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Mary Logan Orcutt thought the name of her West San Fernando Valley community was "cumbersome and unpleasing, both in sound and suggestion." So she offered a "short, euphonious and distinctive" moniker, and it stuck.
No, the late Orcutt did not suggest West Hills. The year was 1929, when Canoga Park was known as Owensmouth.
The town has changed in many other ways since, and the Canoga Park Museum of History, which will open with ceremony today, will provide a look back in pictures, documents and other mementos.
The opening of the museum in the Canoga Park Community Center on Owensmouth Avenue coincides with the 75th anniversary of the community's founding, said Beth Shirley, who is organizing the museum effort for the Canoga Park Women's Club. It also comes at a time when Canoga Park is embroiled in a controversy about the adoption of the name West Hills by some who want to split away from the community.
The museum's collection consists mostly of old photographs, assorted documents, placards and writings, including that of Orcutt, who was an active member of the women's club in the 1920s and 1930s. Most of the museum's items will be displayed in a large case in a front room of the community center.
The spot that now...