Overview
Encino - the Oak tree - the tree of mystic power for the Celts, home to the male aspect of holiness. It is known for its majestic strength and the simple yet sturdy aesthetic value it lends to furniture and homes built from it. Far beyond that, however, it also lends its name, dignity and heritage of beauty and strength to the Los Angeles City of Encino, California.

Encino can be found nearly smack dab at the estimated geographical center of the southernmost area of the San Fernando Valley.

Encino is the San Fernando Valley's premiere business community located North of Los Angeles stretching from the 405 freeway on the East to Tarzana on the West end. The area is a hustle and bustle of business to the left and right of its major thoroughfares. Business types range from cutting edge information technology and web design, the more traditional fares like food and the mundane world of maintenance. If you are a business in the area, it is a must that at least a branch of your be found somewhere in Encino.

The area, in reality, gets its name from a considerably vast piece of real estate that was given as a land grant to three faithful Mission Indians (Native American Indians who help out at a missionary outpost) by the then sovereign Spanish government after it left behind all of its California missions in the earlier part of the 18th century. This parcel of land was made into a ranch and was given the name Rancho Los Encinos (literally translated as Ranch of the Oaks in Spanish). It is sad but true that it has not been proven if the ranch's original name pertains to plentiful specimens of the said tree found in the area or to the strong oak-like faith exhibited by the trio of Native American converts.

Encino's borders are shared with adjacent neighbors such as Tarzana that you find at Encino's geographical West, the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area geographically located due to its north, Sherman Oaks area that terminates Encino's land area on the east side, and the Encino Reservoir of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power that one finds in the map of California right at Encino’s edge on the south border.

Encino's boundaries can be roughly defined by the area enclosed by Mulholland Drive on the south, Lindley Avenue on the west, Victory Boulevard on the north, and the San Diego Freeway on the east. Within Encino you can find the major thoroughfares that include Ventura Boulevard, Magnolia Boulevard, and Burbank Boulevard, as well as Balboa Boulevard, and Hayvenhurst Avenue.

As of the census of the year 2000, the number of people who have taken residence in Encino were estimated to number roughly about 40,956. The said population statistic is spread about the total land area of the entirety of Encino with a population density 3,864.9 people per square mile. Encino has a predominantly adult population (which according to standard statistical charts are the normal behavior parameters observable in normal population data) with 18.25% of the population under 18, and 20.08% of the 2000 population over 64, meaning 3 out of every Encino's are. The district contained 18,159 housing units in a land area of 10.59 square miles (27.44 square kilometers). Water covers 0.13 square miles (0.33 square kilometers) of the district.

In the movies, Encino has had its share of the silver screen's illusive yet illustrious limelight. It is the setting of the 1992 comedy, Encino Man. The said movie is set in Encino and is about a pair of outcast teenagers who discovered a block of ice while digging for a backyard swimming pool. They thaw the block to discover a perfectly preserved man from the Ice Ages. They tried to pass off this prehistoric Encino Man as a normal teenager and the hilarity ensued.

Frank Zappa had this to say about Encino in his 1982 hit song Valley Girl, “Encino is like so bitchen, There’s like the galleria, And like all these like really great shoe stores, I love going into like clothing stores and stuff, I like buy the neatest mini-skirts and stuff, Its like so bitchen cuz like everybodys like, Super-super nice... Its like so bitchen...” He was in fact implying that the stereotypical valley girl usually shopped (and later in the song, lives) in Encino, California. Thus, putting Encino, CA on the map as a place for the opulently rich. "The Point" from Fast Times at Ridgemont High was located in Encino (Encino Little League Field).

Encino was where Ali's family lived (Elisabeth Shue) in the movie "The Karate Kid". Their country club was Encino Oaks and they lived on Alonzo Avenue. Encino is where some of the specials on the popular cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants take place – in Patchy the Pirate’s Encino, CA home to be exact. Encino is the setting of the first half of Chilean author Alberto Fuguet's novel Las películas de mi vida (The Movies Of My Life).

