AKA: Heffron, McCray & St. John Company, Toluca Lake Park Sub-Division, Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, CA; Toluca Lake Company, Toluca Lake Tract, Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, CA

Structure Type: built works - settlements - suburbs

Designers: [unspecified]

Dates: constructed 1924-1925

Toluca Lake Park, Los Angeles, CA

OpenStreetMap (new tab)
Google Map (new tab)
click to view google map

In 1924-1925, a syndicate led by Heffron, St John and McCray created the Toluca Lake Park tract on 151 acres of what had been the Charles Forman Rancho (otherwise known as the "Forman Toluca Ranch"). Forman arrived in Toluca Lake c. 1887 from Virginia City, NV, where he had made a fortune during the Comstock Lode bonanza. The Forman Ranch made a reputation for its production of peaches, walnuts and apples. In 1928, a Los Angeles Times story indicated that since the sub-division had opened in 07/1925, 108 house plots had been sold. Sales were brisk in 1928; the article noted that 22 new parcels had been sold between 01/1928-04/1928. The Times writer observed: "On the resales of vacant lots, amounting to $270,000, the average profit to the original purchaser was 75 per cent...." (See "Homes Built Since Tract Opening 108," Los Angeles Times, 04/08/1928, p. E8.) Despite this apparent success as presented in the Los Angeles Times, the original investors quickly sold out to a new syndicate, the "Toluca Lake Company" which continued sales of the lots.

According to the Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce: "The original boundaries of Toluca Lake were Cahuenga Boulevard, Camarillo Street, Clybourn Avenue and the Los Angeles River on the south." (See "History of Toluca Lake,"Accessed 10/01/2013.)

PCAD id: 18711