Try this on for size. Cultural landmark number 601: the farm where Mr. Ed was conceived.
That would be the talking horse. Of course.
The farm and its redwood barn are being considered for cultural and historic landmark status by the Los Angeles Cultural Arts Commission. But rest assured, experts consider Harvester Farm to have other merits beyond this dubious distinction.
Jay Oren, staff architect for the city’s Cultural Arts Commission said the turn of the century barn is one of the last remaining structures of its kind in Los Angeles. Two weeks ago, the commission voted unanimously to proceed with the application process for the farm and will tour the buildings this month.
The simple little ranch house and rambling old barn may seem like pretty ordinary buildings, indeed they once were. But since housing developments and strip malls long ago replaced the San Fernando Valley’s ranches and gobbled up the 15 acres that once surrounded it, Harvester Farm and places like it become unique in their own right, Oren said.
And not just for the Mr. Ed connection.
Dan Huffman, the farm’s current occupant, says that around the turn of the century, Harvester was a poultry farm, with some cattle and some horses. Located about 25 miles northwest of Los Angeles, it was close to the stagecoach road that winds through the mountains.
In the 1950s, the farm became the center of the Palomino Horse Association when a woman named Edna Fagan bought the place. She set up a stud farm, using a cream-colored stallion named Harvester to breed Palominos.
Legend had it that Mr. Ed, the blond star of the CBS sitcom, Mister Ed, which ran from 1961 to 1965, was bred at Harvester Farm. Huffman heard it first from his mail carrier 10 years ago, but didn’t believe it. But further research seemed to prove the mail carrier correct.
Mr. Ed’s real name was Bamboo Harvester, following the tradition of giving a horse his father’s name. The horse died in 1979 at the ripe old age of 33.
Virginia Watson, president of the Chatsworth Historical Society, worked at the elementary school next door during the 1950s. She remembers watching Harvester standing in the field or going in and out of the barn.
Watson wrote a letter supporting the effort to declare the farm a landmark.
“It’s worth saving,” she said. “We don’t have enough ordinary-people kind of things saved.”
The barn was fancier than most, she said, because Harvester was considered such a treasure.
“Horses like Harvester got a little bit better treatment than other horses,” Watson said.
“Mr. Ed looked a lot like him,” she added.