Encino is where, according to a recurring on-air gag, Match Game panelist Brett Somers would take host Gene Rayburn to a nice hotel after the show if she were "feeling frisky." The Jackson family has owned a mansion on Hayvenhurst Ave. in Encino since the 1970's, with all their children including Michael and Janet growing up there.

Another of Encino’s claim to fame is that Butch Hartman formally resided there. Irv "Lorenzo" Gotti, the head of The Inc. Records, formely known as Murder Inc. Records, owns a mansion in Encino. On top of all that, the Encino Velodrome has provided an outdoor oval bicycle racing track since 1963.

History
Encino is also a place of unique origins. In 1769 Gasper de Portola landed in the Monterey region of California. During his expedition he was greeted by several hundred Grabielino (also known as Tongva) Indians near Encino Springs under the mighty oak trees that would give Encino its name, which is Spanish for "oak tree." Within a generation, Encino Springs was known throughout California. Gasper de Portola returned to Spain after claiming the territory for the King and Queen of Spain.

The site that is now known as Los Encinos was a "rancheria" (the Spanish term for an Indian village) of the tribe now called "Fernandeño", "Gabrielino" or Tongva, for several thousand years. In 1797, when the San Fernando Mission was completed, the site was largely evacuated.

The Missions did not use military force to bring Indians into the Mission, though they would use it to keep them there once they had converted and become "neophytes". However, the diseases the white men brought with them, and the destruction of the local food sources caused by the Mission cattle put the Indians in a desperate state. A significant majority of the Indians in California died within a few years of the arrival of the white man from a combination of disease and starvation. While the padres had the best of intentions and were horrified at the death they saw around them, their arrival was the root cause of this inadvertent genocide.

This disease and starvation did have the effect of forcing most of the Indians living anywhere near the Spanish settlements, including those in the San Fernando Valley, to place themselves under the Mission's protection and control.

In 1810, as a result of the Mexican Revolution, Rancho Los Encinos was granted to the favored Grabielino Indians. At that time the rancho covered about seven square miles.

When the Mexican government dissolved the California missions in 1834, three Mission Indian named Ramon, Francisco and Roque were given a 4,460 acre rancho (1 Mexican League) in what was to become Rancho Los Encinos. They and their families made a marginal living grazing cattle and raising simple crops. On July 8th, 1845, Governor Pio Pico officially recognized their claim to the land, but by that time Francisco and Roque were dead. Their widows inherited the land and worked it for a few years with Ramon and his family until 1849 when Roman deserted them and his daughter Aguedo, and ran off to the gold fields. 

However, with the coming of U.S. laws and taxes in the 1840s, the heirs of the orginal land grant lost ownership of the land and it eventually ended up in the hands of Vincent De La Ossa. De La Ossa built a sizeable adobe (which still stands), grazed 500 cattle, and employeed 20 ranch hands until he died in the 1860s. 

Before California was conquered by the United States in 1847, and the Gold Rush began in 1849, cattle ranching had been the center of the entire "Californio" economy. The Californio "rancheros" raised huge herds of cattle on the vast grasslands of places like the San Fernando Valley. The rancheros and their vaqueros (who were almost all California Indians) would gather the cattle once a year in a rodeo, and then slaughter hundreds of them. There was far more meat than they could eat, so most of the beef was left to be eaten by the local wildlife, while the rancheros saved the hides and tallow.

The hides and tallow would be traded to Yankee sea captains, who would sail around Cape Horn in ships loaded down with fabrics, clothes, household goods, liquor and any other items the Californios might want. The sea captains would trade their cargo for as many hides and barrels of tallow as their ships could hold, and then return home to sell them. The story of one of these voyages is told in the famous book "Two Years Before the Mast", by Richard Henry Dana.

The De La Osa rancho however, opened just as this phase in California history was coming to a close. When hundreds of thousands of gold miners came pouring into California, there were suddenly enough mouths to eat all the beef this fertile land could produce, and the meat became more valuable than the hides. Californio Rancheros like Vincente made a great deal of money driving their cattle to the gold fields and selling them there at inflated prices. For a few years, the Californios prospered under the Stars and Stripes.

In 1849, Vincente De La Osa built the adobe that still stands at Los Encinos. It is an excellent example of the basic Californio style of adobe.

