Lassen Street Olive Trees
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #49, 76 Mature Olive Trees, preserves the last visible traces of the Nelson Gray estate in Chatsworth. In 1890, Gray moved his family from Illinois to Pasadena for his health. Dealings in real estate introduced him to William B. Barber, president of the San Fernando Valley Improvement Company and a founder of Chatsworth. Gray bought about 200 acres of land and moved his family to Chatsworth in 1892. In about 1893, he planted the two rows of olive trees, generally said to be cuttings from Mission San Fernando, along the southern end of his property. Today, fewer than 50 of the trees border Lassen Avenue between Topanga Canyon Blvd. and Farralone Ave. In a larger sense, the trees are also a tribute to the once-vigorous olive growing industry that stretched across the north end of the San Fernando Valley from Pacoima and Sylmar to Chatsworth.
Chatsworth, Los Angeles County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt