“I’ll tell you what I see: a Greater Los Angeles solid to the Pacific and reaching back into the adjacent valleys.”

By: Cindy Libanoti

A visionary, a developer, a propaganda artist, and a ‘devious genius,’ Victor Girard dreamed of selling small pieces of California to East coast city dwellers.  The idealist named his first city Girard, known today as Woodland Hills.  He later formed a development company, built a country club and planted over 120,000 trees.  Then, he waited.

His community boomed as bungalows and vacation cabins were rapidly erecting until the infamous Black Tuesday ravaged stockholders of their capital.  By 1931, his development company was bankrupt.

It wasn’t until 1941 when his hoped for utopia rebounded economically.  However, the residents were anxious to separate themselves from Girard’s former jurisdiction and decided to rename the community “Woodland Hills.”

Today, however, Girard’s mark remains in the Woodland Hills Country Club and the strangely constructed roads that circuitously wind through the rolling hills.  Allegedly, Girard once strapped bags of limestone on his goats and allowed them to roam the hills.  These trails powdered with stone then provided the blueprint for what became the community roads.

So, if you’re ever thinking about the peculiarity of a specific street, you just may be following the footsteps of Girard’s trusted herd of distinguished goats.

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