Ongoing updates to Historical Notes helps preserve and educate about regional history including Los Encinos State Historic Park.

Source of information is from archived association records – no author or date listed. The information provided is believed to be accurate. Please let us know if you believe a correction is in order!

Because of its water supply from a natural spring, the Franciscan padres used Encino as their headquarters while exploring the valley before establishing Mission San Fernando in 1797.

In 1849 Vicente de la Osa built an adobe with nine rooms on Rancho Los Encinos. Twenty years later (1869), Eugene Garnier bought Rancho Los Encinos and, in 1872, built a French Provincial two-Story limestone house adjacent to the existing adobe. He was French Basque and the house was similar to those in his homeland.

The Garniers were energetic builders, and added much to the Rancho. They built a stone-line pond, in the shape of a Spainsh guitar at the site of the spring; they built a two story limestone building to serve as a bunkhouse and they built a roadhouse across the road (Ventura Blvd.) which became the focal point of the local Basque community.