5 CENTS TFEBRUARYh-MeARCH G2008azetteY.EAR 14, NUMBER 1 Newhall Moving Forward. Road Into FirstStructureUnderDowntown Santa Clarita Valley for twenty years, and Just about everyone has seen the steady PlanCloseToApproval. frommyfirstjobatthecornerofSanFernan- changesovertheyears,buttheonesweallare do Road – now officially Main Street – and working on now are the most dramatic and Newhall Market, to my long-term career at the city of will have some of the most lasting impacts. PublicInvitedToWeighInOnNew Santa Clarita, I have been working on and in Twenty years from now – I’ll be retired, Library,StreetRedesign. Newhall the entire two decades. but probably still in the SCV – people will During the last two years, I have spent hopefully look back at the trials and tribula- Will Be more time talking about Newhall than in tions of this period of Newhall’s history and ByCHRISPRICE, the previous eighteen years combined. say, “I am glad we did what we did back then. ASSISTANT CITY ENGINEER, Everyone from my family and friends to Newhall has never been better.” ‘Newhall.’ CITY OF SANTA CLARITA. people I am introduced to who find out I work for the city want to know what is As 2008 builds steam, city staff, the San Fernando Road I have been working and living in the going to happen in Newhall. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12. Renamed South Of Fifth. By ALEX HERNANDEZ, ADMINISTRATIVE ANALYST, Young at Hart. CITY OF SANTA CLARITA. Motorists and visitors may have an easier time traveling to Newhall after a Second-Generation SCV Historian At recent City Council vote. The Helm Of Hilltop Museum. The Council voted January 22 to change the street name of San Fernando Road to Newhall Avenue for the segment of By PATTI RASMUSSEN, road from Fifth Street south to Highway GAZETTE CORRESPONDENT. 14. When the physical renaming is com- She’s the daughter of an immigrant, and her plete, motorists will be able to exit High- mother’s American heritage dates back to the 1600s. way 14 at the “Newhall Avenue” off-ramp Born and raised in the Santa Clarita Valley, she attend- and travel into Old Town Newhall. ed local schools and volunteered alongside her mom. The street name change does not Today, at the tender age of twenty-six, Ayesha Saletore affect address numbers. The city has been runs the museum at the Hart Mansion – and this girl in contact with the United States Postal knows her history. Service and has received assurances that Saletore, a Saugus High School graduate, began mail will be delivered indefinitely to any her career at the William S. Hart Mansion during the existing address, regardless of whether it summer of 2000 while a student at College of the TIM WHYTE says “San Fernando Road” or “Newhall Canyons. She applied and was accepted into the Getty Avenue” as the street name. AYESHA SALETORE, HART PARK MUSEUM ADMINISTRATOR. CONTINUED ON PAGE 13. The city will complete necessary noti- fications to directly affected residents and businesses along this stretch of road. Additionally, notifications will be sent to the U.S. Postal Service, all utility compa- nies, emergency services and other affect- Newhall Hardware Quits. ed public agencies. Sixty-Year-Old Icon cial Web page: “Victor, Mary, Diane, Matt, New street signs designating Liquidates Inventory. “Dear friends and loyal customers, Richard, and the rest of the crew” “Newhall Avenue” will be installed in the “It has been a pleasure to serve the And with that, an era comes to an coming months. The city will also work Santa Clarita community for the last end. with Caltrans to change out signage on By PATTI RASMUSSEN, sixty years. It is with great sadness that I It’s hard to imagine the town of Highway 14 to display the new street name. GAZETTE CORRESPONDENT. announce that Friday January 25 was Newhall without its hardware store. For more information on the street the last day of regular business. Thank From the school districts and movie name change, contact me at 661/286- From the Newhall Hardware offi- you for many years of great memories! CONTINUED ON PAGE 15. 4030 or [email protected]. 