Crazy Cool! Sherman Oaks Hollywood Style Sign History

Sherman Oaks Hollywood Style Sign History

“@sanfernandovalley
: @forgottenmadness_la THERE WAS A SHERMAN OAKS SIGN?????
Yes, scroll through to take a closer look at this 1940 shot of Sherman Oaks Circle, where eleven large letters stand along a hillside reading
"S-H-E-R-M-A-N-O-A-K-S," announcing the area to passing motorists, or anybody else who might've forgotten where they were.
I have no info on when the sign went up, or when it came down, and I've never seen it in another shot, taken before or since, so this is definitely a mystery, but I do have two competing theories:
The first is that the sign was added in 1940 by the real estate office for the Sherman Woods tract at the western edge of Sherman Oaks, to celebrate its public opening. In fact, this photo, and the one in Slide 8, was commissioned by that office to be used to promote the are in print. Makes sense, since most signs like this went up for this purpose, including the iconic Hollywoodland Sign, which was just never taken down. But, that raises the question, why wouldn't it read
"Sherman Woods" to benefit the tract.
The second theory is that it was added in the late 1920s to beautify the area while looming over a downtown Sherman Oaks area that was never built. I know, I sound crazy, but when I saw that first shot, there was just something that struck me as off about that traffic circle, because it just seems way too big and too wide for where it is. That had me wondering whether it actually pre-dated the neighborhood, and, if so, why? Well, that led me to find the 1929 newspaper rendering in Slides 9-10, where you can see that the Circle was once proposed to be the site of the San Fernando Valley branch of City Hall, surrounded by plenty of open space to build shops and offices, before Los Angeles ultimately chose to build the branch in Van Nuys.
Or, maybe it's neither. Once Sherman Oaks lost their City Hall bid, the land became the Sherman Oaks Foothills tract in the early 1930s and then Sherman Woods in 1940. Then in the late 1950s, construction of the 405 separated the Circle from the Hill with the sign, and it does not appear in any photos from that time.
Images from @usclibraries and Google Earth”

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