The remains of a 19th century adobe, garden, carriage barn, aviary, railroad exhibit and a replica Tongva village hint at an uneasy history

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 31, 1987

There is so much to learn about the native populations that existed in Los Angeles for thousands of years before the Spaniards came. This Indigenous Peoples Day, I took my mom to Heritage Park, a gorgeous historic park (sections of which are on the National Register of Historic Places, of course) in Santa Fe Springs that addresses multiple sides of the complex relationship among the native Tongva, the Spanish missionaries, Mexican ranchers and the Americans that headed west to settle and build California.

The local tribe has built a replica village with a meeting hut, sweat lodge, dance arena, fishing pond and more…it’s a really peaceful spot, offering a much different kind of quietude than the rest of the park, which is beautifully kept up and leafy.

I couldn’t help but think about the strange juxtaposition of a fake native village sitting next to the foundation of the Patricio Ontiveros Adobe, on a site where so many Tongva were employed after being forcibly assimilated. And how this part of town grew prominent because of natural resources (oil, sulfur-rich mineral water) and industry (the town was renamed from Fulton Wells after the Santa Fe rail came to town), and the human impact of both. One informational placard explained that the oil wells were built so close to the estate, that when the house caught on fire once, so did one of the wells.

Mostly I was reminded of the importance of continuously interrogating the narratives we’ve been given for the formation of Los Angeles and California, to try and understand not just what happened, but also what has been lost in the name of progress.

Recommended Reading

+Hawkins/Nimocks Estate/Patricio Ontiveros Adobe @ NRHP website