It is long and narrow, with every room having one or more doors connecting to the outside, and many adjacent rooms not connecting to each other. Only in a climate as mild as Southern California, would anyone consider designing a house that way.

The cattle boom did not last, and when the miners went home or settled down, the demand for cattle declined. Vincente compensated by establishing a small vineyard, raising some sheep, and letting out rooms to travelers. There were many customers, since the Rancho was located along the primary road through California, El Camino Real, which in present day Encino corresponds to Ventura Blvd.

Vincente died in 1861, leaving his widow Rita with 12 children, and pregnant with a thirteenth.

Rita managed to hold on for six more years, until 1867 when she conveyed the 4,460 acre rancho to her son-in-law, Sheriff James Thomson of Los Angeles and her daughter Manuela for $3,500. Manuela died in 1868 and the Rancho was sold to two French Basques, Eugene and Phillipe Garnier. When Eugene and Phillipe Garnier bought the property, they built the Ensceno Roadhouse which became a twice-a-day stop for both the Butterfield and the Overland Mail Stage between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They also diversified the ranch and raised sheep, wheat, and barley. In the early 20th Century the community of Encino began to be developed.

The Garniers were energetic builders, and added much to the Rancho. They built a stone-lined pond, in the shape of a Spanish guitar at the site of the spring they built a two story limestone building to serve as a bunkhouse and they built a roadhouse across the road (Ventura Blvd.) which became the focal point of the local Basque community.

They also plunged with both feet into the Los Angeles sheep boom of the early 1870s. Three years of drought followed by two years of rain had combined with falling cattle prices to wipe out the cattle economy in Los Angeles. The sheep moved in to fill the void. The Garniers spent freely on prize Spanish and French Merino breeding rams and borrowed heavily to finance the expansion of their herds and facilities. They had the reputation for producing the finest wool in Southern California.

Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough. The Los Angeles sheep boom was built on dreams and speculation, and the poor quality of most of the Southern California product, combined with the expenses of getting the product back east to the mills, made sheep ranching on the scale of the Garniers and their many sheep ranching neighbors, economically insupportable. The market collapsed in 1873, and joined with a nation wide depression to ruin the Garniers and many like them. They hung on until 1878, when their primary creditor, and another Basque, Gaston Oxarart, purchased the ranch at a Sheriff's auction. He continued to raise sheep, but like most landowners in the Valley, he moved more and more into agriculture. In 1886, Gaston died, and the ranch passed to his nephew Simon Gless. In 1889, Gless sold the rancho to his father in law, Domingo Amestoy. This was the last time the 4,460 acre ranch was sold as a whole. In the coming years, it would slowly be taken apart, a piece at a time.

In 1916, 1,170 acres of land were sold from the Rancho. This parcel was subdivided and became the city of Encino. In 1949, through the efforts of Mrs. Mary Stuart in mobilizing the local community to save the buildings from developers, the last remaining parcel of land, containing the De La Osa adobe, Garnier House and spring were purchased by the State of California, and the Los Encinos State Historic Park was created.

Encino Chamber of Commerce
The Encino Chamber of Commerce has been serving the business community of Encino with excellence since 1936. The Encino Chamber of Commerce however, officially began in 1927, but was temporarily disbanded during the great depression. The Encino Chamber of Commerce, which was revived in 1936, worked closely with the community to assist in the development of Encino. Just off Ventura and Balboa Boulevards is the Los Encinos State Park which still includes some of the original buildings constructed by the Garnier Brothers.

Demographical Information on Encino, California
As stated above, Encino is located almost in the center of the San Fernando Valley's southern boundary. The Encino community has a population of about 40,700 with a little over 18,000 households. The median age is 43 and about 19 percent of the population is 65 and older. About half the population has a bachelor's degree or higher and there are approximately 9,300 students enrolled in its schools. Close to 22,000 residents are in the labor force and the median income is $91,475. The average value of a house in the area is close to a decent $650,000.

DR. JOHN CHAVES
5312 Comercio Lane, Suite A
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
Phone 818-999-2707
Fax 818-703-1998
appointment@cosmeticdentalservices.com