The Moreland Truck Company

 

1917-1940

 

 

From “About Times” (newsletter), Summer 1987:

 

The move from farming to industry in Burbank took place in 1917 when city officials offered Watt Moreland 25 acres of land free of cost, which the city purchased form Henry Luttge. This land was located on the corner of San Fernando Blvd. and Alameda Ave.

 

Moreland trucks were sold worldwide, but due to wartime shortages of materials the plant had to close in 1940.

 

The photograph above shows the Moreland plant, and in the upper right hand corner you can see Libby Cannery and the Andrew Jergens soap factory.

 

From A History of Burbank (Burbank Unified School District, 1967):

 

The beginning of manufacturing and the passing of the agricultural era took place in 1917. Ralph O. Church, Burbank's first city treasurer, read in his morning paper that the Moreland Truck Company was planning to move its plant from Los Angeles to Alhambra. Church called one of Burbank's most enthusiastic boosters, Maurice Spazier, and told him the news. The two men immediately set out for the Moreland plant in Los Angeles. They found Watt Moreland, head of the company, ready to draw up an agreement to move to Alhambra. Church and Spazier offered Moreland a suitable site for his factory - free of any cost to him. Moreland stalled the Alhambra deal to look at the site in Burbank. The first site, at Verdugo Avenue and Flower Street, was unsatisfactory. The offer was quickly changed to a 25-acre tract on the corner of San Fernando Road and Alameda Avenue owned by Henry Luttge, and $25,000 was raised to pay for the land. Buildings were constructed and the truck company moved in. - Moreland trucks traveling on the highways of this and many other countries of the world bore the label "Made in Burbank."

 

The factory was surrounded by farms as shown in the picture on the following page. On the side toward the business district there were acres of potatoes growing. Other farmers raised fruits of various kinds, melons, and alfalfa.

 

Many years later, after the Moreland Company stopped producing trucks, the building was used by the Vega Aircraft Corporation. Still later, the Weston Biscuit Company manufactured cookies at this location.

 

Another factory opened shortly after the Moreland Truck plant. The Libby, McNeill and Libby Canning Company took advantage of the nearness of Burbank to the Southern Pacific Railroad and the fruits raised in the valley and built a canning factory on Verdugo Avenue where the street crossed the railroad.

 

Moreland truck images from hankstruckpictures.com:

 

 

 

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