What do Newhall and The Henry Mayo Medical Clinic have in common? They are both named after Henry Mayo Newhall, the main founder and investor in the town aptly named Newhall. The town of Newhall is currently a small hub for train traffic and small shops in the Santa Clarita Valley. Many people are unaware that Newhall has such rich history. Lucky for us, Santa Clarita has its very own Historical Society. The faithful people at SCV History Museum have dedicated their work to researching the olden times of Newhall in the late 1800s, as well as surrounding areas. My goal was to gather tidbits of information about Newhall so that the readers of The Magazine of Santa Clarita can have a renewed interest in the fascinating history of their town. Let’s begin with the founders: Although John C. Fremont helped found much of California (and he indeed helped form the roads throughout the SCV) and H.M. Newhall was heavily influential, they were not the only driving force behind the town. Business owners, Mike and John Powell, built the Southern Hotel and adjoining store, which served as a major source of income for the small town. When the Newhall train station depot was required to relocate due to an absence of necessary water for the Steam Engine Train, in the present-day area of Saugus, George Campton also moved, bringing with him his family, home, and general store. This upstart town boasted of a few main families and three bars! Credited for the longevity of the town after the passing of H. M. Newhall are the businessmen Emile Chaix, Tom Frew and Ed Pardee. They helped bring in people to cultivate the town and are considered essential citizens who helped preserve Newhall through increased commerce and population. In the words of Pat Saletore, Executive Director at the SCV Historical Society, “The Southern Pacific [Railroad] and Henry Mayo Newhall may have given birth to [Newhall], but it only survived with the perseverance of everyday working people who made it happen. A community is a complicated thing.” The 1980s brought people out of the urban culture of Los Angeles and into the growing suburbia around Newhall, so the small town experienced a small boom in population.
But why preserve Old Newhall? The county of Santa Clarita is currently in the midst of a large project to restore the town, but shouldn’t progress simply move forward? Build new buildings and tear down the rest? Well, our history is important to us. We preserve in order to learn from our past. Humans generally enjoy finding out the differences between our lifestyles and those of families in older times. We are intrigued by the way that Newhall survived without the slightest bit of modern technological help that we are so accustomed to. What? No computer system in which to input building codes and patterns? No computerized registers at the grocery store? The horror! But expand, it did, and now Old Newhall speaks to us of a quieter time, where life seemed fairly simple and day-to-day. One view from Pat Saletore describes our desire to maintain the history of our town: “Preserving our town helps us preserve and enjoy our history. We could plough it under and put new buildings there, but what would that gain? Our heritage buildings give use more to consider and more to be proud of in our history. It makes us and our town interesting and less homogenous.” So check out the historical sites around Newhall, and ponder the lives of the people who worked diligently to help keep this small train-depot of a town bustling and worthy of our research.
For more information on the city of Newhall, check out www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/newhall .