Valley Village

Originally part of the city of North Hollywood, the 2.09-square-mile bedroom community of Valley Village in the San Fernando Valley with a population of approximately 25,000 residents lies north of Studio City, east of Sherman Oaks, south of North Hollywood and west of Toluca Lake. Valley Village’s history can be traced back to the 1930s, when workers at nearby motion picture studios built homes to live there. Even Marilyn Monroe lived in Valley Village with her husband, James Dougherty, in the 1940’s inspecting parachutes at a nearby factory where she was asked to pose for her first pin-up photo. The working-class residences who settled in Village Valley were reflected in the abundance of the modest size homes (mostly 1,700sq.ft), although still intended to be attractive and inviting. Homes were built in the traditional styles such as Spanish Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, American Colonial Revival and typically sit on larger than average size lots. A majority of the houses were built before WWII, at a time when home ownership became more available to the masses, but before production became the hallmark of suburban housing. The character of Valley Village is defined in large part by the history of the area – a part of the San Fernando Valley’s early 20th century transition from agricultural to residential use, with neighborhoods that remain less urban, less dense, and more family friendly than those in the LA basin. As Valley Village grew, this charming neighborhood gained a reputation for preserving the neighborhood’s architectural integrity and enforcing pride of ownership. Valley Village was even identified in an L.A. Times’ article for being an “area of upscale residences”. The idea of separating Valley Village from North Hollywood was brought into public light with a meeting of about 300 homeowners in December 1985, yet it wasn't until 1991 that Valley Village received the city of Los Angeles approval to mark its new borders. In 1985, Valley Village leader Tom Paterson was quoted as saying that the move "was more than an attempt to boost property values, it was one economic level seeking to have its own identity."