Dairy farmer Johannes “John” Van Noord (1877-1944) was a Valleyite for only a short while. Born in Haarlem, Netherlands, Van Noord abandoned his wife and kids and came to California around 1912, first settling in Sherman (today’s West Hollywood). In 1918, he married fellow Dutch immigrant Josephine Molenaar (1882-1968); three years later, they built a house and ranch on Diaz Avenue – present-day Coldwater Canyon – where they tended a herd of seventy cows. This was just a block east of Van Noord Avenue’s origins, on a 1924 tract between Sarah and Moorpark. Although daughter Gloria (1923-1991) was born here, the Van Noords had decamped for Norwalk by the time she was three. Gloria married Edward K. Hopper (not the painter) in 1945 and moved up to Santa Barbara. The couple had one child, Nancy.
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