Sylmar, Los Angeles, California

Sylmar is a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley and is the northernmost neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles.Amy Orozco, "Nature, Without the Disasters," ''Los Angeles Times'', May 12, 2009, image 58
/ref> Historically known for its profusion of sylvan olive orchards, Sylmar can trace its past to the 18th century and the founding of the San Fernando Mission. In 1890, olive production was begun systematically. The Sylmar climate was also considered healthy, and so a sanitarium was established, the first in a series of hospitals in the neighborhood. There are fourteen public and eight private schools within Sylmar.

History

Naming

San Fernando became a city in 1874, leading to the naming of the unincorporated land surrounding San Fernando as Morningside. In 1893 the area was named Sylmar, a fusion of two Latin words for "trees" and "sea"."San Fernando, 'at Mouth of Owens River,' ''Los Angeles Times'', October 20, page V-13
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Around 2000, some residents proposed a plan to rename the northwest portion of the district as Rancho Cascades. The name change was approved in 2018.

Sylmar has been nicknamed "The Top of Los Angeles."Geoffrey Mohan and Rebecca Bryant, "Earthquake: The Long Road Back: Pride Bottoms Out in 'Top of Los Angeles,'" ''Los Angeles Times'', January 23, 1994
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Olives

The foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains at the north edge of the San Fernando Valley was perceived as "an unattractive and apparently worthless waste" before 2,000 acres (810 ha) were transformed in the late 1890s by the Los Angeles Olive Growers Association."Los Angeles Olive Growers' Association," ''Los Angeles Times'', January 9, 1898, page 19
/ref> One observer recalled that the land had been "a mass of ill-looking chapparel icand chemisal" icbefore it was planted with olives.Joseph D. Lynch, "Olive Culture in Southern California," ''Los Angeles Herald Sunday Supplement'', December 31, 1905
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In 1893, a group of Illinois businessmen purchased from the trustees of the Maclay ranch either 1,000 or 2,000 acres (405 or 810 ha) — the sources differ — east of the railroad tracks on San Fernando Road just south of Roxford Street and in 1894 began planting olives trees on up to 1,700 acres (690 ha).Ira Gribin, "Northernmost Town Integrally Tied to Development of Valley," ''Los Angeles Times'', June 20, 1981, page WS-B-17
/ref> Experts were brought from France to supervise the work."Largest Olive Grove Is Sold," ''Los Angeles Times'', January 28, 1922, page B-1
/ref> Calling themselves the Los Angeles Olive Growers Association (in 1898 C.O. (Paul) Milltimore was the president and George L. Arnold the secretary), they built a packing plant and sold olives under the Tyler Olives label, later changing to the Sylmar Packing label. Sylmar's olives became noted throughout the state for sweetness and purity. Chinese pickers were hired to harvest the crops, and up to 800 U.S. gallons (3,000 L) of olive oil a day were produced. The pickling plant was located on the corner of Roxford Street and San Fernando Road. By March 1898 about 200,000 trees had been planted, and by 1906 the property had become the largest olive grove in the world.Sunset Magazine, August 1907: "A Sea of Trees, The Story of Sylmar, The Largest Olive Orchard In The World", by Bertha H. Smith.M.E.C., "How the Golden Oil Is Produced on the Largest Olive Grove in the World," ''Los Angeles Times'', July 8, 1906, page VI-11
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One source stated in 1981 that it was the "Fusano family" who built a headquarters building for the olive association on Roxford and San Fernando in 1902 and that the first packing plant was built in 1909. The first groves were planted with Mission, Nevadillo Blanco and Manzanillo olives. Some Sevillano and Ascolano varieties were planted for extra-large fruit.

During the picking season in the early 1900s, an extra force of 300 Japanese was employed and housed in a village of tents. In 1927 the packing plant, which had been built in 1910, employed some five hundred workers during its busiest season, November through January. The oil was pressed from the fruit, allowed to separate from the fruit's water content, then drawn into 12,000-gallon concrete tanks lined with glass and set deep into the ground to avoid a temperature change. Over time, the plant expanded its activities, bringing in figs, pimientos and watermelon rind from the San Joaquin Valley for processing."Mammoth Grove Keeps Olive Plant Busy," ''Los Angeles Times'', October 2, 1927, page J-5
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In 1904 the Sylmar brand olive oil won first place at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri; in 1906 at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, Portland, Oregon; and in 1915 at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

In 1922, the controlling interest in the Los Angeles Olive Growers' Association, which had been held by the estate of F.D. Butterfield (Charlotte M. Butterfield, the heir), was bought by Charles C. Moore of San Francisco, and its name was changed to Sylmar Packing Corporation. The management remained with Frank Simonds, who was president of the association. At that time there were 140,000 trees on the property.

Some of the olive trees were still growing in Sylmar decades after they were planted. In 1963, twenty-five mature olive trees were removed from the site of the Sylmar Juvenile Hall, then under construction (below), to be planted at Busch Gardens, an entertainment center in Van Nuys.

Disasters and mishaps

1971 earthquake

At 6:01 a.m. on February 9, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit the Sylmar area on a thrust fault located below the neighborhood. Known as the San Fernando earthquake or the Sylmar earthquake, it caused 58 deaths and more than $500 million in damage. Three people died at the Olive View Medical Center, including two patients on life-support systems that failed when auxiliary generators did not start. The third was an ambulance driver who was crushed by a falling wall. A hospital building sank a foot into the ground. About 600 patients were evacuated, 200 of them into a parking lot. A Boys Market was jolted off its foundation and collapsed.Stephanie Chavez, "Echoes of 1971 Reverberate for Veterans of Sylmar Quake," ''Los Angeles Times'', October 2, 1987, page V-B-8
/ref> The Sylmar juvenile hall was severely damaged. One of its buildings sank "almost to the ceiling."

Two weeks later, normalcy had returned to many in the San Fernando Valley, but in Sylmar, according to ''The New York Times'',

The community looks like a battlefield. Dozens of houses are twisted beyond repair. Families camp out in tents or trailers on front lawns, afraid to return even to those houses not condemned ... All homes have been without water for drinking, cooking and flushing toilets, although some service has been restored in the last few days. There is no gas, no heat. Telephones are still out. Housewives must travel out of the community to find grocery stores that are still open. On top of that, Sylmar feels that it has been forgotten ...Robert A. Wright, "The Quake Still Afflicts Community on Coast," ''The New York Times'', February 22, 1971
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Portable toilets were placed on street corners. Water was distributed to residents via taps attached to huge tank cars of the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. Many residents moved away from Sylmar, either from fear of more earthquakes or because their homes were destroyed. People bathed in the Pacoima Wash. Streets were buckled like washboards, with fissures up to a foot wide. On February 21, 1971, a rally of 1,500 people was held at a Little League Baseball

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