Journey through the San Fernando Valley

June 16, 2011 - PRLog -- New from Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series is San Fernando Valley. In vintage photographs, repeat Arcadia author, Marc Wanamaker, shares the history of the valley.  The book boasts more than 200 vintage images, giving readers a unique opportunity to reconnect to the history that shaped their community.

The Mission San Fernando was founded on September 8, 1797 as an outpost of New Spain in the vast expanse between the San Gabriel and Santa Monica Mountains. Northwest over the Hollywood Hills from downtown Los Angeles, this land was developed into a vital farming and citrus breadbasket.

After 1900, real estate developers began subdividing "the Valley," as it is popularly known, and by 1940 communities of Los Angeles proper and new cities formed into models of suburbia: Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Burbank, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Northridge, Roscoe (Sun Valley), Tarzana, Canoga Park, Chatsworth, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, San Fernando, Glendale, Canoga Park, Pacoima, Toluca Lake, and Woodland Hills.

The film industry built studios, location ranches and support facilities in the valley. The aviation industries grew too and the Hollywood, Ventura, and Golden State Freeways redrew the map. Songs, movies and television shows have helped ingrain "the Valley" into L.A. lore.

Highlights of San Fernando Valley include:
•   Early Subdivision of the Ranchos
•   San Fernando Valley Development
•   Motion Picture and Television Studios
•   Filming Locations and Homes of the Stars


Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or www.arcadiapublishing.com.

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With more than 6,000 local history titles published to date, Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Widely recognized sepia books feature hundreds of vintage historical images.