Tujunga’s George Washington on America 250

The Sunland-Tujunga Bicentennial Trail, developed in 1976, is now the America 250 Trail. In the past weeks, we’ve visited 12 of the 25 locations highlighted on this journey into the past. Today, we cross the halfway mark as the focus turns to a home that no longer stands. The former home of George Washington Harris once stood at 7320 Foothill Blvd. – location #13 on the trail.

Let’s begin with the following Harris information left by the historians who created the trail. 

The name George Washington Harris is prominent in the annals of Tujunga. A pioneer rock mason and self-styled “nature builder,” Harris came to Tujunga in its infancy. He took an active part in community affairs for well over 25 years. He often mentioned his hand-made home and considered Tujunga a place where he found a nearly ideal condition “to force my dreams to realization … it is here that I reached the summit of my best inspiration.”

George was born in Ohio in 1866. His father, Sampson, had fought for the Union in the Civil War and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863. Sampson and his wife Caroline went on to have eight children; George was their firstborn. At the age of 27, George married his sweetheart, Alice, in Ashtabula, Ohio in November 1893. The two arrived in Los Angeles in 1906, and George soon found work with the local publisher Marshall Hartranft as circulation manager of his farm journal, “The Western Empire.”

After he arrived in Tujunga, George began construction on their home on Foothill Boulevard (Michigan Avenue back then). It was two stories in height; the lower floor was clad in stone while the upper floor was built of wood. His home sat on a large property that was just to the right of Joselito’s Mexican Food restaurant. The large apartment complex that is adjacent to the eatery occupies the footprint of George Washington Harris’ former home.

It was about 1909 that George may have found his true calling as a self-styled nature builder. In the 1910 census, he declared himself a “manufacturer of rustic furniture” creating whimsical, but useful, items from logs and branches. At first, he carried a large backlog of items in his home workshop but then something happened. In an age long before the internet, George went viral. His unique creations suddenly became quite popular and everyone had to have a Harris chair, bench or table. In response, George created a little roadside store next to his home where his furniture was for sale. All the while, he continued to work as a rock mason building stone homes, fireplaces and walls. 

He advertised, “Let us help you with your building problems. Anything planned in conventional or rustic-stone, wood or cement. Landscape Architect, George Harris.”

In 1913, George Harris was famously the builder of Bolton Hall, the Little Lands Colony Clubhouse, today’s Bolton Hall Museum. George designed a logo for himself, which he regularly placed on his creations and structures. His logo included a script G and H inside a circle. This logo can be found in many places around town. If you would like to see it for yourself, look on the northern exterior wall of 10028 Commerce Ave., near the front of the building.

George passed away inside this house on Foothill Boulevard in June 1940 at the age of 74. When this tour was created in 1976 for the bicentennial, George’s home was still there for all to see and was a historical landmark. In November 1987, the house was razed to make way for the apartment complex that exists today. At Bolton Hall, several items from the Harris house are on permanent display. An address marker, some tools and a balcony railing are among the items there.