A sign taped to the door of the Saugus Cafe on Railroad Avenue in Saugus informed guests that the historic, 139-year-old restaurant would cease operations on Sunday, Jan. 4. The letter was also posted online on Saugus Cafe social media pages.

The restaurant, located at 25861 Railroad Ave., Santa Clarita, CA 91350, had been rumored to be closing for several weeks. Several social media posts had mentioned the closing based on accounts from Saugus Cafe employees.

L.A. County’s longest-operating restaurant, established in 1886 as the “Saugus Eating House” or as “Tolfree’s Eating House,” first served railroad travelers and later Hollywood stars.

It changed its name to the Saugus Cafe in 1899.

Among its famous customers were Presidents Benjamin Harrison and Theodore Roosevelt, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Tom Mix, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Frank Sinatra and Mary Pickford.

According to an article by local historian Jerry Reynolds, published on SCVHistory.com, “President Theodore Roosevelt stopped by (the Saugus Cafe) in May of 1903, dinning on a special New York steak, which he supposedly declared to be ‘splendid.'”

The cafe was founded by James Herbert Tolfree in the building that housed the Saugus Train Depot.

“The restaurant moved out of the train station in 1916 and across the tracks to, roughly, where it stands today,” wrote Reynolds.

The Santa Clarita Valley has long served as Hollywood’s “back lot” for decades, and as such the Saugus Cafe found itself appearing as a location in a number of movies and television shows.

It served as a location for “Highway Patrol,” “CSI,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Justified,” “The Unit,” “Switched at Birth,” “Without a Trace” and “Boys on the Side,” among many others.

You can learn more about the history of the Saugus Cafe at https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/sauguscafe.htm.