Encino, Los Angeles

Rancho Encino plat map of 1873

In 1769, the Spanish Portola expedition, first Europeans to see inland areas of California, traveled north through Sepulveda pass into the San Fernando Valley on August 5 and stayed two nights at a native village near what is now Los Encinos State Historic Park. Fray Juan Crespi, a Franciscan missionary travelling with the expedition, named the valley "El Valle de Santa Catalina de Bolonia de Los Encinos" (The Valley of St. Catherine of Bologna of the Holm Oaks).[1] All of Crespi's name was later dropped except "Encino".

Rancho Los Encinos (Ranch of Holm Oaks) was established in 1845 when a large parcel of former Mission San Fernando land was granted to three Mission Indians by governor Pio Pico. Many ranchos were created after the secularization of the California missions, which began in 1834. Encino derives its name from the rancho.[2]

The 2000 U.S. census counted 41,905 residents in the 9.5-square-mile (25 km²) Encino neighborhood — 4,411 inhabitants per square mile (1,703/km²), among the lowest population densities for the city but average for the county. In 2008, the city estimated that the resident population had increased to 44,581.[3]

In 2000 the median age for residents was 42, considered old for city and county neighborhoods; the percentages of residents aged 50 and older were among the county's highest.[3]

The neighborhood was considered "not especially diverse" ethnically within Los Angeles, with a high percentage of white residents. The breakdown was whites, 80.1%; Latinos, 8.5%; Asians, 4.9%; blacks, 2.4%; and others, 4.1%. Iran (30.1%) and Russia (6.4%) were the most common places of birth for the 32.8% of the residents who were born abroad—an average percentage for Los Angeles.[3]

The median yearly household income in 2008 dollars was $78,529, considered high for the city. The percentage of households that earned $125,000 and up was high for Los Angeles County. The average household size of 2.3 people was low when compared to the rest of the city and the county. Renters occupied 38.4% of the housing stock and house- or apartment-owners held 61.6%.[3]

The percentages of divorced residents and of widowed men and women were among the county's highest. In 2000 military veterans amounted to 10.6% of the population, a high rate for the county.[3]

Encino is situated in the central portion of the southern San Fernando Valley and on the north slope of the Santa Monica Mountains. It is flanked on the north by Reseda and the Sepulveda Basin, on the east by Sherman Oaks, on the southeast by Bel-Air, on the south by Brentwood and on the west by Tarzana.[4][5]

Financial institution on Ventura Boulevard

Plaza De Oro Shopping Center, Ventura Boulevard

The local economy provides jobs primarily in health care (including one of two Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center hospitals), social services, and professional services (accounting and financial services, real estate, and legal) sectors. There are approximately 3,800 businesses employing about 27,000 people at an annual payroll of $1.4 billion.[6]

Encino is in Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors district 3 and Los Angeles City Council District 5. It is also represented within the city of Los Angeles by the Encino Neighborhood Council,[7] an advisory body under the auspices of the city Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE).[8]

The United States Postal Service operates the Encino Post Office at 5805 White Oak Avenue and the Balboa Van Nuys Post Office at 4930 Balboa Boulevard.[9][10]

By 2000, forty-six percent of Encino residents aged 25 and older had earned a four-year degree, a high percentage for both the city and the county. The percentage of those residents with a master's degree or higher was also high for the county.[3]

Schools within the Encino boundaries are:[11]

Private

Carmelite Crespi High School fine arts building

• Sage Academy, elementary, 5901 Lindley Avenue
• Westmark School, 5461 Louise Avenue
• Holy Martyrs Armenian High School/Ferrahian, 5300 White Oak Avenue
• Crespi Carmelite High School, 5031 Alonzo Avenue
• Our Lady of Grace School, elementary, 17720 Ventura Boulevard
• Los Encinos School, elementary, 17114 Ventura Boulevard
• Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, elementary, 4650 Haskell Avenue
• Valley Beth Shalom Day School, 15739 Ventura Boulevard
• International School of Los Angeles (Lycee International de Los Angeles), 5933 Lindley Avenue

