August 1992 — The historic Pardee House arrives at Heritage Junction-Hart Park. It didn't have to move far; it sat since the late 1800s in the triangle formed by Newhall, Market and Walnut streets — which would become the Veterans Historical Plaza in 2007.

Donated by Pacific Bell, the house was moved during the wee hours of August 4, 1992, with financial support from the city of Santa Clarita. Traffic signals had to be moved and replaced at Market Street, Newhall Avenue and San Fernando Road.

The house was lowered onto a poured concrete foundation in late September or early October, and the operation took three hours (SCVHS board minutes, 10/26/1992).

Note that the house is painted white. The community garden was in active use between the Pardee House and the Newhall Ranch House, which moved to Heritage Juction two years earlier and can be seen in the last photo. Twenty 4x4x8 pieces of lumber, some of which are seen here, were donated by Lumber City. Also note that the pole barn at Hart Park, which would become Hart Hall, is still a pole barn.

The Pardee House was built c. 1890 as a Good Templar's Lodge with help from Henry Clay Needham, Newhall's one and only presidential candidate (on the Prohibition ticket). Originally located on Pine Street, in 1893 the building was moved to 629 E. Walnut Street — the "triangle" of Newhall Avenue, Market and Walnut streets by Ed Pardee, who enlarged it and used it as his home. Pardee — whose name would be forever after connected to the house — was a police constable in Newhall and some-time oil driller in Mentryville. Pardee added a small building in the back yard which was often used as a retreat by famed Western star Tom Mix, and some of the earliest John Ford-Harry Carey pictures were shot in and around the home.

In 1946 Ed Pardee's daughter, Pearl Russell, sold the house to the Pacific Telephone Co. (later Pacific Bell), which used it as a telephone exchange until the Santa Clarita Valley's telephonic needs outgrew it. In 1970 Pacific Bell leased the house to the Newhall-Saugus Boys Club (later the SCV Boys and Girls Club), which used it as a teen center until 1977 when it was leased to the Newhall-Saugus-Valencia Chamber of Commerce (later SCV Chamber of Commerce). The house served as the chamber headquarters until it, too, moved on in 1987, and the house reverted to Pacific Bell.

In 1992 Pacific Bell donated the historic home to the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society, which moved it to Heritage Junction Historic Park in the wee hours of Aug. 4.

Today the Pardee House is located at the entryway to Heritage Junction where it is being transformed into a museum and visitors center, to welcome guests and showcase artifacts that tell the history of the Santa Clarita Valley.