Bolton Hall is a historic American Craftsman era stone building in Tujunga, Los Angeles County, California. Built in 1913, Bolton Hall was originally used as a community center for the Utopian community of Los Terrenitos. From 1920 until 1957, it was used as an American Legion hall, the San Fernando Valley's second public library, Tujunga City Hall, and a jail. In 1957, the building was closed. For more than 20 years, Bolton Hall remained vacant and was the subject of debates over demolition and restoration. Since 1980, the building has been operated by the Little Landers Historical Society as a local history museum.Los TerrenitosIn the early 1900s, the area now known as Tujunga was undeveloped land, the former Rancho Tujunga. In 1913, William Ellsworth Smythe, working alongside M.V. Hartranft (they had purchased the land together), formed a Utopian community called Los Terrenitos— Spanish for The Little Landers. Smythe was the leader of the Utopian Little Landers movement and had already established colonies in Idaho and San Ysidro, California. He advocated the principle that families settling on an acre or two of land could support themselves and create a flourishing community.Town lots in Tujunga were sold to settlers at $800 for an acre of land and a life of independence.
