos of the Cherry House (Woodman and Ventura)...

In answer a question about the Wild Goose in Sherman Oaks, it turns out to have been quite a popular place. I found more than two hundred mentions in the L.A. Times between 1953 and 1967, as a favorite restaurant for wedding and engagement dinners, anniversaries and group occasions. The only address I've been able to pin down was 15720...

The once-lush corner lot in Encino where John Wayne entertained his Hollywood pals at the top of a small rise is now a construction site. Wayne's former white Colonial has been demolished and a giant multi-story residence is being built in its place. Wayne lived with his wife Pilar and their three children at 4750 Louise Avenue until he contracted...

This photo reportedly shows the Nike Hercules missile installation on Oat Mountain above Chatsworth in the 1960s. It appears larger on this website about the history of Nike missiles, along with a note indentifying these warheads as nuclear. Thanks to reader Lou Marino for the pointer....

Just about all evidence of the old Marquardt Aviation Co. plant along the west side of Van Nuys Airport has been removed. Started by Caltech graduate Roy Marquardt, the company moved to the Valley in the late 1940s and became a major defense contractor, specializing in ramjet engines. There's now a gleaming new industrial park in its place. A website...

Buck Jones was a movie cowboy in silent films and westerns who built a Spanish Revival home at 14050 Magnolia Blvd. in Sherman Oaks in 1937. Frescoes of western scenes covered some of the walls, and the structure was specifically built to resist fire (ironic, since Jones died in 1942 of burns he suffered in the infamous Cocoanut Grove nightclub...

A glaring omission here at AmericasSuburb.com has been any mention of the vanished local landmark Busch Gardens -- as several readers have pointed out. Well no more! Busch Gardens was a 20-acre tropical-theme amusement park and exotic bird preserve behind the Anheuser-Busch brewery on Roscoe Boulevard in Van Nuys. It opened in 1966 and offered boat rides, exotic bird...

Many evidences of the old Valley have disappeared—and more vanish every year. This page lists some unofficial Valley landmarks that are no longer with us, taken from The San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb, the author's files and reader submissions....