The area now known as Tarzana was originally part of the San Fernando Mission, which was established in 1797 by Spanish settlers and missionaries. Later on the area became part of Mexico and then, following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States, at which point the area came to be part of a sequential order of large cattle ranches owned by local elites. Beginning in the 1870s, the area was purchased by investors who transformed it into a large-scale wheat farm operation.
In 1909 the surrounding area was purchased by the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company. General Harrison Gray Otis, the founder and publisher of the Los Angeles Times, had invested in the company, while also purchasing 550 acres (2.2 km2) in the center of modern-day Tarzana.
In 1915 or 1919, Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the Tarzan stories, purchased Otis’s land and built a large home on it, which he called the Tarzana Ranch. Burroughs subdivided and sold the land for residential development, and the neighboring small farms composing Tarzana were converted to residential areas. In 1927 or 1928, local residents renamed the town Tarzana in honor of Burroughs and his famous storybook character. Burroughs also planted a large forest of various trees on his property located south of Ventura Blvd., and just East of Reseda Blvd. A development has since been built in the forest’s prior location. Thus Tarzana lost a large hunk of its history to development, a common theme in the Los Angeles area.