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Ventura Boulevard

Thoroughfare in San Fernando Valley

Field	Value
name	Ventura Boulevard
alternate_name	Part of El Camino Real
namesake	Saint Bonaventure
maint	Los Angeles County, City of Los Angeles
length_mi	16.5
metro	Universal City/Studio City
direction_a	West
terminus_a	Valley Circle Boulevard in Woodland Hills
junction

direction_b	East
terminus_b	Lankershim Boulevard and Cahuenga Boulevard by Universal City

Note

the major east–west street in Southern California

Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east–west thoroughfares in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. Ventura Boulevard is one of the oldest routes in the San Fernando Valley as it is along the commemorative route El Camino Real. It was also U.S. Route 101 (US 101) before the freeway (which it parallels for much of Ventura Boulevard's length) was built, and it was also previously signed as U.S. Route 101 Business (US 101 Bus.).

Approximately 18 mi long, Ventura Boulevard begins near Calabasas in Woodland Hills at an intersection with Valley Circle Boulevard. The Boulevard travels through Tarzana, Encino, and Sherman Oaks before intersecting with Lankershim Boulevard in Studio City, where it becomes Cahuenga Boulevard and winds through Cahuenga Pass into Hollywood.

Historically, the street has been one of the most concentrated location for small businesses and shops in the Valley, while today it has pockets of housing, mini-malls, and shops, along with a wide assortment of businesses, schools, and other establishments. Homes south of Ventura Boulevard are considered to be among the most expensive in Los Angeles County, ranging from $2 million to $50 million and home to numerous executives, celebrities, athletes, and other entertainers.

Name

Ventura Boulevard is named after Saint Bonaventure.{{cite web |url=https://waterandpower.org/museum/Street_Name_Origins_SFV.html |title= Street Name Origins - SFV |publisher=Water and Power Associates |access-date=October 3, 2025}}

History

Ventura Boulevard follows an ancient pre-Columbian trading trail that served the Tataviam and Tongva village of Siutcanga, which is at least 4,000 years old.

Due to natural springs in the area, one of the first inhabited areas of the San Fernando Valley was the land around what is now known as Los Encinos State Historic Park, at the corner of Balboa and Ventura boulevards, which was inhabited by the Tongva for thousands of years. This 5-acre (2 hm²) park now includes the original nine-room De La Osa Adobe (built in 1849) and a reservoir shaped like a Spanish guitar that collects the springwater.

The Valley's first golf course opened at the corner of Ventura and Coldwater Canyon in 1922 (this is now the site of the Sportsmen's Lodge).

Also in 1922, around the area of Canoga Avenue south of Ventura Boulevard, Victor Girard purchased 2,886 acres (12 km²) of land and planted over 120,000 pepper, sycamore, and eucalyptus trees, later resulting in the appropriately named Woodland Hills.

In 1928, just a couple blocks east of Laurel Canyon, Mack Sennett created his 38-acre (15.4 hm²) Keystone Studios, which produced silent movies with stars such as Fatty Arbuckle, W.C. Fields, Stan Laurel, and the Keystone Cops. After talkies, Keystone became Republic Pictures, and then in 1963 CBS Studio Center. Although closed to the public, this complex, which is located only a few blocks away from Ventura Boulevard, probably makes more TV sitcoms than any other studio.

Looking eastward during CicLAvia, March 2015

In 2015 the Studio City section of Ventura Boulevard, along with Lankershim Boulevard, was the site of CicLAvia, an event sponsored by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in which major roads are temporarily closed to motorized vehicle traffic and used for recreational human-powered transport.{{cite news | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150324033436/http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/03/23/valley-ciclavia-crowd-estimated-at-100k/ | archive-date=2015-03-24}}

A stretch of the former U.S. Route 101 in the Ventura County city of Camarillo paralleling the current freeway route is also named Ventura Boulevard.

Public transportation

Ventura Boulevard carries Metro Local lines 150 and 240.

In popular culture

Music

The Everly Brothers recorded a song called "Ventura Boulevard" on their 1968 album Roots.

Ventura Boulevard is mentioned in Tom Petty's song "Free Fallin'" ("All the vampires walkin' through the valley, Move west down Ventura Boulevard..."). When Petty died in 2017, what was intended as a walk by four fans turned into a public memorial as 10 times that many ‘Vampires’ walked west down the Boulevard in memory of the singer.

