Lorendoc and I got together yesterday for a little more urban exploration, and one of our stops was Gage Mansion at 7000 East Gage in Bell Gardens. This is one of a hundred or so sites on my "Visit One Of These Days" list. I knew nothing about this place except that it was said to be the oldest standing residence in L.A. county. (Construction began either in 1771, or 1795, or some other year, depending on who we believe.)
Driving west on Gage just west of Slauson, we hoped for the best and searched the left side of the street for something resembling a 200 year old mansion. We saw a sign for 7000 E. Gage, but the property was quite the opposite of what we expected!
https://www.google.com/
We drove around the lot and saw plenty of mobile homes, but no mansions. Puzzled, and wondering if I'd typed the address wrong or if (horrors!) the building was gone, Lorendoc parked and I went to inquire to inquire at the office. After some minutes an older woman emerged, coughing profusely but determined to help me. She assured me that it was indeed there -- on the other side of the lot, behind the pink mobile home. I hopped back in the car and sure enough, there it was:
Though surrounded and partially hidden by mobile homes it really is quite large, and the term "mansion" seems fitting. Here's a satellite view, to show you what I mean. (Only in L.A. would the county's oldest house sit almost forgotten, walled off by mobile homes, right? But I'm glad it wasn't torn down.)
https://www.google.com/
Because the mansion is so tightly hemmed in it's hard to photograph, but here are a two shots of the front, and one of the rear:
This plaque near the front states:
CASA DE RANCHO SAN ANTONIO
"Contained within this building are the remaining portions of an old adobe house built by Francisco Salvador Lugo and his son Antonio Maria Lugo. Francisco Lugo was a prominent early landholder and Antonio served as the alcalde* of Los Angeles. They completed the building by 1810. Henry Tifft Gage acquired the property in 1880 and lived here from 1883 until 1924. Gage served as the governor of California from 1899 to 1903."
*magistrate
A plaque fastened to the outside of the building states that construction of the original dwelling began in 1771. (Another plaque has a small pane of glass with a section of the original adobe exterior visible behind it. I wonder to what extent this current structure resembles the 18th century house.)
The place was securely locked but after reading the note not the front door I wondered when the board meeting would be re-scheduled, and if I could pop in to see the interior.
The Los Angeles Almanac:
"The oldest remaining house in Los Angeles is the Avila Adobe located on Olvera Street (built 1818). It is not, however, the oldest remaining house in Los Angeles County. Shane Kimbler, a Bell Gardens history enthusiast, wrote to point out that early colonist Francisco Salvador Lugo and son Antonio María Lugo began construction in 1795 on what is now known as Casa de Rancho San Antonio or the Henry Gage Mansion. The house is located at 7000 East Gage Avenue in Bell Gardens. It was built to qualify the younger Lugo, a former Spanish colonial soldier, for a land grant from the Spanish crown. In 1810, Antonio María Lugo completed the house and received the grant, naming his new grant Rancho San Antonio. The ranch eventually grew to encompass 29,513 acres, including what are now the cities of Bell Gardens, Commerce, and parts of Bell, Cudahy, Lynwood, Montebello, South Gate, Vernon and East Los Angeles. When California became part of the U.S. in 1850, Lugo, as did all recipients of Spanish/Mexican land grants, began losing portions of his land to the growing population of Yankee newcomers. The ranch adobe, however, continued to be owned and used by the Lugo family.
Don Antonio María Lugo died at the age of 85 in 1860. According to Dr. Roy Whitehead in his book Lugo, "Don Antonio Maria Lugo…rode around Los Angeles and his Rancho San Antonio in great splendor. He never adopted American dress, culture or language and still spoke only Spanish. He rode magnificent horses, sitting in his $1,500 silver trimmed saddle erect and stately, with his sword strapped to the saddle beneath his left leg…People knew him far and wide, and even the Indians sometimes named their children after him, as he was one Spanish Don that they admired."
By 1865, most of the Lugo ranch, divided among five sons and three daughters, had been sold off for as little as a dollar per acre. The original adobe ranch home, however, remained in the family. In 1880, attorney Henry T. Gage, a transplant from Michigan, married one of Lugo’s great granddaughters, Francis "Fanny" Rains. The original adobe ranch home was gifted to Gage as a wedding dowry and it became known as the Gage Mansion. In 1898, Gage was elected to become Governor of California. He served in that office from 1899 to 1903. In 1910, he was appointed by President William Howard Taft to serve as U.S. Minister to Portugal. He resigned after only one year due to his wife’s health problems. Gage lived in the abode ranch house until his death in 1924.
A century later, the Gage Mansion was all that remained of the once great Rancho San Antonio. In 1983, the Casa Mobile Home Park, a cooperative of mobile home owners renting lots on the property, purchased the land and the house from their ailing landlord. Although they were aware of the historical significance of the old house, they had no means of maintaining it. In 1987, then Bell Gardens City Councilwoman Letha Wiles began working to get the house listed on the state historical registry, making it eligible for maintenance grants. It is now listed as California Historical Site Number 984."
http://www.laalmanac.com
I couldn't find any images of Gage Mansion other than this L.A. Times piece, dated 7-24-39. If anyone has any old photos, would love to see them.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...-mansion-.html
Images mine except where noted.