Canoga Park Senior High

This is a story about two friends from the first grade in Chatsworth Park Elementary: Phyllis (Fladwed) Owens and Diane (Downing) Matthews who rescued a piece of the Canoga Park High School Greek Theater in 1953 and returned it to CPHS in 2014 in celebration of the school's Centennial.

 

Phyllis and Diane entered Canoga in January 1953 and attended a 10th grade English Class in one of the two classrooms that were part of the Greek Theater on the north edge of the campus. They also attended the last graduation (June 1953) as guests of older Chatsworth friends. They had heard the Greek Theater would be torn down that summer to make way for a parking lot but never thought they would have a role in it being remembered.

 

Diane's home was near DeSoto and Chatsworth streets and Phyllis grew up at the corner of Topanga and Nordhoff. That latter location had drainage tunnels under the intersection, and a "wash" meandering southeast across open land. All over the Valley flood-control projects were beginning and one day that summer many dump-trucks swarmed onto the property across the street from Phyllis' home and emptied their loads of huge hunks of broken, white cement that had an intriguing familiarity. Phyllis excitedly called Diane to come over on the weekend when the trucks would be gone so they could explore the dumped material. It did not take them long to be certain this was indeed the remains of the ill-fated Greek Theater! "Oh Wow! We gotta DO something", and they scrambled all over the area hunting for an identifiable, but not-too-big piece to move. Finding a chunk they thought must be from the base of a column, they wrestled it into a wheelbarrow to take home. What a struggle to push the wheelbarrow as the workmen had also dumped loads of loose dirt on the site. Tired but triumphant they had their own rescued hunk of history! And just in the nick-of-time because the next week bulldozers made short work of covering the cement chunks with dirt as they realigned the drainage "wash" and leveled the land.

 

Phyllis and Diane are still friends with this archeological adventure one of their shared memories of growing up in the Valley. Phyllis has moved the Greek Theater "rock" from home-to-home for 60 years. When Diane and Phyllis attended their Winter '56 Class Reunion in 2006 (how can 50 years go by so fast!), someone remarked as we toured the Campus, "unfortunately there are no remains of the Greek Theater." Oh yes there is and finally, for the Centennial Celebration of Canoga Park High School this "hunk of history" is home.

 

Phyllis (Fladwed) Owens, October 2014