rancho era

#277: Workman Adobe (City of Industry)

#277: Workman Adobe (City of Industry)

February 21, 2026
Pioneers & Settlers
The Workman Adobe was built in the early 1840s for William Workman and his family, some of the earliest non-Hispanics to immigrate to Southern California under Mexican rule. This family made huge contributions to LA’s development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And as their fortunes waxed and waned over the decades, the adobe changed dramatically too. Its history is a reflection of both the people who lived there, and the broader story of Los Angeles.
Read More
#270: El Campo Santo Cemetery (City of Industry)

#270: El Campo Santo Cemetery (City of Industry)

October 30, 2025
Pioneers & Settlers
El Campo Santo was the private family cemetery for the Workman and Temple families, two dynasties who made massive contributions to the growth of Los Angeles in the 19th and early 20th century. Generations of family members, employees and influential friends are buried within its walls. But the most fascinating part is how the cemetery's evolution over 175 years parallels the tumultuous history of the people who are buried there.
Read More
#268: Palomares Adobe (Pomona)

#268: Palomares Adobe (Pomona)

October 8, 2025
Pioneers & Settlers
The Palomares Adobe was home to the first non-indigenous family to settle in the Pomona Valley. In the 1850s the Adobe was the seat of a successful cattle-ranching business run by Don Ygnacio Palomares. It served as a general store, a place of rest for weary travelers, and an occasional Roman Catholic chapel. Today you can visit the fully-restored Adobe for a window into the long-gone rancho era.
Read More
#223: Rancho Los Alamitos (Long Beach)

#223: Rancho Los Alamitos (Long Beach)

August 6, 2024
Native Americans
Rancho Los Alamitos compresses 150+ years of Los Angeles history into a single site. It went from Tongva village and sacred site, to Spanish land grant, to Yankee cattle and sheep ranch, to the center of a massive agricultural operation, and now a beautifully-preserved educational site, open to the public for free.
Read More
#188: Campo de Cahuenga (Studio City)

#188: Campo de Cahuenga (Studio City)

January 14, 2024
Military
In the shadow of Universal Studios is a crucially significant site for California history: Campo de Cahuenga, where in 1847 Andrés Pico & John C. Frémont signed a treaty ending California hostilities in the Mexican-American War. While the original adobe where they met was demolished ~1900 the site has yielded important archaeological evidence about the many eras of people who lived and worked there.
Read More
#160: Frederick Hastings Rindge Residence (West Adams)

#160: Frederick Hastings Rindge Residence (West Adams)

June 28, 2023
Architecture
This 1902 French chateau-style mansion was once the home of businessman and philanthropist Frederick Hastings Rindge, the last private owner of Malibu and one of the developer of West Adams Heights. Rindge's wife May Knight Rindge continued to live here for 36 years after Frederick died, and waged an unsuccessful battle to keep Malibu private.
Read More
#125: Los Cerritos Ranch House (Long Beach)

#125: Los Cerritos Ranch House (Long Beach)

November 6, 2022
Pioneers & Settlers
Built in 1844 by a yankee-turned-Mexican named John Temple, this house in Long Beach was the largest adobe built in southern California during the period when SoCal was controlled by Mexico. Its layered history tells LA’s transition from barren ranch land, to prosperous agricultural paradise, to a network of subdivisions that eventually coalesced into separate cities. You read into its history the story of Los Angeles becoming itself.

Read More
#3: Catalina Verdugo Adobe (Glendale)

#3: Catalina Verdugo Adobe (Glendale)

October 10, 2021
Pioneers & Settlers
In which I visit the Catalina Verdugo Adobe, said to be the oldest extant house in Glendale. Situated on land that was once part of a massive Spanish rancho, this adobe was the site of an important 1847 parley that helped end the Mexican-American War in 1847.
Read More