The Boulevard is also mentioned in Frank Zappa's "Valley Girl" ("On Ventura, there she goes, she just bought some bitchin' clothes") a song about a valley girl (voiced by his daughter Moon Zappa) who lives in Encino and participates in typical Valley Girl activities such as shopping at The Galleria, not wanting to do the dishes, and getting her toenails professionally pedicured.

Guitarist John 5 made a song entitled "18969 Ventura Blvd."

In the documentary Living with Michael Jackson, it is revealed that Michael Jackson wrote the song Billie Jean while riding down Ventura Boulevard in his car.

Haim's music video "Want You Back" is filmed on Ventura Boulevard.

In August 2025, Lil Nas X was filmed walking down the street in the middle of the night, almost completely naked in white underpants and white boots, whilst repeatedly asking the cameraman if they were 'coming to the party tonight'. Lil Nas X was later arrested and ended up in hospital.

Film

The boulevard is a prominent location in the movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Much of the films Crash and Transformers were filmed on the boulevard.

Television

In the Seinfeld episode "The Trip, Part 2", Jerry and George were said to be calling from a pay phone on Ventura Boulevard. In reality, the pay phone shown was on Ventura Place, about one block away.

In the Treehouse of Horror VI episode of The Simpsons, Ventura Boulevard features as the location of the show's first ever live-action scene.

Steve Allen, who lived in Encino, famously joked that "The Valley is the hippest part of town. They even named a boulevard after Charlie Ventura," referring to the renowned jazz saxophonist.

Literature

Detective fiction author Raymond Chandler on Ventura Boulevard from his novel The Little Sister (1949):

At [La Brea Avenue

Video games

Video game developer [Infinity Ward, which developed most of the games in the Call of Duty series, has its headquarters on Ventura Boulevard. The studios can be seen at 15821 Ventura Boulevard, Encino.

Business district

The Ventura Business District is the commercial district along and around Ventura Boulevard. Ventura Boulevard and the district run along the northern base of the Santa Monica Mountains. Mission bells have been placed marking the commemorative route of the El Camino Real.

Neighborhoods

Due to the district's extended linear size, it is rare for it to be considered one unified district, instead identified by neighborhoods within and along it. They include:

Studio City
Sherman Oaks
Encino
Tarzana
Woodland Hills

Gallery of places along Ventura Boulevard (east to west)

Studio City Hand Car Wash, Ventura Blvd., Studio City, CA.JPG|Studio City Hand Car Wash Dupar's Restaurant.JPG|Former Dupar's Restaurant, Studio City Sherman Oaks Ventura Boulevard Shopping District & J.R.'s Jeweler.JPG|Sherman Oaks Shopping District Citibank and City National Bank Buildings, Ventura & Sepulveda, Sherman Oaks.JPG|Citibank and City National Bank Buildings Garnier Building at Rancho Los Encinos.JPG|Garnier Building at Rancho Los Encinos, 2008 Garnier House, Rancho Encino, 1900.jpg|Rancho Encino - Garnier Building, 1900 Encino Park Liquor with "Time to Buy" Sign, Ventura Blvd., Encino, CA.JPG|Encino Park Liquor Encino-Tarzana Branch, Los Angeles Public Library.JPG|Encino-Tarzana Branch Library Cupid's Hot Dogs, Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, California.JPG|Cupid's Hot Dog's, Tarzana

References

"Siutcanga".
Release, Press. (2015-07-17). "Local Tribe to Celebrate Repatriation of Cultural Materials in Encino".
https://visitcamarillo.com/business/to-do/old-town-camarillo/
Rife, Katie. (20 October 2017). "Vampires walked through the Valley last night in honor of Tom Petty".
(August 21, 2025). "Lil Nas X Catwalks In Underwear Down L.A. Street, Possible Drug OD".
Chandler, 1949. in ''Raymond Chandler: Later Novels and Writings''. Library of America, New York. {{ISBN. 1-883011-08-6
"Early Views of the San Fernando Valley {{!}} El Camino Real".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

streets-in-the-san-fernando-valley streets-in-los-angeles streets-in-los-angeles-county,-california boulevards-in-the-united-states u.s.-route-101 encino,-los-angeles sherman-oaks,-los-angeles studio-city,-los-angeles tarzana,-los-angeles woodland-hills,-los-angeles san-fernando-valley

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