Community Corner

'Mother House' of North Hollywood Waits Patiently For New Home

Movement of the old Weddington House will signal that development is coming to empty land in the heart of the NoHo Arts District.

It's been referred to as the "mother house" of North Hollywood.

For over a century, it has stood in three different locations in the heart of what is now the NoHo Arts District. It's currently empty, boarded up and surrounded by three fences, waiting to be moved for a fourth time.

People interested to know if and when the empty lot located between Chandler Boulevard and Weddington Street in the NoHo Arts District will be developed should keep an eye on the old Weddington House, which is located at 11025 Weddington St.

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The home was under threat of being bulldozed when JSM Construction bought the land in 2006 with plans to develop an apartment complex on the site. That's when Guy Weddington-McCreary — whose great-grandfather, Wilson C. Weddington, built the house and along with 10 other families founded the town of Lankershim, now known as North Hollywood — jumped into action.

"We learned a few years ago that developers were taking over all the property there and there was the threat that it would get knocked down," Weddington-McCreary said. "I didn’t want to see that happen, so I said, 'Here we have a house that’d we’d like to see become something for the community, that they could meet in and we’d really enjoy and have historical things in it.'"

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Weddington-McCreary filed an application with the city and the Weddington House was named a protected Historic-Cultural Monument in 2007 by Los Angeles, so before any development is to occur on the site, it must be moved. Several years ago a plan was in place to move the house to North Hollywood Park, refurbish it and turn it into a local history museum. But with the collapse of the real estate market, the plans were put on hold. Still, many in the community are hoping the plan will still happen.

"The Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument, the Weddington House, is an important remaining structure representing the history of North Hollywood from the premiere pioneer family in the development of the community," said Richard Hilton of the Museum of the San Fernando Valley. "The Museum of the San Fernando Valley would like to see the home moved to a central North Hollywood location, fully restored and accessible to the general public for a unique interpretation of the history of the Weddington Family, the town of North Hollywood, and the San Fernando Valley as a whole."

The home is currently owned by Prudential Financial after JSM collapsed, according to Weddington-McCreary. However, Prudential declined to confirm to Patch that it owned the land, only that it was involved in "litigation" over it.

 

Weddington Family Crucial To North Hollywood's Development

Folks who know the North Hollywood area know the name Weddington, even if they don't know the rich history behind the name. There is Weddington Street, in Studio City, as well as Weddington Gold Course, which is owned by Weddington Investments, of which Weddington-McCreary is the president.

Weddington-McCreary has stacks and stacks of old photos, files, and paperwork about the history of North Hollywood in his Studio City house, a collection he hopes will one day have a home inside a refurbished Weddington House museum. He has also already given a large portion of his historical collection to California State University-Northridge. Local history isn't just a hobby, he also has a master's degree in government and history from Claremont College.

Through four generations, the Weddington family has lived in the North Hollywood area. Guy and his wife, Dianne, are heavily involved in local civic and charitable organizations like the Universal City-North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce, the North Hollywood Kiwanis Club, the North Hollywood Jacees and the Campo de Cahuenga Historical Memorial Association.

Giving back to the community is a family tradition that started from the moment the Weddingtons arrived in the San Fernando Valley over a century ago. Giving back is the Weddington Way, to hear Guy tell it.

"I was always living up to it. I was always told, 'That’s what you do. You give back,'" said Weddington-McCreary. "We were brought up with that theme of thinking towards things. It was a way of life."

The Weddington family made a fortune after coming to the Valley by investing in fruit ranches, as well as a general store that used to be located on Chandler Boulevard.

Wilson C. Weddington lived in Iowa before coming to California, but after visiting his sister, who had asked him to come and check out the economic opportunities in the San Fernando Valley, decided to move his family here and bought 12 acres in the area that is now the NoHo Arts District. He later bought another 20 acres, according to Weddington-McCreary.

The original Weddington House was built in Iowa, as the legend goes, torn down and moved, where it became the family's first home in the San Fernando Valley. 

"They settled here in 1890. (Wilson C. Weddington) came with parts of his house and built it on the site, the house in Iowa, by train. At least that’s the story," Weddington-McCreary said. "All I know is that I was told they brought their old ranch house from Iowa and built it here. That was their main ranch."

Weddington-McCreary said the house was later completely rebuilt in 1904. It was then moved across the street to where the is now located, and then up Weddington Street to its current location at 11025 Weddington, where it has stood since 1924.

Wilson C. Weddington served as the area's first post master. The Weddingtons were also involved in getting the post office built and established. They also fought to have the train line extended to the area, and Wilson helped drive the gold spike that marked the arrival of the Red Car rail service to the Valley in 1911.

When the Weddingtons first arrived in 1890, the area was nothing more than a few fields and farms, but North Hollywood grew to become an extremely prosperous, modern, urban area by World War II.

"The community had 100,000 people in it by the 1940s. You could go down to Rathbun’s Department Store, at Lankershim and Weddington, and you’d be knocked into the street, there were so many people. People can’t visualize that today. But that’s what happened. I got knocked into the street, that’s why I remember it," Weddington-McCreary said. "And Rathbun’s was quite a store. At the time, it was the most profitable independent department store in the nation. Of course it was during the war, and everybody came to Rathbun's. And Rathbun ran a great store. They were there from about 1922 to 1970."

Joe Goodman, who in the 80s and 90s owned a musical instrument store at the location that used to be Rathbun's, remembered Rathbun's as "an elegant place where you had to dress up to go in. There was a man at the front who would make sure — he had a little boutonnière, a carnation — and if you weren't dressed nicely, you couldn't get in."

This rich history of North Hollywood all began at the Weddington House, which has seen better days than its current state.

People were living in it up until about 2007, according to Weddington-McCreary, but since then it has been broken into by homeless people and runaways many times. Weddington-McCreary said he asked JSM Construction and Prudential to put a fence put up around it after JSM bought it, then another fence, and it is now surrounded by three fences because two fences were not enough to keep homeless squatters out.

When plans in 2008 called for the house to be moved to Highland Park, many protested, including the Museum of the San Fernando Valley, which referred to it as the "mother house" of North Hollywood, and a plan was then set to move the house to North Hollywood Park. Guy said he had $700,000 lined up from the developer, Prudential Financial, and the Community Redevelopment Agency, but when the development plans for the site were put on hold, so was the plan to move the house.

"Now everything’s up in the air. Right now the plans are all kind of shattered economically, but now it’s a historical house," Weddington-McCreary said. "But there’s no hurry for them now. With the way the economy is, they’re probably going to wait five, six, seven years before they are gong to develop the area, or bring in another developer. So that’s what the problem is. But Prudential should do something."


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