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(IPA: ) is a San Fernando Valley district in the city of Los Angeles, California.
The area now known as Reseda was originally inhabited by Native Americans of the Tongva tribe that lived close to the Los Angeles River. The vegetation was plentiful, and the natives had to work only two hours per day to support themselves.
Reseda originated as a farm town named "Marian" (or "Rancho Marian") that appeared in 1912. Its namesake, Marian Otis Chandler, was the daughter of Los Angeles Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis, a director of the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company. About 1920, Reseda—named after a fragrant North African yellow-dye plant, Reseda odorata, which grows in hot, dry climates—replaced Marian as a designation for a stop on the Pacific Electric interurban railway running along Sherman Way.
The population of Reseda was 1,805 in 1930 and 4,147 in 1940. By 1950 it had topped 16,000, but the Ventura Freeway lay 10 years in the future, and most Reseda residents still bought fresh eggs, milk, honey and vegetables at stands along Ventura Boulevard. The name "Reseda" was given first to a siding on a branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad in the south San Fernando Valley.