Why This Site Exists
The San Fernando Valley, love it or loathe it, is a rare locale. There's no other place with its mix of history and quirky civic geography. Encircled by five ranges of mountains and hills, the Valley holds 1.7 million people and is large enough to
contain the combined city limits of San Francisco, Boston and Washington, D.C. with room left over. That's more people than in a dozen states, separated by climate and tradition from the metropolis they belong to in law if not always in spirit.
It's the birthplace of Valley Girls and the Brady Bunch, the subtext for Chinatown and Boogie Nights, the promised land that TV's Real McCoys moved across country to make a new home in. It suffers a reputation as the most excessively suburban of enclaves, an image which makes it the butt of jokes -- yet its populace prefers the Valley's lifestyle and personality. It remains the fastest growing part of Los Angeles, drawing immigrants from all over the world.
Ultimately, the Valley's complex and colorful past -- as the haunt of Lucy and Desi, Gable and Lombard, Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes, and of vaqueros and misson padres -- is what sets it apart from the usual imagery of bland postwar suburbia. They don't make movies or sing hit songs about Lakewood or Levittown, as Bing Crosby, Roy Rogers, Moon Unit Zappa and Tom Petty have about the San Fernando Valley.
Valley lore is filled with characters and historical intrigues. Backyard gardeners have unearthed Indian relics, cannonballs left from 19th century military battles and pioneer grave markers, all of it belonging to a story that goes way beyond the usual 'burbs.
Further evidence of this evolving story can be found all over the terrain if you know what to look for. There are horse trails that have been in use for a century, dirt roads through forgotten orchards, abandoned barns and airfields, crumbling adobes, and rocks and caves that hid the desperadoes of an earlier time.
Easier to observe, but not so simple to grasp, is the 21st century cityscape with its peculiarly Valley flavor. Long straight boulevards serve as the spine for strips of mini-malls, shops and ethnic diners of amazing diversity. Gated enclaves of million-dollar mansions lurk within gunshot of gang turf. Tech startups coexist in office complexes with the world's porn providers. Concrete river channels and looming freeways section off the vast plain into more comprehensible pieces.
This website subscribes to the belief that the San Fernando Valley -- a basin shared by six cities, Los Angeles chief among them -- has a history worth knowing. The story began before the summer day in 1769 when an expedition of Spaniards stumbled upon "a very pleasant and spacious valley" inhabited by two native cultures, the Tongva and the Chumash, and fed by a trickle of a river hidden in reeds.
A lot has happened in the generations since. By using the links on the left side of the page, you can begin to discover this past.
Much of what's here is from The San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb, by journalist and Valley native Kevin Roderick. America's Suburb is the only book of its kind to give the Valley story its due -- 240 pages of anecdotes, events and observations and more than 150 black-and-white photographs.
Readable yet authoritative, it has received praise from historians, Valley aficionados and the media as a valuable addition to the literature of Los Angeles and California. If you have any interest in the Valley, you'll probably want to own this book.
But there's more to the Valley than could fit into the book. That's where this website comes in.
AmericasSuburb.com is an online home for material from the author's files and for history and lore that cried out to be posted on the Web. These pages allow the story to be told in some different ways.
You'll find an exclusive Valley History Timeline that gives credit to crucial but often overlooked milestones: the first stagecoach crossing of the Valley, the tragic death of local teenager Ritchie Valens, the arrival of a subway. Valley Lit explores the body of literature and films that seek to explain the Valley or use it as a reference point. Valley Image looks at the Valley's profile in America's cultural consciousness through the years.
Some few million people who are alive today have called the Valley home, and for them Gone But Not Forgotten revisits landmarks that have vanished. If you remember it, it's probably here.
Clicking the links on the left side of each page will also provide a first look at The San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb. The book's Introduction and the chapter titled Valleywood -- on the prominence of movie stars and studios in the Valley's story -- are available to read in their entirety.
A sampling of photographs from the book, plus some extras only available here, can be found in the Photo Gallery. Some other pages also carry historical images.
What is known about the Valley's past grows all the time, fed by groups and individuals who uncover new lore. The Links page connects to 300 sources of more information about the Valley -- among them historical societies, personal memoirs and institutions in the area.
More is being added as time allows so check back often. If there is something you want to see or you have a question for the editors, use the Contact Us link.