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It is no coincidence that the community of Winnetka in the San Fernando Valley shares the same name as a suburb in Illinois. Visionary pragmatist Charles Weeks newly named Winnetka in the mid 1920’s. Weeks’ idea was simple, financial independence through egg farming; all you needed was a plot of land and twenty-five hundred chickens. Weeks was a Utopian, the “Weeks collection” a series of written documents surviving from the period are archived at California State University, Northridge.

He had achieved great success with his practical idea in poultry-based colonies in Winnetka, Illinois and in Palo Alto before he relocated to the San Fernando Valley in his early fifties. He began building his egg farm along Sherman Way, the only paved road in the West Valley. This was an important part of the infrastructure that would make or break his operation. “Owensmouth,” as the area was then called, was close in proximity to the nearby burgeoning city of Los Angeles. Down the center of this wide boulevard ‘Sherman Way,” ran a trolley fondly named “Big Red” that would run daily round trips into the city. This would be the perfect method of quickly distributing his farm fresh eggs. The location also benefitted geographically, the soil was rich and there was abundant water due to the Owens Aqueduct.

Winnetka tutors acknowledge that initially the concept caught on and may well have come to fruition if it wasn’t for the Great Depression. In order to be a part of this lifestyle, and achieve independence through egg farming, there was an initial investment involved. First the purchase of Weeks publication “Intensive Little Farms” outlined the concept and the philosophy. He distributed this booklet via mail for $1. He promised the ‘American Dream’ of working for yourself, achieving independence, and owning your own small business. In order to take the next step and secure your one-acre plot in the Charles Weeks Poultry Colony you would need to invest $1500. This would have been a great sum in the 1920s.

For the investment you would receive your plot which included a one-story home, extensive gardens of vegetables and feed crops, lawns of clover which were designed to attract bees and of course the hen houses. Per the theory of the time the hen houses were long and narrow, believing this increased productivity. Rather than the free roaming chickens that many farmers prefer today.

Due to the depression less than a quarter of the farms that Weeks envisioned were established. The prices of eggs dropped as people could not afford them. Winnetka economic tutors note that demand was low and supply was high. In the following years as egg farming became the realm of million-unit egg factories these humble little farms disappeared.