City’s Historical Archives to Receive Perkins Collection

The collection of our valley’s very first historian will be coming home to Santa Clarita, thanks to the support of the City Council.
Marguerite Perkins, granddaughter of the area’s first historian, A.B. Perkins, is donating the Perkins Family Collection to the City of Santa Clarita Historical Archives. The collection includes 630 books, correspondence, photos, documents, manuscripts, ledgers, maps, digital files and artifacts that document the family’s history, their professional and civic activities and the history of the Santa Clarita Valley.
Perkins’ granddaughter is an author herself, publishing Newhall (Images of America) in 2010 and The Oak of the Golden Dream: The Legend and the History in 2011. The collection is being relocated from Margerite’s home in Northern California to be housed permanently in the City’s archives, where it will be available for research purposes.
“This is an amazing contribution to the history of our valley,” said SCV Historical Society Vice President Leon Worden. “As an old school classmate of Maggi’s, I know how deeply she cares about her grandfather’s legacy and she has found the perfect home for it. The city library’s experienced archiving staff can give it the professional care it deserves and ensure that it is preserved and available for generations to come.”
Art Perkins was a true Renaissance man: a judge, a housing developer, a water purveyor, and most importantly, our town’s first real historian. Fifty years before anybody dreamed of a historical society, Art Perkins was collecting the family photographs and information that became the backbone of our valley’s history.
He arrived in Newhall in 1919, where he became a property owner and developer, businessman, civic leader, author and local historian. He served as justice of the peace, managed the Newhall Water System, campaigned for the establishment of William S. Hart High School and co-founded the Masonic Lodge and Kiwanis Club.
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