August 3, 1992 — Rick Craig of San Joaquin House Movers of Bakersfield makes some final
preparations to move the Pardee House from 24275 Market Street to Heritage Junction at
midnight.
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.