North Hills was originally part of an agricultural community known as Mission Acres. After WWII, the newly developed suburban community was renamed Sepulveda, after the prominent Sepúlveda family of California. In 1991, it was renamed North Hills.
Geography
North Hills is located in the central San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, 21 miles northwest of downtown.[2] North Hills is bounded by Balboa Boulevard and Bull Creek ("the wash") on the west, Devonshire and Lassen Street on the north, the Pacoima Wash on the east, and Roscoe Boulevard on the south.
The Mexican armed resistance to the American intervention ceased in the beginning of 1848 and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded the California Territory to the United States. The Treaty provided that the Mexican land grants would be honored and American officials acquired Spanish and Mexican records to confirm titles.[3] The rancho land grant was patented to Eulogio de Celis in 1873.[4] De Celis sold the southern half of the rancho, south of what is roughly now Roscoe Boulevard to Andrés Pico in 1854; Pico had sold his half-interest in the rancho to his brother Pío Pico in 1862, retaining 2,000 acres (8 km2) called the Pico Reserve around the old Mission. In a 1871 plat of the rancho, the North Hills area is shown to be relatively undeveloped land just south of the Pico Reserve with a road from the Mission to the Rancho Los Encino crossing the land diagonally and a sheep camp located just north of the ranch partition line to the west of the Pacoima Wash.[5] De Celis died in 1869 and his son Eulogio F. de Celis sold the northern half, which includes what is now North Hills, to Charles Maclay, George K. Porter and Benjamin F. Porter in 1875.[6]
Porter land
The Porter cousins' land lied to the west of present-day Sepulveda Boulevard and the Maclay land lied to the east.[7] In 1881, the Porter cousins split their holdings and George received the portion between Sepulveda Boulevard and Aliso Canyon. In 1882, the Porters received one-third of the Maclay land; with this purchase, the Porter's land covered all of current North Hills land. In 1887, George K. Porter subdivided the land and established the Porter Land and Water Company to take advantage of a land sales boom.[8] John B. Baskin, a partner and sales agent of the company began an extensive marketing and promotional campaign for the land subdivision; a frequent motif of the marketing is the remains of the mission which was surrounded by the tract. Baskin also hired California State Engineer William Hammond Hall to develop an irrigation plan for water derived from the local springs and arroyos like the current Pacoima Wash. The boom began to fade by the end of 1888 and went bust the next year with internal company problems and declining national and local economies which preceded the Panic of 1893; the decline would also be excacerbated by severe droughts in the 1890s. In October of 1903, Porter sold his firm and transferred remaining lands to a syndicate led by Leslie C. Brand which was incorporated as the San Fernando Mission Land Company in 1904.[9][10][11]
Community development
Mission Acres was an agricultural community made by early developers who created 1 acre plots for agricultural activities, with irrigation supplied by the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913.[12] The community was a stop for the Pacific Electric railway streetcars that transported passengers from downtown Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley.[13]
Residents of Mission Acres renamed the area Sepulveda in 1927.[2][13] The Californio Sepulveda family, going back to the founding of the Pueblo of Los Angeles,[14] is the source of various Los Angeles place-names, including the post-war community of Sepulveda. Sepulveda Boulevard is the primary north–south street through North Hills, crossing Sepulveda Pass to the south. The community saw significant growth between the 1930s and the 1950s.[2]
In 1937, councilman Jim Wilson offered a resolution that instructed the city's real estate agent to make the right of way cost appraisal for diverting flood waters from Wilson and East Canyons into Pacoima Wash to protect the community of Sepulveda from floods that occurred during heavy storms.[15] This same year, the Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church was built and the parish was established years later in 1944.[16]
Post World War II
The area remained mostly rural through the 1940s, urbanization initiated during the 1950s during which the entire San Fernando Valley was experiencing a transition from semi-rural and agricultural uses into suburban development patterns. Multi-family residential units began to be developed in the 1960s.[17]
Before the construction of the 405, Sepulveda Boulevard was a major highway and the neighborhood became a stopping point for travelers to and from Los Angeles. Motels began to be established along Sepulveda. Among these motels is the Good Knight Inn, which began construction in 1945 and featured a façade designed to resemble a castle; by 2023, the motel has continued to run and has retained much of its original form.[18]
The Our Lady of Peace Catholic school was being built by 1951 and began to hold classes that year, the school building was officially completed in 1954, followed by various additions. Later that year of 1954, the new Our Lady of Peace church designed by Armet and Davis was completed;[19] the former church structure was repurposed by the parish as Schneider's Hall. By 1956, the school was the largest elementary school in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and remained so for two more years.[16]
Plummer Elementary School, designed in the International style by E. R. C. Billerbeck for LAUSD, was completed in 1952.