California State Parks operates the 5-acre (2.0 ha) Los Encinos State Historic Park in Encino.[19] The park includes the original nine room de la Ossa Adobe, the Garnier Building, a blacksmith shop, a pond, and a natural spring.[20]

The Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area, located in Encino,[21] includes the Woodley Worel/Magnus Cricket Complex with the four best grass cricket pitches in the United States. Host to many famous stars and games reflecting cricket's origins in Los Angeles from 1888.[22] Also included in the basin is the Encino Golf Course and the Balboa Golf Course, having a total of 36 golf holes. The Balboa Municipal Golf Course, a short-length golf course, was lengthened by Steve Timm in 2008. The Balboa course has a banquet room, back nine play, cart rental, club rental, classes, a lighted driving range, a lounge, practice chipping greens, practice putting greens, and a restaurant.[23] The Encino Municipal Golf Course, the second course of the two Sepulveda Dam courses, is a medium-length course that was designed by William P. Bell and Sons and opened in 1957. The course has large, tree-lined fairways. The course has the same features that the Balboa course has.[24]

The Balboa Sports Complex in Encino includes a lighted baseball diamond, lighted outdoor basketball courts, a children's play area, a community room, a lighted football field, a lighted handball court, an indoor gymnasium without weights and with a capacity for 400 people, an unlighted soccer field, lighted tennis courts, and lighted volleyball courts.[25] The Sepulveda Basin Off-leash Dog Park is a dog park in Encino. The dog park has 6.5 acres (2.6 ha) of leash-free dog area, a 0.5-acre (0.20 ha) small dog area, an on-leash picnic area, 100 parking spots, and public telephones.[26] The Sepulveda Garden Center, a community garden area in Encino, has about 16 acres (6.5 ha) of land and 420 garden plots.[27]

Encino Sun is a local community newspaper.[87]

The stump pictured is all that remains of the historic millennium-old California Live Oak.

The Encino Velodrome has provided an outdoor oval bicycle racing track since 1961.[88]

Los Encinos State Historic Park features historic buildings, a small museum, and picnic grounds. In 2009 it faced closure due to California's budget crisis. However, the Park remains open today.

The Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area[89][90] is a large area with multiple golf courses, tennis courts, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, bike paths, and a lake bordered by about 2,000 Pink Cloud cherry trees that blossom in the spring and were donated anonymously. Encino Park was founded around 1937 and still draws youngsters to its playgrounds, as well as visitors to its basketball courts and two lighted tennis courts.

For over a millennium, the area known as Encino was the home of a massive California live oak known as the Encino Oak Tree. It is possible that Encino is named because of this particular tree. (Encino is the Spanish word for "evergreen" or "holm oak.") It was known for its size and longevity. The tree died on February 7, 1998, after an El Niño storm felled it. Today there is a monument to the tree at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Louise Avenue where the Encino Oak once stood.[91]

• Encino is a recurring location in the SpongeBob SquarePants series, where the character, Patchy the Pirate, takes residence in the neighborhood. In the special episode, Atlantis SquarePantis, Patchy stars in a subplot in which he had to return home to Encino to watch the new SpongeBob episode, but the neighborhood had disappeared.[92]

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  Encino Hospital Medical Center, Ventura Boulevard
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  Encino Place, Ventura Blvd.
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  Children's carousel at Encino Place
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  Coldwell Banker, Encino Executive Plaza, Ventura Blvd. and Hayvenhurst
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  Statuary on Ventura Boulevard
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  Lake Balboa, an artificial lake in Encino's Balboa Park
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  Rancho Los Encinos, part of the town's original namesake, 1900

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Encino, Los Angeles.

• "A history rooted in farms and film stars", Los Angeles Times, Real Estate section, Neighborly Advice column, 17 July 2005
• "Rancho Los Encinos", Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County
• Encino crime map and statistics