Tongva The Northridge area was first inhabited over 2,000 years ago by the
Tongva. The village of Totonga was located in the Northridge area. The Tongva lived in dome-shaped houses and are sometimes referred to as the "people of the earth". They spoke a
Takic Uto-Aztecan (Shoshonean) language. Many of their
pictographs were destroyed by the development of
Greater Los Angeles.
Mexican land sale In the late 1840s, Mexican Governor
Pio Pico broke with the tradition of "granting" land and, instead, sold it, without the usual area limitations, to Eulogio de Celis, a native of Spain. By 1850, de Celis was in the Los Angeles census as an agriculturist, 42 years old, and the owner of real estate worth $20,000.
Land division A few years later, the land was split up. The heirs of Eulogio de Celis sold the northerly half – – to Senator George K. Porter, who had called it the "Valley of the Cumberland" and Senator Charles Maclay, who exclaimed: "This is the Garden of Eden." Porter was interested in ranching; Maclay in subdivision and colonization. Francis Marion ("Bud") Wright, an Iowa farm boy who migrated to California as a young man, became a ranch hand for Senator Porter and later co-developer of the Hawk Ranch, which is now Northridge land.
Early community In 1908, the
Southern Pacific Railroad lays tracks through the Hawk Ranch property; following this and continuing the pattern of railroad boom towns, the Hawk Ranch was sold for subdivision and was renamed
Zelzah in 1910. The name is derived from a
biblical name for an oasis as a reference to a water well located in the area. The Zelzah Train Station or Depot was built on the site that is now the northwest corner of Parthenia Avenue and Reseda Boulevard, across the street from the water well. Also in 1910, on January 13, the large balloon America landed on the so-called
Zelzah ranch after a trip from
Huntington Park. By April, The Scandia Land and Loan Company was advertising
Zelzah Acres with land going for $250 per acre. The company advertised the acres as the "cream of the San Fernando valley, the richest soil in California," describing the ease of transportation provided by the station, the lack of
alkali, adobe or
hardpan soil, and stating that water for domestic purposes could be welled from 35 to 65 feet and at 140 to 300 feet for general irrigation; water would later become a major selling point for land in the valley after the arrival of the
Los Angeles Aqueduct. The initial growth in the region was so marked that discussions of the creation of new school districts were being forwarded to the county school superintendent
Mark Keppel, one of these districts being named Zelzah which would benefit 15 children of school age living nine to ten miles from a schoolhouse. By the beginning of 1912, a post office had been established in Zelzah. By April 1913, sales agents E. O. Hanson & Sons were advertising that only 300 of the original 1100 acres were left for sale, by then at $325 an acre. The first church built in Northridge, the
Faith Bible Church, was built in 1917. Residents of Zelzah voted to change the community's name to
North Los Angeles in 1929. In 1938, the community's name was changed to the more popular
Northridge Village at the suggestion of local resident and director of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles Carl Denzel; it would later be shortened to just
Northridge.
Post-war years The community began to develop rapidly
after World War II and agricultural lots were subdivided into suburban housing tracts to meet the demand for single-family homes by veterans and their families. Commercial development began to take place in the 1950s; the
San Fernando Valley State College was opened in 1956. Light industry moved into the area and spurred a building boom. The train depot was torn down in 1961 and underpasses were constructed below the railway over Reseda Boulevard and Parthenia Street. ==Education==