During Hollywood’s heyday, the movie studios had large ranches in the San Fernando Valley, where land was still cheap. It gave them lots of room to create expansive backlot sets. In this aerial shot, we’re looking at RKO’s ranch in Encino. (For the record the ranch was located approximately between Louise Ave on the west, Balboa Blvd on the east, Burbank Blvd on the south, and Oxnard St on the north.) On this property their Western street intersected with New York street (It’s all about where you point the camera!) The building on the right with the three pointed arches was Notre Dame in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” (1939) This is also where Frank Capra built 4 acres of sets for “It’s A Wonderful Life.” I don’t have a date on this photo but I’ve see other photos from the early 1950s that looked similar to this one.

** UPDATE ** – Craig M. “The Genesee St set was not built for It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s the original Modern St set from the film Cimarron in 1931, and was redressed for IAWL in 1946.

Gary H. says: “I believe the aerial photo was taken in 1953. The It’s a Wonderful Life set is in your photo, running east/west from about Louise Ave to Wish Ave, 6 houses north of Hatteras Ave.”

The ranch was sold in 1954 and is now half housing and half sports grounds. This image is from 2024.

** UPDATE ** Gary H. says: “The soccer and baseball fields are outside of the original lot. In the old photo, the tall tree line on the east side is the divider.”

You can see more more pictures of the RKO Encino Ranch HERE.