VAN NUYS BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY 1955-56

Los Angeles: Van Nuys Chamber of Commerce, 1955. Wraps. Very good. Booklet: 48 p. with a two-page map by Howard Saunders. Original paper wrappers, printed in red and blue, and bound with two staples.

Founded in 1911, Van Nuys was named for one of its developers, Isaac Newton Van Nuys, a rancher and entrepreneur of Dutch ancestry. It was laid out along with roadways and other towns by the Suburban Homes Company, a syndicate led by Hobart Johnstone Whitley, general manager of the Board of Control, along with Harry Chandler, H.G. Otis, and others. At the same time, Henry E. Huntington extended his Pacific Electric Railway through the Valley, and made Van Nuys the first new stop on the San Fernando Line. In 1915, the town was annexed into the city of Los Angeles following the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which provided the water required for further growth.

Along with city agencies and offices, this directory provides an alphabetical listing of Van Nuys businesses intended to elicit support from the local community. The layout of Van Nuys in this directory is much different from its geography today. In 1991, a 45-block area of Van Nuys was redesignated as a part of Sherman Oaks and in 2009, some former Van Nuys neighborhoods won approval to break off and join the neighboring communities of Lake Balboa, Valley Glen, and Sherman Oaks in an effort to raise their property values, a change some suggested was motivated by racism. Other significant differences are immediately visible on the map. Birmingham Hospital, built at the corner of Vanowen Street and Balboa Boulevard in 1942 to care for troops returning home from overseas service, has been replaced by the public high school of the same name.

No holdings were found in OCLC.