Last Sunday lorendoc and I visited some historic sites in the Pomona Valley. This region of Southern California became settled in the early 1800's, owing to its proximity to the Butterfield Stage route. (Following a similar route, the Southern Pacific Railroad was built through the area in the 1870's.) For travelers from points east, this was one of the last halts before Pueblo De Los Angeles.
Pomona had the world's fist high voltage transmission line (built to power a local water pump), and the first automated telephone switchboard west of the Mississippi. A few adobes and other old structures survive, some open to the public on a limited basis.
Our first stop was the Phillips
Mansion at 2640 W. Pomona Blvd., ca. 1875. (The now-industrial area is the former site of Spadra, which preceded Pomona.) The builder, Louis Phillips, who by the 1890's was the wealthiest man in Los Angeles County. Per Wikipedia:
The Phillips Mansion was built in 1875 at a cost of over $20,000. It has been described as having been built in the "Second Empire" or "Classic Haunted Mansion architectural style." It was built with 3-foot-thick (0.91 m) walls, 16-foot (4.9 m) ceilings and six fireplaces. The bricks were made at the site by Joseph Mulally of Los Angeles. With its use of a mansard roof, some have described it as being "in the style of the New Orleans French homes." Another writer noted that it "looks as if it had been lifted bodily from the tree-lined street of a midwestern county seat," the "kind of house the banker of such a town would build for himself." The interior of the mansion is finished in cherry and maple wood that was hauled by horse and wagon from San Pedro. The mansion represented a number of firsts in the Pomona Valley, including the following:
The first home built with fired bricks.
The first home fitted with gas lighting.
The first example of mansard roof architecture.
The building is only open for special events, and surrounded by fencing -- we were unable to go inside. It was damaged by the Upland and Sierra Madre earthquakes but has seen extensive renovation work, and looks to be in quite good condition these days.
Another historic structure, the Currier House, is located behind the Phillips
Mansion. A. T. Currier was elected Sheriff of Los Angeles County in 1881 and served as a state Senator for many years. He owned a ranch in the Pomona Valley and was one of the area's leading citizens. The Currier house was built in 1907 in City Of Industry, but was moved to the Pomona site in 2004. It is in poor condition and closed to the public. The Tobe Hooper horror film
The Mortuary was shot here.
From a small hillside just south of the site I got a decent "zoom" shot of the structures.
Next we visited Adobe de Palomares, at 419 E. Arrow Highway, the 13 room home of Don Ygnacio Palomares and his wife Dona. The family owned Ranch San Jose, which included the cities of Pomona, La Verne, San Dimas, Diamond Bar, Azusa, Covina, Walnut, Glendora, and Claremont. Construction began in 1850 and features adobe type construction, combined with milled roofing and flooring.
Don Ygnacio died in 1864 and over the years the structure disintegrated into ruins. In 1934 the Pomona Historical Society acquired the property and restored it. Adobe de Palomares has been a museum, open to the public, since 1940. The structure in in very nice condition and evokes a strong feeling of rustic, early California. A rear out-building houses a restored blacksmith shop. The museum doesn't allow interior photos, but here are two shots of the outside.
http://thebillbeaverproject.com/2011...-de-palomares/
Our final stop was Casa Primera at 1569 N. Park Avenue, less than a mile from Adobe de Palomares. This dwelling, which also belonged to Don Ygnacio, was built in 1837 and was the first home built in the area. It's in excellent condition, and also contains a small museum.
Inside the museum is an original copy of 1874 plat map showing the 15,000 acre Rancho San Jose that was deeded by Mexican Governor Juan Alvarado to Don Ygnacio Palomares and Don Ricardo Vejar. I believe that present-day Pomona would be roughly in the center.
These age, look, and general feeling of these small museums very much reminded me of the ones along Highway 395 in eastern California. I was struck that in the mid to late 1800's, Pomona was probably quite similar to desert towns like Independence, Lone Pine, and Big Pine. Of course, Pomona is now a major Los Angeles suburb crisscrossed by freeways and bears little resemblance to those rustic desert towns. Still, visiting these old adobes certainly takes one back in time, and it's a pleasant surprise to see such well preserved examples less than an hour from downtown.
There are two more sites in the area that we did not visit on this trip. La Casa Alvarado is another early adobe, built in 1840 and located at 1459 Old Settlers Lane in Pomona. There's also the Ebell Museum, at 585 E. Holt Ave. It seems to be a bit larger than the other two, but is only open Wednesday through Friday. We could only peek through the windows, but I hope to go in some time.
All photos mine, except where noted.