The Museum of the San Fernando Valley, an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) non-profit, began in 2005 and is a free Museum located on a cultural property at Nordhoff Street and Wilbur Avenue in Northridge. The Museum subsists on donations, grants and, occasionally, through fund-raising events and gift shop sales. The Museum believes in the concept of shared stories and strives to exhibit and educate visitors on the distinctive histories of all cultures, races, religions and ideas that have contributed to the San Fernando Valley’s character and development. Prior to COVID, The Museum was housed in various places across the Valley. It began in a historic bungalow on the Valley College campus in 2005. When the Museum left the college in order to expand its mission, it started a nomadic existence – from Founder’s home to Valley Economic Alliance offices exhibiting in libraries and schools; then Sherman Oaks Fashion Square where thousands visited each month to the two-story business building on the corner of Nordhoff Street and Wilbur Avenue in Northridge where it resided for 6 years. The Museum was awarded “2018 Non-Profit of the Year” for State Senator Bob Hertzberg’s district and was sent to Sacramento to receive our award on the Senate floor. During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Museum’s landlord, the historic Dentzel family, moved it across the street in 2021 to the Rancho Cordillera Del Norte which offered The Museum not only its own 900 sq.ft. stand-alone building but almost an acre of outside property to create large scale and COVID compliant exhibitions and events. The Museum is reopened and is rebuilding and expanding itself through commitments of its volunteers and the public with the goal of making it an even more vibrant and exciting history museum which will be visited time and time.
