Sylmar is a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley and the northernmost neighborhood within the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. Historically known for its profusion of sylvan olive orchards, Sylmar can trace this back to the 18th century and the founding of the San Fernando Mission. In 1890, olive production was begun systematically. The Sylmar climate was also considered healthy, and so a sanitarium was established, the first in a series of hospitals in the neighborhood. There are fourteen public and eight private schools within Sylmar.
History In 1874, the settlement was named Morningside. The foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains were transformed in the late 1890s by the Los Angeles Olive Growers Association. In 1893, the name changed to "Sylmar", a fusion of two Latin words for "forest" and "sea" in reference to the large number of olive trees that covered the area. In 1894, up to were planted with olives trees, and by 1906, the property had become the largest olive grove in the world.Sunset Magazine, August 1907: "A Sea of Trees, The Story of Sylmar, The Largest Olive Orchard In The World", by Bertha H. Smith. During the picking season in the early 1900s, 300 Japanese were employed and housed in a village of tents. In 1927, the packing plant employed some five hundred workers during its busiest season.
The plan of the Olive Growers association in 1898 was to divide the area into 40-acre (16 ha) blocks bounded by "broad drives," and within them 5-acre (2.0 ha) blocks would be laid out, "each one of which is upon a street." About a hundred trees would be planted on each acre. Half of these lands were placed on the market in 1897–98 at $350 an acre (0.4 ha), with a minimum purchase of five acres. The terms were $350 in cash and $350 a year until paid for. The Olive Growers group would take care of the groves and, "When the premises are turned over to the purchaser at the end of four years, it is an established, profit-yielding property, without incumbrance." There is no record as to the results of this plan.
In 1922 the Taft Realty Company of Hollywood purchased from Ben F. Porter and divided them into tracts containing each, which it planned to make into a townsite called Sylmar. Part of the acreage contained orange and lemon trees, and the rest had been used by the Ryan Wholesale and Produce Company for garden and truck farming. The land lay directly across the San Fernando Boulevard from the Sylmar olive grove and packing plant. A later advertisement stated the name of the subdivision as "Sylmar Acres," with "city lots" selling for $450 to $550.
The property of the Sylmar Packing Corporation, with frontage of more than on Foothill Boulevard, was offered for sale in October 1938. At that time it was planted in olives, lemons, oranges and figs. A 40-acre (16 ha) section was to be set aside for a new townsite called Olive View and the rest subdivided into 5- and 10-acre (2- and 4-ha) farm lots, with many streets already paved and public utilities installed. In the same month, manufacturer and landowner John R. Stetson announced his 200-acre (81 ha) property adjoining the Sylmar ranch would also be divided and offered for sale.
Postwar A May 1962 proposal by the city Planning Department for an increase in density was met with disapproval by residents at a community meeting. The city's master plan for the area called for much of the agricultural land to be converted to suburban uses, plus zoning that would permit more apartments. There would also be expansion of industrial districts and more shopping centers. The plan proposed that the 4,500 acres then zoned for agriculture be reduced to 2,000, or 17% of the area. City officials said that Sylmar had been the slowest of all San Fernando Valley communities to develop its multiple dwelling areas, with permits issued for only 35 units in 1961 and 70 units in 1962.
Sylmar's major growth came after the 1963 completion of the interchange between the Golden State Freeway and San Diego Freeway and the 1981 completion of the Foothill Freeway and 118 Freeway, which made the community easier to reach. The 1971 San Fernando earthquake caused widespread injury and damage. The New York Times described two weeks later: The community looks like a battlefield. Dozens of houses are twisted beyond repair. Families camp out in tents or trailers on front lawns, afraid to return even to those houses not condemned ... All homes have been without water for drinking, cooking and flushing toilets, although some service has been restored in the last few days. There is no gas, no heat. Telephones are still out. Housewives must travel out of the community to find grocery stores that are still open. On top of that, Sylmar feels that it has been forgotten ...
In March 1969, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California awarded an over $19 million contract to the Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company to construct the San Fernando Tunnel. The water tunnel extended through Sylmar and was meant to be part of the Foothill Feeder pipeline which distributes water from Northern California to the MWD's member agencies serving a 4790-square-mile area. In June 24, 1971, four months after the 1971 earthquake, a methane gas explosion in a water tunnel being drilled beneath Sylmar killed 17 workers and is the worst tunneling disaster in California history. Criminal action was taken against Lockheed, which was charged with negligence and safety violations. Following a trial that lasted just over a year, the contractor was found guilty of 16 counts of gross negligence and 10 counts of violations of the state industrial safety code. Lockheed was fined nearly $10 million, and two field supervisors were found guilty of negligence; in addition, the families of the deceased employees sued for damages, resulting in an approximately $9 million settlement. The disaster resulted in the state adopting the toughest mining and tunneling regulations in the United States. Work resumed 27 months after the disaster, and agreements on procedures and costs were made between the MWD and Lockheed were worked out; the tunnel was completed in November 1975. A memorial for the victims was erected in 2013. Cal/OSHA.
