Pierre Agoure (1853-1912) was a French Basque rancher who came to Los Angeles c. 1871. On New Year’s Day 1883, he married Kate Smith (1852-1922), a NorCal gal. Although they lived in town, acquiring 80 acres at the northwest corner of present-day Western Ave. and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. (subdivided by J. Harvey McCarthy in 1921 as “Agoure Park”), the Agoures also owned some 16,000 acres here on the border between L.A. and Ventura counties, where they raised sheep and cattle. Pierre died after accidentally drinking formaldehyde(!) and the ranch was inherited by his only son Lester Pierre Agoure (1891-1953). (The Agoures also had five daughters, but you know how it goes.) With his wife Frances (1891-1972), Lester petitioned the City of Los Angeles to annex this land in 1923 so that they could access the City’s water supply. In 1927, during the hard-drinking Agoures’ lengthy but unsuccessful divorce attempt, “Agoura” was the name chosen for a post office here. The misspelling may have been accidental; the name stuck regardless. The City of Agoura Hills was finally incorporated in 1982.
Find it on the map:
