The Founding of Sunland as Monte Vista

In the fall of 1876, the Southern Pacific tunnel through the San Fernando Mountains was complete. This was no small accomplishment; at 6,967 feet it was the third longest in the United States and connected Los Angeles to the transcontinental rail. In the years that followed the tunnel was filled with the puffs and groans of locomotives bringing folks by the thousands from the east. Two men who made this journey west from Minnesota were Felix Cary Howes and Judge Sherman Page.

Mr. Howes arrived with his wife Clara and his four daughters after working for years in the banking industry. Mr. Page arrived with his wife Harriet, a son and daughter after serving as a state senator and then a judge for the 10^th judicial district back in Minnesota. What their relationship was prior to their arrival in Los Angeles is unknown but in 1883 the two stepped beneath the canopy of the ancient grove of oaks we now know as Sunland Park and perhaps had a conversation something like this:

“Well Sherman, this place is even more spectacular than you described.” 

“I told you Felix, and did you notice the drop in temperature? It has to be 15, maybe 20 degrees, cooler.” 

“It was quite a journey up here, Judge. We’d have to build a hotel for people to stay over.” 

“Of course – I’ve got it all figured out, Felix. We purchase the 2,300 acres of farmable land for sale and then plot out our new village, using 40 of those acres surrounding these here oaks. They become the cool shaded park in the center of our town.” 

“I like it!” nodded Felix. “And what about the hotel?” 

“Just to the right of the old hunters’ lodge over there – that’s where we’ll build it, on the edge of the grove, so the sun can shine in.”

The two men would partner and do just that. They purchased the land, along with water rights, to Big Tujunga Canyon. Next, they constructed a system to divert water to the property and began raising the new hotel. It would have eight rooms, with four guest rooms upstairs and one bedroom and bathroom downstairs … just enough for visitors to stay while surveying the lands for sale.

In early 1884 ads began to run. “Excellent farming land with water rights now offered for sale!” By 1885, with the hotel built they platted out the village they named Monte Vista. Their plat map laid out the streets, surrounding the old grove as the town’s central park. Despite all these efforts, sales amounted to less than the two had hoped so when the opportunity arose just one year later to sell out completely, the two went packing.

The man who had purchased all of their interests – the land and hotel – was Frank Herbert Barclay. Mr. Barclay was a man of means and he had a vision that went beyond that of Page and Howes. He felt that what was needed was a more elegant hotel to draw in a new clientele. In 1886, Frank, his wife Susan and their three daughters moved into the Park Hotel and began construction of a new, larger, more elegant inn just one block away.

This would become the Monte Vista Hotel and was exactly what Frank set out to create. It was a beautiful four-story, Victorian styled hotel with a large porch circumnavigating its lower floor and a fifth story open air observatory tower at its peak. Barclay hoped the new hotel would lure the wealthy who enjoyed “the country” in elegant style.

How did Monte Vista become Sunland? The story will continue. It’s important to share that neither of these structures of early Sunland exist today. The gorgeous Monte Vista Hotel was torn down in 1964 after falling into a state of disrepair and the original Park Hotel was damaged in the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake requiring its demolition.