Tom Mix cottage, Newhall, n.d.

This 5x7 copy print comes to us from the collection of Jo Anne Darcy, who has written on the back: "Site of the old Tom Mix Studio Cottage in Newhall / San Fernando Rd. so. of 5th St."

As of the 2010s, the intersection of San Fernando Road and 5th Street is the Newhall Roundabout. The old San Fernando Road north of the roundabout is Main Street. The old San Fernando Road south of the roundabout is called Newhall Avenue.

Actor Tom Mix used the large, triangular area bounded by today's Main Street, Market Street and Newhall Avenue for his studio, which we generally refer to as an early Mixville (as his later studio in Glendale was called), in the late 1910s and early 1920s.

The handwritten location description is dubious. While there might have been more Tom Mix cottages, the two we know about are located on Main Street between 6th and 7th (Market) streets. They are addressed 24247 and 24251 Main Street — although technically they are one parcel (APN 2831-014-012) with an address of 24247 Main Street. The other (24251) is legally an outbuilding.

Detail. Click to enlarge.

Could the structure in the photograph be south of the roundabout? From the vegetation, yes, it probably could. The vegetation is correct for the south end of downtown Newhall in the 1930s-40s-50s as seen here and here. But then we wouldn't be able to explain the building at far left.

It's more likely that the central structure in the photograph is the cottage at 24247 Main Street (the true 24247), and that the building at left is the Newhall Community Hospital, which was built in 1925 and opened in January 1926. The wooden structure above the building at left appears to be the back of a billboard. (Yes, there were billboards in town in the 1920s.)

The sign on the fence at left (inset) is indecipherable in this print.

As for dates ... As noted, the vegetation is correct for the area after the late 1920s. The street is paved, so it's after 1926, and probably after the road was widened in 1935. While County Assessor records can be inaccurate prior to the early 1920s, the record shows a 1920 construction date, with alteration in 1922, for the cottage at 24247 Main Street.

Best guess? 24247 Main Street, circa 1940s.