Rancho Los Cerritos

Open the the public
Open Wednesday through Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free.

4600 Virginia Road, Long Beach, CA 90807 Map Website
562 570-1755

1872 photo courtesy of Rancho Los Cerritos archives. The Rancho Los Cerritos adobe, built in 1844, is one of the few remaining two-story adobes still standing in southern California. It is also a National, State and Long Beach Historic Landmark. The adobe is a combination of Mexican and American building elements frequently called "Monterey Colonial." Thomas Larkin in Monterey, California pioneered the style in the 1830s. Larkin, like the builder of the Cerritos adobe, John Temple, was an American faced with the need to adapt East Coast housing styles to available labor and materials.

The primary building material in Mexican California was adobe. Rancho Los Cerritos was built with two and three foot thick walls, mud-plastered and then whitewashed with a lime mixture. The sun- dried bricks, made by local Indian laborers, weighed as much as 55 pounds each, and were constructed from sand, water and the local soil, which contained clay. The bricks were formed in wooden molds, then left flat to cure for several days before being turned on their sides for a thorough drying in the sun. The whole process took at least a month.

Photo by Eliza Boné

Temple's layout was typical of more affluent Mexican ranch homes, with three wings in a U-shape enclosed on the fourth side with a high wall to create an inner courtyard. The two-story central wing and the double high verandas were American influences. So, too, was Temple's installation of an indoor staircase in the central hallway, double-hung windows with glass panes in the main portion of the house, and redwood floors in the main living space. The lumber was shipped from Monterey.

A major remodel of Rancho Los Cerritos occurred in 1930/31 as Llewellyn Bixby, Sr. chose to modernize the building and live there with his family. When Bixby began his renovation, he selected C.T. McGrew & Sons as his contractor, who in turn hired a young architect named Kenneth Wing, Sr. (1901-1986) to design the project.

The current red tile roof, sunporch, courtyard, fireplaces, electricity, plumbing and heating date to 1930/31. These changes were the result of an architectural style popular in the 1920s and 30s: "Mission Revival." The style was inspired by a renewed interest in California's Spanish/Mexican heritage and borrowed heavily from Mission architecture. The landscaping was redesigned in 1931 by Ralph D. Cornell.

Two important 1930 technologies still affect the adobe. First, innovative "concrete bond beams" were added to give the adobe walls seismic strength. As a result, the 1933 Long Beach earthquake did little damage to the house. Second, walls were covered with wire mesh and coated with 1˝-2 inch thick cement stucco and plaster. Concrete slabs were poured beneath the floors and directly adjacent to the building. These steps were meant to eliminate the need for periodic maintenance of the adobe walls. The long-term result, however, was that water absorbed by the walls could not evaporate. Especially near the base of the walls, which have no foundation, the wire mesh has rusted and become detached, and some of the saturated adobe blocks are in danger of melting.

Rancho Los Cerritos' comprehensive master plan will serve as a guide for site development and interpretation, and will address building and landscape restoration, maintenance, educational programming, visitor amenities and staff/collections needs. The plan will also establish priorities for phased physical development. In phase I, commencing in 2001, the adobe structure will be retrofitted to meet current seismic codes. Construction will also include sensitive modifications to accommodate the disabled.

Special thanks to Eliza Boné, Public Relations/Marketing Coordinator of Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site for her generous assistance.

SEO by Tickets3D.com