2. The Old Town Newhall Gazette. ©2008, OLD TOWN NEWHALL USA. LEON WORDEN, Editor and Publisher. EDITORIAL. A Long And Rutted Road. “Santa Clarita is well on the ing tracts of new homes – in our road to becoming a premiere city of case, Valencia. LEON WORDEN the Twenty-first Century, but its Newhall was our historic cen- NEWHALL IN THE MID-1990s WAS AN OBVIOUS CANDIDATE FOR REVITALIZATION. heart – downtown Newhall – is ter, but urban sprawl transported broken. It will take the combined our valley’s population center From 1989 to 1993, before the Newhall Hardware catered to walk- Newhall. The late Richard Rioux efforts of the Newhall business north and west. With it went the revitalization of Old Town Newhall in customers, but something on the came up with the name “Old Town community, our city government money. began, taxable retail sales through- order of half its business came from Newhall” because it conveyed a and residents throughout this val- Gone was the bank on San out the city of Santa Clarita construction contractors all over particular vision for the area. Old is ley to mend it.” Fernando Road. Gone was the increased four percent. Meanwhile, the Santa Clarita Valley. It was a quaint and, well – old; “Old Town” With those words, an Sheriff’s Station and courthouse. in Newhall, they fell ten percent. regional business. has a specific meaning to people. extremely small group of people Gone were the car dealerships. Buildings stood vacant. Win- With more and more big-box It’s alive. It’s also a planning term, launched the Old Town Newhall Gone was the gas station and drug dows were boarded up. The origi- competitors luring away its walk-in just as “new town” was the techni- Gazette in the summer of 1995. store. They followed the money, or nal Downtown Newhall Merchants traffic at the same time the housing cal 1960s name for a planned com- Victor Feany was one of them. they followed their footloose clien- Association was literally down to market was taking a nosedive – you munity such as Valencia. He showed his support for the tele, or they went out of business all two guys – insurance agent Virgil do the math. From downtown maven Jo effort to “get the message out” by together because fewer people had Saunders and auto parts dealer Bob CONTINUED ON PAGE 14. advertising his business in that very to come to Newhall for shopping, Martin – and after the 1994 earth- In 1995 we recognized it first edition. (At the time, he was dining, entertainment and personal quake, even they were done. would require a concerted effort to the store manager.) services. There were trendier As downtown planning con- stanch the blight, both physical Those of us who had been stores and movie theaters in Valen- sultant Michael Freedman put it in (vacancies, dereliction) and eco- around town a while didn’t like cia. Even the seat of local govern- 1995, “It looks like a ghost town nomic. Just as retail sales were what we were seeing. No matter ment had left. where people are still trying to do falling in Newhall, so too were The Gazette. where in Santa Clarita we slept at Which was the chicken? business.” property values, even while they night, Old Town Newhall – or sim- Which the egg? It doesn’t matter. The economic engine surged in the rest of the city. DISTRIBUTION: FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND. ply “Old Newhall,” as we called it – What mattered in 1995, and still Newhall had been for more than a Newhall needed to be attrac- was our home. matters today, is what we do about century had stalled out. San Fer- tive to the types of regional, “three- LEON WORDEN And it was hurting. This was it. nando Road had become a strip mile” businesses that could make it Editor And Publisher. no one’s fault. It was … destiny. It mall for the adjacent community, a thriving economic hub again. It [email protected] was what progress left behind when It is a wonder – and nothing with a supermarket and thrift shops wasn’t attractive – not physically or the postwar baby boom brought short of a miracle – that Newhall and liquor stores and restaurants in terms of building allowances or TIM WHYTE legions of people to Southern Cali- Hardware lasted as long as it did. It and video rental outlets to meet the incentives. There weren’t any. It Production And Layout. fornia. Landowners did what had to is a true testament to Vic Feany and convenience needs of neighbors was not uncommon in the early [email protected] be done, what made economic his associates’ love and devotion to within a one-mile radius – like any 1990s to hear potential investors PATTI RASMUSSEN sense, to meet the exploding their community that they weath- other strip mall in Santa Clarita. say they weren’t interested in demand for affordable housing: ered the storm that “progress” But San Fernando Road is not Newhall because they didn’t see Chief Correspondent. They turned farmland into sprawl- threw their way. a strip mall. It was and is configured sufficient commitment from “the [email protected] to be a central business district. To city” to turn the area around. ‘It is a wonder – and nothing short of a be successful, Newhall would need But we had faith: faith in the The Old Town Newhall Gazette is pub- to serve the adjacent neighborhood community and faith in our local lished by Old Town Newhall USA, an and attract customers from outside government leaders.