In 1971 city planners presented a land-use document that would preserve Sylmar's image as one of "houses, horses and orchards" and would roll back the then-existing projection from 90,000 residents by 1990 to 53,500.
A proposal in 1980 to build an 80-unit low-income housing project near Sylmar High School at 13080-90 Dronfield Avenue was rejected by the Los Angeles City Housing Commission after eight thousand signatures were gathered against the plan and protesters filled a hearing in the high school auditorium.Irv Burleigh, "Why Sylmar Housing Plan Was Plowed Under," Los Angeles Times, January 15, 1969, page SF-B-1]
In 1984 Sylmar was still largely rural, but there was an area of industrial development in its southeastern portion. In 1986, when its population was given 53,392, it still had some of the last large tracts of undeveloped land in the city, and the opening of the Foothill Freeway had placed it within a 45-minute drive of Downtown Los Angeles. Despite the population increase and a rise in the number of people living in condos and apartments, it was still one of the least-crowded areas of the city. Between 1980 and 1990 it was the fastest-growing area in the San Fernando Valley: Its population increased by 30.7% during those ten years in which the Valley itself grew by only 12.2%.
Reopening of the Olive View Medical Center in 1986 was seen as an impetus to population and business growth, as well as a threat to the horse-owning community. Practically every corner on Foothill Boulevard had been purchased for development. The population reached 53,392 in 1986.
Sylmar was impacted by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It caused fires that burned over 70 homes. Sylmar was nicknamed "The Top of Los Angeles," because it is the northernmost neighborhood in Los Angeles.
A study by four graduate students from the University of Southern California in 2005 stated that: Sylmar in the 1970s and 1980s was a rural, predominantly white, non-Hispanic community, whose residents focused on creating a place centered around equestrian activities. Today, the dramatic influx of residents has serious consequences for a community that has too little housing stock, too few employment opportunities, overburdened public facilities and decaying public infrastructure.
By 2006 Sylmar's open spaces were being rapidly subdivided. Resident Bart Reed noted that Sylmar was the last place in Los Angeles "where a builder can find a single-family home on half an acre. They can tear them down and build 52 homes" in their place. Longtime residents were concerned that the expansion would threaten their equestrian lifestyle in a community that still retained a largely rural atmosphere with corrals on large lots and horse trails that wound into the nearby San Gabriel Mountains.
The Sayre Fire in 2008 resulted in the loss of 489 residences in or near Sylmar, the "worst loss of homes due to fire" in Los Angeles's history. In 2016 the Marek Fire destroyed 41 homes.
In 2018, the northwest portion of the district was called "Rancho Cascades".
On January 7, 2025, the Hurst Fire broke out near Sylmar, causing mass amounts of smoke and ashes to nearby Sylmar areas.
Crime Drugs Tipped off by a Sylmar resident, dozens of investigators from at least five police departments and three federal agencies raided a warehouse at 12898 Bradley Street, on September 29, 1989, and seized some 21.4 tons of cocaine and $10 million in cash. It was the largest confiscation of the drug in history, estimated at $6.9 billion, enough for 1.38 billion doses. Three men were convicted on drug charges in 1990. Carlos Tapia Ponce, the warehouse manager, was given a life term, and in 2016 he died in prison at the age of 94. Other culprits were convicted later.
Drag races and automobile cruising In 1993 it was reported that drag racing had been going on since the early 1970s, drawing hundreds of youths, and that the most popular "speed strip" was San Fernando Road near Balboa Boulevard. There had been four deaths within the previous two years. In one, a teenager speeding to the site rear-ended a car carrying a family of four, killing a mother and injuring her husband and two children. In 1997 Kenneth Acosta, 21, of Sylmar was charged with involuntary manslaughter after a drag race on the 118 Freeway resulted in an accident that caused the deaths of three people, all of them former members of the Sylmar High School band. He was granted probation and required to spend 250 hours talking to others about his crime.
In 1994, city officials declared one of the most popular cruising spots in the San Fernando Valley — La Rinda Plaza at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Workman Street — to be a public nuisance and ordered its owners to install overhead lighting, post security guards and install gates that could be closed at night. Illegal street racing or high-speed figure 8's were frequently heard by residents near the Sylmar Public Library.
Geography Sylmar gently slopes upward as a geological alluvial plain and alluvial fan from an elevation of slightly more than above sea level near San Fernando Road to slightly more than above sea level at the crest of Hubbard Street. The overall range of elevation in Sylmar is approximately . The slopes steepen into the San Gabriel Mountains on the north side of Sylmar resulting in steep residential streets with homes built on man-made terraces.
Sylmar touches the unincorporated Tujunga Canyons on the north, Lopez and Kagel canyons on the east, San Fernando on the southeast, Mission Hills on the south, and Granada Hills on the southwest and west.The Thomas Guide, pages 481 and 483 (2004)
Climate