Owensmouth

Owensmouth was a town founded in 1912 in the western part of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California.

The town was started by the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company as part of an extraordinary real estate development in Southern California.

[3] It anticipated possible connections to but was planned independent of the soon to be completed (1913) Los Angeles Aqueduct from the Owens River watershed to the City of Los Angeles through the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County.The newly built Sherman Way double drive and the Pacific Electric street cars, opened on December 7, 1912, gave new access to the town and to the other new towns in the valley Van Nuys (1911) and Marion (now Reseda); At the time the new road and streetcar seemed like route to an open agricultural fields at the end of the line — but was a necessity to promote development.

Sherman Way was a paved boulevard with lush landscaping and no speed limit where one might get up to 35 mph, there was a separate dirt road for farm wagons/equipment, and telegraph lines.

The town and orchards did not get any aqueduct water till 1917, when the City of Los Angeles annexed Owensmouth.

1920 Sherman Way in downtown Owensmouth, with Los Angeles Pacific Railroad lines
Buildings in Owensmouth 1914.
A plaque commemorating the 1913 Owensmouth School Trustees. Today, the school has been renamed to Canoga Park Elementary School.
1917 map of the San Fernando Valley by the Automobile Club of Southern California , showing the town of Owensmouth in the current location of Canoga Park and West Hills
Southern Pacific Railroad Owensmout Depot 1915
Los Angeles Aqueduct. Spectators wait for the first water swelling down the open part of the aqueduct in 1913
1912 photo of the Knapp home at Owensmouth Avenue and Cohasset Street in Owensmouth (now Canoga Park). View looking north west. Frank Joseph Knapp (1875–1952)
Owensmouth Elementary School 1915, The school faced south on Valerio Street, Topanga West and Chatsworth mountains behind are to the north.
Los Angeles Aqueduct Map, Owensmouth was at the South end of the Aqueduct