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History Woodland Hills is a well-known district in the northern Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. Woodland Hills is considered the hub of San Fernando Valley business; much like Century City is to Los Angeles. Woodland Hills can be found on the map in the southwestern area of the San Fernando Valley. It is also northeast of Calabasas County and due west of Tarzana’s place on the map of the United States of America. If you move towards the geographical North, you will find that Woodland Hills is bordered by West Hills, Canoga Park, and Winnetka. Running east-west through the community, in an almost dividing manner is U.S. Route 101 – which is also known as the Ventura Freeway. Also in the same orientation is Ventura Boulevard, which starts in Woodland Hills. Woodland Hills, Thousand Oaks, and Encino (Spanish for oak) all have one thing in common – they were named for the verdant and numerous trees found in them. Woodland Hills, like Encino, is famous for its shopping. The Promenade shopping mall, with its 16 screen AMC theater complex, is a sheer shoppers' delight. Topanga Plaza, also located in Woodland Hills is a shopping mall located on Topanga Canyon Boulevard on the border between the communities of Canoga Park and Woodland Hills in the western part of Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley. It is owned and operated by The Westfield Group. It is a two story mall consisting of 125 tenants and featuring multiple, massive skylights throughout the mall which allow natural light to fill the building during daytime hours. Nordstrom, Robinsons-May and Sears currently anchor the center. Robinsons-May will be officially renamed Macy's in September 2006, while in October 2006 the first phase of a massive $330,000,000 upscale expansion will open with over 100 new stores, a new Nordstrom, replacing its current location, and a Target. Neiman Marcus will open in 2008 as part of phase two of the Topanga Plaza’s expansion scheme. Warner Park is the site of the Valley Cultural Center's "Concerts in the Park" series, which puts together bands of almost all genres – everything from folk, pop and rock to jazz and big band music. The development was named for its former owner, Harry Warner of Warner Bros. Pictures. He purchased 1,100 acres ostensibly to raise thoroughbred horses but liquidated his holdings in the 1980s. More on Woodland Hills The Chumash Indians, a Native American tribe, mainly inhabited the southern coastal regions of California, in the vicinity of what is now Santa Barbara and Ventura, extending as far south as Malibu. They also occupied the three northern islands of the Santa Barbara group, a part of the Channel Islands. Modern place names with Chumash origins include: Malibu, Ojai, Point Mugu, Piru, Lake Castaic, and Simi Valley. The Chumash were hunter-gatherers, who were adept at fishing as well as hunting small game. They are one of only two New World people who regularly navigated the ocean (the other was the Tongva, a neighboring tribe located to the South). Some settlements built plank canoes called tomols, which facilitated the distribution of goods, and could even be used for whaling. Remains of a developed Chumash culture, including rock paintings (petroglyphs) apparently depicting the Chumash cosmology, can still be seen. Anthropologists eagerly sought Chumash baskets as prime examples of the great skill exhibited by the Chumash Indians in this craft, and two of the finest collections are at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and the Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Mankind) in Paris, France. In 1769, Captain Gaspar de Portola led a party of Spanish explorers and missionaries, traveling north on the route that became known as the El Camino Real. They encountered the Chumash Indians and called the area the Valley of the Oaks. When the Spanish finally did settle the area, they were given huge land grants, the largest of which was Rancho Simi, given to the Pico family. When Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, California became a territory of Mexico, and a few more land grants were given. It was in this area, now named Woodland Hills, that the treaty was signed to end the Mexican War. This cleared the way for California to be admitted to the union in 1850 as the 31st state. When Victor Girard Kleinberger first laid eyes on the rolling grasslands with pools of water, he called it the "dream city." A visionary and entrepreneur, he foresaw a large population and a thriving economy in the town he named Girard, as he later came to call himself. Girard was an ambitious man who had a penchant for deceit. In 1922, Girard and Boulevard Land Company purchased 2,886 acres, which was subdivided into 6,000 lots. Girard sold thousands of small lots to families in a farming area where 80 acre parcels had more typically been sold. To speed up real estate sales in his new town in 1923, Girard erected gates, a mosque tower, and a business district with rows of stones with false fronts to convey the impression of a flourishing economy. Later, in an attempt to hold off bankruptcy and his creditors, Girard attached liens to all the property he sold without informing the buyers! In spite of his unscrupulous methods, Girard believed in the town and the land, and his plan worked. His advertisements in the newspaper did, in fact, attract new residents and businesses, and a great deal of new construction was initiated. He beautified the area by importing and planting more than 120,000 eucalyptus, sycamore, fir, pine and pepper trees. Years later, as the trees grew, it was appropriate