Santa Susana Depot and Museum

Come on by the Santa Susana Depot! We are open every Saturday & Sunday from 1-4pm (with the exception of select holidays) We hope to see you soon!

Swap Meet Saturday! It’s finally here . Our first swap meet since the pandemic is 05/15/21 from 8-11am. Info below.

Did you know that once upon a time, enough sugar beets were raised here in Simi Valley that they built a beet dump, to facilitate transportation? When it was t...ime to harvest, the beets were plowed to loosen them, and men used beet knives to cut off the tops. The beets were loaded onto wagons, which were driven up the ramp. The sides of the wagons were then let down so the beets could fall into open box cars, without having to handle them again. Then the teams could leave, using the ramp on the other side. This was at the Simi Station near First Street. Next time you drive over the railroad tracks at first street imagine this enormous structure being there! See more

Our swap meet schedule has been adjusted, hopefully for the last time. May 15th should be a safer date to resume in-person activities. Thanks to you all for your patience, and we hope to see lots of you once we can all be together in toy traindom again .

Here's a photo of 'Silvertown' in Corriganville. Silvertown was the main street in the ranch which was lined with western-style structures which were used as ...movie sets as well as a tourist attraction. Corriganville was open to the public on weekends and holidays from 1949 to 1965. In 1970 and again in 1979 fires destroyed virtually all of the structures in the Park. See more

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Santa Susana Train Depot & Museum!

An article published in the Moorpark Enterprise on November 16, 1944 about the opening of the Santa Susana Airport. The airport was located south, across LA Ave. of the Depot’s original location, on the north side of LA Ave, just east of Tapo St.

Most likely in the 1920s, someone in the Hare family was admiring the Santa Susana Depot at twilight, took this photo, and placed it in a photo album for us to discover 100 years later....

We miss our friend Bill Appleton. Aside from being a wonderful person, he contributed so much to our knowledge of local history, both in the form of his amazin...g collection of photographs, his collaboration on 'Simi Valley - a Journey Through Time,' and his research. He also wrote a book on Santa Susana ( https://www.amazon.com/Santa-Susana-Images-Am//ref=sr_1_2 ) . When writing 'Santa Susana' he researched businesses in Santa Susana. Here are a couple businesses some of you might remember! The years are written on the ads. He collected the ads from different sources. Some are from Simi High yearbooks, The Simi Valley Advertiser, and some are from other publications and microfilm. See more

This is an article from the Simi Valley Enterprise, May 27 1962. The article states that the population figure on the sign of 2,100 is wildly understated, and that an estimate from mid-February taken by Southern California Edison places the population at 9,100. This disparity was due to the incredibly rapid growth which was taking place. By October 1963, the Ventura County Planning Department estimated 10,524 in **Santa Susana**. The population in Simi ('urban') at the s...ame time was 15,963. Because of difference in the areas being counted, the number reported by the Ventura County Planning Department and the Census differed, but both showed the striking growth in the Valley in the 50s and 60s (the entire valley, **not just Santa Susana**: Population of Simi Valley Urbanized Area: 1950-4,073 1960-8,110 1961-11,150 1962-15,860 1963-24,719 1964-34,497 1965-43,016 1966-44,070

The Santa Susana Station/Depot wasn't the only train station in the Valley in the early years. We also had Strathearn Station (no structure) and the Simi Station. The tiny Simi Station was built in the early 1900s, and sat just east of First St. It was very small, and only enclosed on three sides. It is the little structure you see in this news clipping on the left hand side on the photo, a waiting area/platform is on the right. The article gives the date of the image as 1911. In around 1916 a more complete station was built because of public dissatisfaction with the tiny structure. It's unclear when the Simi Station was removed. To read more about (mostly Santa Susana Depot) history, click here: https://www.simihistory.com//2/09/Santa-Susana-Depot-2.pdf

A Corriganville ad from 1961

There have been some very interesting posts regarding railroad history, specifically Chatsworth Railroad history. The images posted are from a great presentati...on from the Chatsworth Historical Society....please check it out! Thank you, Ray and Ann Vincent for all of your work researching this topic for the Chatsworth Historical Society! See more

Hopeful for November, but it looks like this summer we will continue to be closed. Lots of maintenance and upgrades planned in the interim though... silver lining. Stay healthy out there folks.

Here's a photo that hasn't been seen very much, because it has been tucked into a photo album which was donated to the Simi Valley Historical Society by the Crinklaw family. Los Angeles Ave. is in the foreground, and there are folks gathered around the tree, which has a sign that reads 'Eats' on it. The photo is undated, but appears to be 1920s or a bit earlier based on the cars. If there is anyone out there that knows their (very) vintage cars and wants to venture a guess as to the date, we'd love to hear it!

"The big parade is to the friendly Californian." Southern Pacific advertisement from the Moorpark Enterprise - JUNE 26 1941

"Go east a new way for a new thrill." Take a look at this Southern Pacific ad, published 84 years ago, May 28th, 1936 in the Moorpark Enterprise.

Many people have fond memories of the two A&Ws that were in Simi and Santa Susana once upon a time. This ad from the 1967 Simi High yearbook has a photo of the A&W which was in Santa Susana on the northwest corner of Ralston and Los Angeles Ave. The 'now' photo was taken May 2020.

Someone requested a Village Market ad. Here's one we ran across in The Simi Valley News Advertiser - July 27 1961