I've seen this 1895 photo a number of times:
ucla/islandora depository/cc pierce
Many of the digital libraries seem to agree on the description,
"Last Mexican Capital. S Side Plaza. Office of Gov. Pio Pico. The capital of the State of California"
(the Bella Union Hotel also
claims this honor. See
here too)
The building shown in the photo above is the building west of the 1884 Plaza fire station, with the brick wall of Pico House (1870) across Sanchez St and the Baker Block (1877-1942) in the distance. I think that is the north wall of the Garnier Building behind. Sostenes Sepulveda's building (now the Chinese American Museum) wasn't built until 1898.
Pio Pico was Mexican governor of Alta California (for the second time) in 1845-46. Was the adobe really that old?
Many of you know a lot more about the Plaza than I ever will, but I thought I'd gather some images of the building through time to try to pin down its age to see if the caption is justified.
About a decade earlier, ca. 1886, two years after the fire house went in. It is said that the adobe served as a boarding house during the 80s:
lapl
Here it is, even earlier, in ca. 1876, peeking out from behind Pico House:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyingwedge
|
This 1873 map identifies the buildings, but not necessarily the build dates. Andrés Pico, younger brother of Pio Pico, was in residence in the subject building by 1854. Pio Pico took over José Antonio Carrillo's 1825 townhouse in 1856 (the home predated Stearns' 1838 El Palacio by more than a decade. In its time it was the showplace of the city). Carrillo (1796–1862), alcalde of Los Angeles on three different occasions was married to Estefana Pico in 1823, and, after her death, Jacinta Pico in 1842, both sisters of Andrés and Pio. Carrillo retired to Santa Barbara and died there in 1862, aged 66.
Note that Sanchez Street does not exist yet (Ferguson Alley didn't exist then either):
previously posted by MR(detail)/
loc
The 1871 birdseye drawn by Augustus Koch shows the adobe and the Sepulveda home attached to another structure. Sanchez St is through to Arcadia. (One can see the big loading dock door on the east side of Pico House, which is not often on view):
uscdl
In this wonderful ca. 1858-60 composite (which
lemster put together out of LA's oldest photo and
one of e_r's ebay finds) the roof of Andrés Pico's home may be clearly seen, with Ramoria Sepulveda's house behind it, just east of Pio Pico's house:
lemster2024
Detail:
Next-door neighbors Andrés (1810-1876) and Pio Pico (1801-1894), two of a dozen siblings. The Picos had nine sisters (Conception, Tomasa, Margarita, Casimira, Estefana, Isadora, Josefa, Jacinta and Feliciana) and an older brother, José Antonio Bernardo Pico (1794-1871), called "Picolito" because he was much smaller than his younger brothers. He spent much of his life in San Diego.
Don Andrés was a ranch owner, commander of the Californio Lancers, hero of San Pasqual and signatory of
the Treaty of Cahuenga, 1847 (the only known agreement in history dictated by the losers, thanks to the exceedingly wise Maria Bernarda Ruiz de Rodriguez, 1802-1886, with a very cooperative and gracious assist from John Frémont, 1813-1890. Before Senora Ruiz's involvement, Kearny and Stockton had planned on hunting down Don Andrés and hanging him). From 1851 Don Andrés was a State Assemblyperson, in 1858 a Brigadier General in the California Militia and elected a California State Senator in 1860 (famously author of
the Pico Bill to divide California). Don Andrés had a family of adopted and his own natural children, but never married. He collapsed on a Los Angeles street from "brain fever" on February 13, 1876, dying the next day.
Don Andrés was
Governor of the California Republic (1846-1850) in 1847. Don Pio took over this duty in 1848, his third time as governor, twice for Mexico and once under American rule.
Don Pio was also a rancher and a businessman, as well as a skillful politician. He married Maria Ignacia Alvarado in 1834 and together they adopted several children.
This
map, drawn by
odinthor, from his site
here, is based on one by a Californio descendant in the Historical Society Quarterly. It includes info (as remembered) up until ca 1853.
This birdseye of the Plaza area was commissioned by the DWP in 1950. It was said to be based on the 1849 Ord survey and careful research. Although there are two buildings approximately where Andrés Pico's house stood, they look nothing like the later structure and neither appears to match the footprint of the later adobe:
calisphere
The 1849 Ord Survey drawn by William Rich Hutton is not about to provide satisfaction, but Ord wasn't hired to survey the buildings, so fair enough. Hutton also made sketches of Los Angeles, unfortunately none of them of the south side of the Plaza are available to me as they are held rather closely by the Huntington:
lapl
It's difficult to know but it doesn't look like the adobe in the first photo existed during Pio Pico's last term as Mexican Governor of Alta California in 1845-1846, although
something was there. Also, the Picos seem to have had no recorded connection to any building on that site before 1854. I wish I knew if José Antonio Carrillo had any control over the smaller building(s) to the east of his
1825 home. Carrillo was not only the Picos' brother-in-law, but also a trusted aide to Andrés Pico. It was Carrillo who wrote out the Articles of the Treaty of Cahuenga in both English and Spanish, as dictated by Maria Bernarda Ruiz de Rodriguez, for Andrés Pico and John Frémont to sign.
Whatever was once there, in 1900 Bavarian Isaias W Hellman, almost 30 years after he founded the Farmers and Merchants Bank, bought Andrés Pico's old home, destroyed it and built a one-story brick business block. (The adobe was only one of two left facing the Plaza. The last, the Olvera adobe, fell in 1917.) Lithuanian Moses Srere bought the building in 1920 upon Hellman's death, selling it the next year to respected businessman Quon How Shing. Quon kept it until it was acquired by the State of California in 1954. It is now known as the Hellman Quon Building.
1918:
california state archive/el pueblo
1920s "Hydropura":
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson
|
1920s "Coca Cola":
lapl
1924:
MR (detail)
n.d. Looking NNE from Sanchez Street (named in 1861 for Sheriff Tomas Alvia Sanchez, a lieutenant of Commander Pico's in the 40s, who owned much of the land it was built on):
lapl
1949 "Plaza Cafe":
pinterest/lapl
ca 1950 "7-Up":
hdl
1962:
hdl/palmer conner
2013:
oak tree construction
Now, 2015 (still with a tower peeking over the roof line):
city project
And again, Then (1895):
ucla/islandora depository/cc pierce
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