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| (San Fernando) Valley Times, 8 May 1947 |
In our continuing look at the very "horsey" place that Southern California used to be, we turn our attention to a stretch of land in the San Fernando Valley known as Devonshire Downs.
In 1943, equestrians Helen Dillman and Lee O. "Pete" Spears bought 80 acres of land at Devonshire Street and Zelzah Avenue in the San Fernando Valley to develop a harness racing track. A shortage of materials and labor during World War II delayed the project; the US Army used the property as a dispatch depot for military supplies until the end of the war.
The 4 April 1946 issue of the Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet reported that Mrs. John McCarthy of Los Angeles had purchased the property in 1945, and Spears was managing the development of the land for the equestrian facility. (Like so many suburbs in Los Angeles County, Granada Hills and Northridge were cheek-by-jowl with one another back then.)
The show was promoted in newspapers and horse magazines. The horse in the photo insert is Sharik, the Arabian dressage horse.
The horse in this photo insert is *Lotnik, who had been imported to Southern California along with *Witez II and many other horses captured from the Nazis in Europe at the end of World War II. The painting of *Lotnik is by Gladys Brown Edwards.
Over the next decade, Southern California's population continued to grow, and many local residents took riding lessons, participated in horse shows and parades, and enjoyed equestrian events at Devonshire Downs. Here's the San Fernando Valley Fair program from 1956.
The Lipizzaner Dressage Performance at the 1956 show featured Cilly Feindt and her Lipizzaner Pasha. They are a key feature of my earlier blog post on the "dancing white horses" of Southern California (link below).
In 1957, the venue hosted a gymkhana in May, and the West Hills Hunt Club's two-day National Horse Show in June. Around Labor Day, 100,000 people were expected to attend the San Fernando Valley Fair at Devonshire Downs over its five-day run. That year's Fair featured daily equestrian events, including horse shows, harness racing, rodeos, and "cowboy racing."
Newspaper accounts reported that, by 1959, 100 Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, and show horses in training were stabled at Devonshire Downs. The 1959 West Hills Hunt Club National Horse Show raised funds to help send the US Olympic Equestrian Team to the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
Many online accounts of horses at Devonshire Downs focus on harness racing there, often with a mention of Quarter Horse racing. Standardbreds that raced in Northridge during the spring season would move to Bay Meadows in San Mateo (San Francisco Bay Area) because there were no other opportunities to race in Southern California at the time until the Los Angeles County Fair in September.
By March 1947, plans were being made for a "horse show and harness race meet" on the property. 15,000 people were expected to attend.
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| Valley Times, 20 March 1947 |
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| Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet, March 27, 1947 |
We often hear of Devonshire Downs as a venue for harness racing, but it's important to remember that it hosted many kinds of equestrian activities.
A few months after its opening, the Arabian Horse Breeders Society of California sponsored its third annual Arabian Horse Show, under the direction of Cecil Edwards.
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| Pomona Progress-Bulletin, September 3, 1947 |
Over the next decade, Southern California's population continued to grow, and many local residents took riding lessons, participated in horse shows and parades, and enjoyed equestrian events at Devonshire Downs. Here's the San Fernando Valley Fair program from 1956.
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| Valley Times, 29 August 1956 |
The Lipizzaner Dressage Performance at the 1956 show featured Cilly Feindt and her Lipizzaner Pasha. They are a key feature of my earlier blog post on the "dancing white horses" of Southern California (link below).
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In October 1956, the nearby Granada Hills Chamber of Commerce hosted a "Fall Round-Up" at Devonshire Downs. It featured a free Western horse show, music, and "bar-b-q."
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| Valley Times, 5 October 1956 |
In 1957, the venue hosted a gymkhana in May, and the West Hills Hunt Club's two-day National Horse Show in June. Around Labor Day, 100,000 people were expected to attend the San Fernando Valley Fair at Devonshire Downs over its five-day run. That year's Fair featured daily equestrian events, including horse shows, harness racing, rodeos, and "cowboy racing."
Newspaper accounts reported that, by 1959, 100 Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, and show horses in training were stabled at Devonshire Downs. The 1959 West Hills Hunt Club National Horse Show raised funds to help send the US Olympic Equestrian Team to the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
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| Valley Times, 10 June 1958. |
Many online accounts of horses at Devonshire Downs focus on harness racing there, often with a mention of Quarter Horse racing. Standardbreds that raced in Northridge during the spring season would move to Bay Meadows in San Mateo (San Francisco Bay Area) because there were no other opportunities to race in Southern California at the time until the Los Angeles County Fair in September.
But the times, as they so often do, were changing. By the late 1950s, the Valley Times newspaper was reporting on concerns that "advancing urban development" would crowd out the San Fernando Valley's long history as an agricultural area.
Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Marvin Gaye, Eric Burdon (and his "new band, War"), Joe Cocker, Ike & Tina Turner, Taj Mahal, Jethro Till, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Rascals, the Byrds, Three Dog Night, Booker T & the MGs, Johnny Winter, Buffy Saint Marie, Steppenwolf, Poco, Friends of Distinction, the Edwin Hawkins Singers, and others performed. A three-day pass cost $15.
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The Los Angeles Public Library collection holds a number of photographs of activities at Devonshire Downs.
In the early to mid-1960s, harness racing was starting to be featured at Santa Anita in Arcadia and at Hollywood Park in Inglewood. Purses for races there were described as "rich." But by 1968, Devonshire Downs was the last remaining track offering harness racing in Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Sidebar: If Devonshire Downs is remembered for one thing -- for most people, even more than than its equestrian history -- it is for the June 20-22, 1969 "Newport '69 at Devonshire Downs" festival that featured an unbelievable number of famous, and soon-to-be-more famous, musicians. This was held about two months before the Woodstock festival in New York.
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| Los Angeles Times, June 8, 1969 |
Newport '69 at Devonshire Downs was big, noisy, very crowded, and not without its problems. Newspapers across the country, while praising some of the performances, concentrated their coverage on police arrests of gate crashers, the cost of repairing the damage to nearby property incurred during the festival, the number of people taken to the hospital for injuries, and the amount of trash left behind by concert-goers. [End sidebar.]
Ownership of the property changed several times over the years, and by 1971, Devonshire Downs was owned by Valley State College (now Cal State Northridge). The school chose not to continue to pay for a facility that could not "pay for itself."
The last horse left Devonshire Downs in May 1971. The land is now the north end of the Cal State Northridge campus, covered in dormitories and various businesses.
More details are in the 27 October 1985 Los Angeles Times' article on the history of Devonshire Downs.
The Los Angeles Public Library collection holds a number of photographs of activities at Devonshire Downs.
https://tessa2.lapl.org/
Materials on the early days of the Arabian Horse Society of California are in the Cecil and Gladys Brown Edwards papers at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona:
Here's my blog post on Lipizzaners in Southern California:
Moving from horses to Hendrix, here's a link to Rolling Stone magazine's coverage of Newport '69:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/crashers-cops-producers-spoil-newport-69-120810/
There are several old films of Newport '69 archived on YouTube. Here are a couple; it's easy to search for more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvPx_YhWqc4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRpArDH9MCE
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