The Sepulveda Veterans Administration Hospital was completed in a 160-acre property in 1955.[20]
After four years of construction, Francisco Sepulveda Junior High School, designed by architect Arthur Froelich in the International style, was completed in 1960.[21]
In 1991, residents of the western half of Sepulveda, west of the San Diego Freeway, voted to secede from the eastern section to form a new community named North Hills. The City of Los Angeles soon changed the name of remaining Sepulveda to North Hills also.[22] The city then formed a new sub-neighborhood of "North Hills West" which begins west of the 405 freeway and goes to Bull Creek Wash/Balboa Blvd. and from Roscoe Blvd. to Devonshire St.[23][24] The eastern section became the sub-neighborhood of North Hills East.[25]
North Hills East boundaries are east of the 405-San Diego Freeway, along the Pacoima Wash, South of Lassen, and North of Roscoe.[26]
In June 1999, a damaged airplane landed safely on Hayvenhurst Avenue on its way to Van Nuys Airport.[13]
By the year 2000, the neighborhood had a population of 52,333; Compared to 1990, North Hills had a population increase of 22% by the year 2000, among the highest total increase in the Valley, with a significant increase in Latino American (73.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (52.6%) residents.[27]
On December 6, 2014, a celebration was held for the opening of the over 13,000 square foot Nanak Sadan Sikh Temple and Community Center at Nordhoff Street, followed by the celebration of a regular evening diwan.[28]
As of 2020, about 242 (1.3%) of the approximately 17,977 occupied structures in North Hills were built in 1939 or earlier, 34.9% were built from 1940 to 1959, 34% from 1960 to 1979, 5.2% from 2000 to 2009, 0.9% from 2010 to 2013, and 1% from 2014 or later.[29]
North Hills is governed locally by the City of Los Angeles and is represented in the Los Angeles City Council by the members elected for districts 6, 7 and 12; each district includes three different sections of the neighborhood.[30]
Both North Hills East and North Hills West Neighborhood Councils work together to improve the overall quality of life in North Hills communities.
North Hills West Neighborhood Council was certified in 2003.[31] Their slogan is "Fostering Community," and its logo is of a green tree in the city.[31] The 2012-2014 North Hills West Neighborhood Council was seated into office on September 20, 2012.[32] A northwestern section became part of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council in 2013.[33]
North Hills East Neighborhood Council was certified in 2010.[34] It has a growing, multicultural group of neighbors dedicated to service and community activism. In early 2014, North Hills East Neighborhood Council was approved as an Official Certifying Organization for the President's Volunteer Service Awards program, which is an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the same organization responsible for AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. This status as an Official Certifying Organization has enabled the North Hills East Neighborhood Council to verify hours and eligibility for volunteers to receive an award, which, depending on number of hours worked can range from a pin to a personalized letter from the President of the United States. More about the awards can be found here: www.presidentialserviceawards.gov Volunteers do not have to be a resident or stakeholder of North Hills East to qualify for a President's Volunteer Service Award.
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In 2009, the Los Angeles Times's "Mapping L.A." project supplied these North Hills community statistics: median household income: $52,456.[35] Population size is 60,254 according to 2010 Census data. This summarizes both sides of the 405 freeway. The North Hills West neighborhood had 24,000 residents in 2009.[24] The North Hills East neighborhood had nearly 40,000 residents in 2010.[26]
According to Mapping L.A., Mexican (38.4%) and German (2.8%) were the most common ancestries. Mexico (47.3%) and El Salvador (12.2%) were the most common foreign places of birth in 2000.[36]
There are magnet programs in some schools, such as the Sepulveda Middle School which has a Gifted / High Ability Magnet, and Kennedy High School which has an Architecture/Digital Arts Magnet. A school bus is provided if pupils are more than 5 miles away from the school. North Hills West is also served by charter schools of all grades.
Most of North Hills East and small portion of West
Private schools
The private and parochial schools in North Hills include Valley Park Baptist, Valley Presbyterian School, Heritage Christian, Our Lady of Peace, and Church of the Living Word. Los Angeles Baptist High School also serves the community and in 2012, was combined with Heritage Christian High School.
Several North Hills residents serve as host families to international students studying in the US. As of early 2014, about 50 foreign exchange students are attending school in the North Hills area. Host families get to share their way of life and culture with the students, and at the same time learn more about the students and their home countries.[citation needed]
The Los Angeles Public Library Mid-Valley Regional Branch, one of the biggest in the San Fernando Valley, is located on Nordhoff Street at Woodley Avenue in North Hills.[48]
Infrastructure
California Interstate 405 has direct access to the neighborhood on two points: exit 68 on Roscoe Boulevard and exit 69 on Nordhoff Street.[49] Main thoroughfares include Sepulveda and Roscoe Boulevards; Hayvenhurst, Woodley, and Haskell Avenues; Lassen, Plummer, and Nordhoff Streets. These thoroughfares, as is the case in the most of the San Fernando Valley. are arranged in a grid pattern with north–south ways labeled as avenues and east–west ways labeled as streets.
Bicycle infrastructure in the neighborhood includes marked street-side bike lanes on Devonshire Street, on Nordhoff Street starting eastward from Orion Avenue, Parthenia Street eastward from Burnet Avenue, and south–north lanes on Woodley Avenue. Plummer Street is designated as a bike route, allowing cyclists to share space with other vehicular traffic.[50][51]
North Hills is home to the large Veterans Administration Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center campus, which serves veterans in the San Fernando Valley, with residential and outpatient care.[58][59]
Many of the films were shot in the Sepulveda VA Clinic to shoot large shots to captivate wide scenes, such as in the movie Step Brothers, the area is used to show a large fight between two men and a large group of kids. In one of the most famous scenes in the film Terminator 2: Judgement Day, after thinking John the main protagonist finally escaped the T-1000, due to some help from the T-800, John is surprised when the T-1000 drives a semi truck through the overpass wall of Bull Creek, a flood control channel located in North Hills.[60]
Notable people
Bart Andrus, professional football coach and former collegiate player
^Hoffman, Abraham (1981). Vision or Villainy: Origins of the Owens Valley–Los Angeles Water Controversy. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN0-89096-509-9.
^Wittenburg, Mary Joanne (1991). "Three Generations of the Sepulveda Family in Southern California". Southern California Quarterly. 73 (3): 197–250. doi:10.2307/41171580. JSTOR41171580.
United States
California
