page_title: Moses Sherman
section_title: San Fernando Valley
hierarchical_section_title: Moses Sherman / Developing Los Angeles / San Fernando Valley
caption_attribution_description: English: Sherman Way in downtown Owensmouth in 1920. • Present day downtown Canoga Park, in the western San Fernando Valley.
context_page_description: Moses Hazeltine Sherman was an American land developer who built the Phoenix Street Railway in Phoenix, Arizona and streetcar systems that would become the core of the Los Angeles Railway and part of the Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, California, and owned and developed property in areas such as West Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood, California. He also served on the Los Angeles Water Board. He was also known as M. H. Sherman and General M. H. Sherman.
context_section_description: In 1904, in his role on the Board of Water Commissioners, he received advanced notice of purchases of water rights in the Owens Valley—Owens River for the proposed Los Angeles aqueduct, planned by William Mulholland and Fred Eaton. The additional water to Los Angeles, with the aqueduct's terminus in the San Fernando Valley, triggered a rush by land speculators to buy Valley real estate. The formation of a land speculation syndicate, the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company,  included Moses Sherman and partners Hobart Johnstone Whitley, Isaac Newton Van Nuys, James Boon Lankershim, and Harry Chandler, manager of the Los Angeles Times, as directors. The syndicate purchased the 47,500-acre (192 km²) parcel from the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company, owned by Van Nuys and son-in-law Lankershim, in 1909. It comprised nearly the entire south half of the San Fernando Valley (south of present-day Roscoe Blvd.). The price was $2,500,000, or just under $53 an acre.
  As part of his speculation in the syndicate purchase, General Sherman (as he was called) retained property in what later became the neighborhood of Sherman Oaks, named for him.
  The income Sherman received from real estate development made up for flagging railroad profits.
caption: 1920 Sherman Way in downtown Owensmouth, with Los Angeles Pacific Railroad line
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