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Groundbreaking Ceremony Held for Motel in Gorman.

Van Nuys News | May 1, 1966.

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held this week at the site of the Caravan Restaurant in Gorman, marking the beginning of the first large development by The Holland Company Inc. of the Ralphs Ranch properties in Gorman, lying just 30 miles north of Castaic in the northern sector of Los Angeles County.

The $750,000 two-story motor-motel project will adjoin the present Caravan Restaurant owned by the Ralphs. The developers, the Holland Company Inc. of Glendale, forecast and August 1966 groundbreaking for residential development of the Ralphs Ranch properties.

Guests Listed

A luncheon hosted by James Lloyd Ralphs Sr. was held at the Caravan Restaurant honoring the historic groundbreaking of the new motor-motel units.

Attending the luncheon were Ruth and James Lloyd Ralphs Jr., Ronald Ralphs, Gorman; Donald G. Kendall, attorney and son, Larry Kendall of Bakersfield; George Pyles, Title Insurance and Trust Co., Los Angeles; Tom Spurgeon, escrow officer and E.A. Finch, customer relations, Title Insurance and Trust Co., Bakersfield; George Juras, civil engineer, Reseda; Marshall Rissman of Rissman & Rissman, architects; John Mastro, vice president-manager, Bank of America, Bakersfield and Barbara O'Rourke, public relations, Newhall.

Representing the Holland Company Inc. were Phillip Holland, president; Robert Lunney, finance manager; Thomas Neuner, project manager and Andy Anderson, construction superintendent.

Holland Company's project manager, Thomas Neuner, stated:

"The new Caravan Motor Motel and Restaurant project is only the first step in making Gorman part of the development and expansion now taking place in the Newhall-Saugus-Castaic area.

Future Bright

"With the recreational facilities planned for the Castaic area stemming from the Castaic Reservoir now under construction, the proposed Pyramid Reservoir south of Gorman, and the construction of the new eight-lane Interstate Freeway, Gorman faces a fantastic future as the bedroom and playground for the mushrooming resort areas surrounding the once sleepy, pastoral grazing lands," he said.