TARZANA PORTRAIT : The Urban Jungle’s ‘Novel’ Community

Home of the first swimming pool of the San Fernando Valley and the estate of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzana enjoys a wealth of history and enthusiasm for its community.

Once billed as the ideal place to raise rabbits, poultry and berries, the Tarzana of today features both calm and almost rural residential areas and a bustling shopping and dining zone along Ventura Boulevard.

Tarzana even had its own dairy once. Adohr Milk Farm used to be near Ventura Boulevard and Lindley Avenue. The dairy was started by Merritt Adamson and his wife, Rhoda (Adohr spelled backward). It moved to Camarillo in 1947.

Tarzanans are currently gearing up for their annual “Taste of Tarzana” festival on Sunday, where dining establishments from the down-home family eatery Market Broiler to the spicy, Southeast Asian restaurant Takzin Thai will be serving up samples of their cuisine at Tarzana Square, 18399 Ventura Blvd., from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A Brief History

In the beginning: Originally Chumash Indian territory, the Tarzana area became part of the vast San Fernando Mission lands in 1769 after Gaspar de Portola’s landmark visit to the Valley. In the 1870s, the Los Angeles Farm Homestead Assn. purchased the southern half of the Valley. The property, which came to be a wheat field, changed hands for the next 40 years until Gen. Harrison Gray Otis in 1911, founder and publisher of the Los Angeles Times, bought 550 acres of the field. Otis named his new home Casa Mil Flores (House of a Thousand Flowers).

Tarzan’s creator: Writer Edgar Rice Burroughs bought the lot in 1919 after Otis’ death in 1917. On his estate he built, among other structures, what is considered the first swimming pool in the Valley. Burroughs wrote many of his Tarzan stories in a garage / writing room on the property.

Name change: When residents of the Tarzana area, then called Runnymede II, petitioned for a postal office in 1927, they voted the name be changed to Tarzana.

Community Issues

Tarzana is currently looking toward giving its main drag, Ventura Boulevard, a face lift. Louise Frankel, who founded the Tarzana Property Owners Assn. in 1962 and recently stepped down as its president, said she would like to see merchants along the street clean up Tarzana’s image by not plastering their windows with signs and writing. “In order to make it safer, you have to make it look better,” she said. “And the bigger the crowd, the safer it is.”

Greg Nelson, current president of the association, is also an architect and is working on “Streetscapes,” a beautification project. Nelson has plans to add more trees and has also proposed using brick paving and perpendicular street parking.

Tarzana suffered about $18 million in damage from the Northridge earthquake, according to a Times computer analysis. Although 17 buildings were declared unsafe, the losses were not as severe as in neighboring Woodland Hills and Reseda, which had $20 million and $36 million in damage, respectively.

Burroughs’ Legacy

The estate: All that remains of the Burroughs estate are the swimming pool, a few fish ponds and a gatehouse that was badly damaged in the Jan. 17 quake. The ruins are on top of the hill at Tarzana Drive and Reseda Boulevard.

Burroughs’ grave: Burroughs and his mother’s ashes are buried in front of the current headquarters of Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. at 18354 Ventura Blvd. by a black walnut tree.

Tarzan memorabilia: A permanent exhibit of Tarzan posters, T-shirts and other knickknacks can be found at the Bank of America across the street from the Burroughs Inc. office.

Sources: Ralph J. Herman, Tarzana land developer; Tarzana Chamber of Commerce; Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.; “This is Hollywood,” by Ken Schessler 10th edition, 1991; “The San Fernando Valley: Then and Now,” by Charles A. Bearchell and Larry D. Fried. Researched and written by Maki Becker/ For the Times

Community Profile Based on 1990 U.S. census figures, includes Encino.

Statistics Population: 71,680 Median age: 38.7 Number of households: 28,110 Persons per household: 2.35 Owner-occupied housing units: 51% Population over 25 with four or more years of college education: 41% Population below poverty level: 6.1% *Income Average household income is 89% higher than the Los Angeles averaqe. Tarzana: $86,348 Southwest Valley: $61.722 Northwest Valley: $56,427 Southeast Valley: $48,182 Citywide average: $45,701 Northeast Valley: $44,444 *Ethnicity African American: 2% Asian: 4% Latino: 8% White: 80%