to change the town's name to Woodland Hills. With the country in the dying throes of the Great Depression, Girard's "super community" crumbled. Despite the forlorn economic state of Woodland Hills, in which only 75 families remained, the town survived. Large family landholders moved in, including Harry Warner of Warner Brothers Pictures. In 1941, residents of the community banded together to improve the community's image and rename it Woodland Hills. This was the origin of the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce. Originally acquiring land to breed thoroughbred horses, Warner eventually owned 1,100 acres. When Warner liquidated much of his real estate holdings in the 1980s, a number of large corporations bought and developed portions of the master planned business development that was to become known as Warner Center. With Warner Center still at the core of the business district, Woodland Hills Hils enjoys a strong financial establishment, an upscale residential base, the finest health care, outstanding retail and restaurant facilities, excellent educational institutions, and recreational opportunities without equal - all in beautiful Southern California. The modern Warner Center commercial zone is named for Harry and features several high-rise buildings, hotels, and shopping centers in Woodland Hills. A major transit hub — the western end of the Orange Line — opened here in October 2005. The population living in Woodland Hills nears 70,000. Education in Woodland Hills Some elementary schools in Woodland Hills are: Calvert Street Elementary School Woodland Hills Elementary School Woodland Hills Private School Woodland Hills Private School Middle schools include: West Valley Occupational Center District:Los Angeles Unified School District George Ellery Hale Middle School Francis Parkman Middle School High Schools in the area are: William Howard Taft Senior High School Louisville High School Henry David Thoreau Continuation School Miguel Leonis Continuation School Taft and El Camino Real are multiple United States Academic Decathlon winners. The Los Angeles Pierce College – which his part of the Los Angeles Community College District – is also found in Woodland Hills. The Los Angeles Pierce College is a two-year public institution providing opportunities for occupational training, transfer education and life-long learning. Pierce is one of nine campuses of the Los Angeles Community College District. Founded in 1947, Pierce College is a comprehensive college with more than 100 disciplines being taught to more than 18,000 students each semester. The college is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, a nationally recognized accrediting agency. Pierce College is setting the pace in community college education. The creation of the 15-week semester plan has led to higher enrollment, better retention and better learning. With two five-week summer sessions and one five-week winter session, students are enjoying the opportunity to move more quickly through the curriculum with greater success academically. Many Pierce College students transfer to the University of California system, the California State University system, and private universities to earn bachelors degrees. Pierce College has one of the highest transfer performances in southern California. Pierce Honors students have the enviable record of never been turned down for admission to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Pierce College students also transfer to California State University, Northridge (CSUN) in greater numbers than any other college. Pierce prepares its students for academic success after transferring to a university. A study by UCLA, showed that Pierce students graduated from UCLA with a higher GPA than students from any other transfer college. Woodland Hills Demographics 74.8% of the total population are predominantly White or Caucasoid, 3.4% of the population are African American. Still computed from the total population, one can see that 7.2% are Hispanic/Latino, 5.9% are Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, etc.), and 6.8% Two or more mixed races. The median age is 40.8 years. And the average household size is 2.66. Small families of 2 to 3 earn approximately the median household income of $70,411. On top of that, all 24,851 of the median number of households can sell their houses for a median housing value of $254,000.00. Sadly, the cost of living is almost double the national average, at 189%. There is hope however, as the unemployment rate is a measly 6%. The violent crime index for the Woodland Hills area is a little alarming at 8, when 1 is the lowest score, and the index for all of California is 4 (half that of Woodland Hills’). Woodland Hills Climate Temperatures usually range from a January low temperature of 39.5° F to somewhere around 95° F in July. In July 2006, Woodland Hills recorded the highest temperature ever in Los Angeles County, hitting 119 degrees Fahrenheit at Pierce College. Famous People Born and raised in Woodland Hills
Many Hollywood notables spent their first years of life or their later years at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.
Businesses in Woodland Hills 21st Century Insurance headquarters
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NEW BUSINESS LICENSES: Week of January 25, 2010 (The Tampa Tribune) NEW BUSINESS LICENSES: Week of January 25, 2010 Dr. Stanley Corwin, 83; Drummer, Artist, Dentist (The Palisadian-Post) Dr. Stanley Bernard Corwin passed away on January 3 after three months in the hospital due to complications from surgery. He was also suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He was 83. |
