Chatsworth is home to the only remaining homestead in the San Fernando Valley. The Homestead Acre or the Minnie Hill Palmer House is located in Chatsworth Park South. The remaining 1.3 acre site was designated as a Los Angeles Historical Cultural Monument in 1974 and also listed in the National Register in 1979.

James and Rhonda Hill exercised their rights under the Homestead Act in 1886 and settled on 110 acres of land in what is now known as Chatsworth. They expanded their ranch by buying the parcel adding theirs, a 120-acre ranch that was the abandoned stage coach stop.

In 1886 the Hills’seventh child, Minnie was born on the ranch. Minnie married Alfred Palmer in 1908 and moved from the ranch. Minnie and her husband returned to live at the ranch in 1920 when Minnie’s mother became ill. The palmers and Minnie’s brother Lovell ran the homestead and had a dynamite supply business there too. Lovell inherited the ranch when his mother passed and Minnie inherited it from her brother upon his death. Her husband died in the 1940s.

In 1956 Minnie sold the ranch to the city of Los Angeles for development, with the condition that she would be allowed to live there in her cottage on the 1.3 acre parcel as a life estate rent and tax free. She lived there until the age of 90 continuing to live in a pioneer style. Minnie enjoyed television and was said to be a soap opera addict. She would not allow herself to be disturbed during the time they were on during the day. She suffered a stroke in 1976 and spent her final years at a nursing home. She died at the age of 94 in March 1981.

The Homestead Acre, which houses the Chatsworth Historical Society, the Chatsworth Museum, the Frank H. Schepler, Jr. Memorial Library, and the Hill-Palmer Homestead Cottage, is open to the public from 1 to 4 P.M. on the first Sunday of every month for tours.

by Suzanne Burchett