The Southern California Edison Company built a group of cottages for its employees in 1919 when the Newhall substation opened. They were moved west of Saugus in 1925 when the “new” substation was completed and five other homes were built of identical design.
The cottages and substation took a beating in the St. Francis Dam Disaster of March 1928. Nine of the cottages had to be rebuilt, including this one, which is believed to have been occupied by Assistant Edison Patrolman Raymond Starbard. He is credited as having been the first to spread the alarm of the disaster.
The cottages were sold to Newhall Land and Farming Company on January 17, 1972.
This cottage was donated to the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society and moved to the Santa Clarita History Center on January 18, 1989. The other houses were burned by the Los Angeles County Fire Department as a training exercise.
Architecturally significant, not only for their Swiss-Germanic Style, but for being unmodified, this single family residence has a gabled roof, clapboard siding, and hardwood floors.
