Cars and people on a street in front of a commercial manufacturing building. There are many cars, rows of planted trees, and a train track running down the middle of the street. Five American flags are suspended above the street.
During the annual Van Nuys gourd festival, Iris Smith poses beside 2 flamingo sculptures, created from gourds and bamboo sticks, posed next to a water bowl in a garden.
Florence Kroiss and Marian Waddell feeding Zero the zebra, who was part of Ken Maynard's circus. The girls stand on a fence and both wear frilly dresses, socks, and Mary Janes.
On February 22, 1911, Van Nuys got its start with an ad in the Los Angeles Times: A free train ride was being offered to the “Van Nuys townsite,” for a free Washington’s Birthday barbecue, a patriotic speech about the birth of a town, and an auction of lots in an undeveloped part of the San Fernando Valley.
This photograph appears with the article, "'Make Gateways to Los Angeles Beautiful!': Civic Beauty Drive Urged: More Than 100 Leaders Go to Van Nuys Conference and Hear Plans Outlined," Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 1936: 6.