Pacific Electric station at Lankershim and Chandler, 1919
Lankershim Boulevard was named after Isaac Lankershim, one of the area's founding families, and is one of the oldest streets in what is now North Hollywood. The boulevard was a major thoroughfare for the town of Toluca (which was renamed Lankershim in 1896 and North Hollywood in 1927), connecting it to Los Angeles by way of the Cahuenga Pass. In the center of Toluca, Lankershim crossed the Southern Pacific Railroad, with a depot near the current location of the North Hollywood station at Chandler Boulevard.[2]
Lankershim Boulevard around Magnolia Boulevard was the heart of the town of Lankershim/North Hollywood and until the mid-1950s boasted the largest concentration of retail stores, banks, restaurants, and entertainment in the San Fernando Valley. In 1953 for example, the shopping strip included three full-line department stores: J.C. Penney, Yeakel & Goss, and Rathbun's. The street also featured branches of Harris & Frank, J. J. Newberry, and Safeway.[3] However, the nearby Valley Plaza shopping center, designed for accessibility by car and featuring plenty of free parking, opened in 1951 and by 1956 it claimed to be the third-largest shopping center in the United States.[4] Lankershim's retail district had difficulty competing and by 1980, most of its stores had closed.[5] One of the most notable closures was Donte's, one of the West Coast's best known jazz clubs in the 1970s and 1980s. It opened in 1966, closed in 1988, and is now the site of a BMW auto dealership.[6][7]
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