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Many Southern California motorists who commute daily along the heavily traveled San Diego Freeway through southwestern Los Angeles are probably unaware they pass a hidden historic landmark. To the west of the freeway between the southbound exits of La Tijera and La Cienega Boulevards, a 157 year old adobe structure stands upon a bluff well concealed by a fence, trees and shrubbery. In the quiet residential neighborhood of Westchester, the adobe is a part of a small park located at 7634 Midfield Avenue. Well-kept homes border the park to the north, south, and west. This modified adobe house does not show its age. Its shake roof and redwood-paneled outer wall covering seems to blend well with its modern residential surroundings. Driving past the front of the place, one would hardly notice this hidden historic site.
Known as the "Centinela Adobe", this ranch house is considered to be one of the most magnificently preserved smaller adobes in Los Angeles County. It was built in 1834 by Don Ignacio Machado and was the headquarters of over 25,000 acres of ranch land. The Centinela Adobe is considered the "Birthplace of Inglewood", the modern city which was formed upon the land grant known as "Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela". The old house and accompanying acreage passed through many hands over the years. One owner was of Scottish royalty and another was a Confederate General during the American Civil War.
Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela was formerly granted to Ignacio Machado in 1844. When translated, Aguaje de la Centinela means, "The Gathering Waters of the Sentinel". The area was named by early Spanish settlers at the beginning of the nineteenth century. After the founding of the pueblo of Los Angeles in 1781, the townspeople used the area as public pastureland for their cattle. This prime grazing land was about eight miles southwest of the pueblo and only four miles east of Santa Monica Bay. This location made livestock extremely vulnerable to attack or theft of pirates and privateers who were pillaging the coast of Spanish California in the early nineteenth century. The early settlers stationed sentinels in the area to guard the cattle. There was a hill in the vicinity, which the Spanish called "La Centinela". It had a commanding view of the Centinela Valley below. Bubbling springs, from a deep-water basin located 150 feet underground, began at the top of this hill. The Spanish named the springs "Aguaje de la Centinela" after the sentinel that stood guard upon the lonely hilltop.
Centinela Springs, with its abundance of clean artesian water was the principle fresh water source in the area dating back to the Ice Age. Prehistoric animals drank from these springs. Evidence substantiating this was uncovered during excavations for the creation of Inglewood's Centinela Park. The fossilized remains of these ancient creatures were discovered along the beds of streams created by the springs. Ancient Indian artifacts were also found during these diggings. The springs, which no longer flow to the surface, originated from a site in the central section of the green gentle slopes of Centinela Park. The old springs flowed west in the form of a small stream, crossing beneath today's La Cienega Boulevard it headed northwest and for approximately one mile it ran parallel San Diego Freeway along the east side. It eventually became a tributary to La Ballona Creek, which flowed out to the sea. The rivulet created by Centinela Springs quietly passed directly below the hill where Don Machado constructed his adobe. The high ground with a vast panoramic view and the proximity to the fresh water spring probably influenced Machado's decision of where he was to build his home.
Currently, Centinela Springs is still flowing and is pumped below ground by the Inglewood Water Department for the city's use. The springs are commemorated by a granite drinking fountain in Centinela Park, near the swimming pool. A monument stands next to the fountain with a plaque placed there by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Historical Society of Centinela Valley on October 9, 1970. Centinela Springs is registered as California Historical Landmark #363. Centinela Park is at 700 Warren Lane in Inglewood.
Long before the arrival of the Spanish, Native American Indians were attracted to the area by the gushing waters of the life-giving springs. Gabrielino Indians, as they were called by the Spanish because they lived within the jurisdiction of Mission San Gabriel, first settled the region in rancherias, or villages. Below the bluffs of present day Loyola University, one such rancheria existed along the southern swampy banks of Ballona Creek well into the late nineteenth century. This site later became Hughes Aircraft Company owned by the late billionaire Howard Hughes. Archaeologists have discovered remains of at least fourteen villages along Ballona Creek and the cliff tops to the south. It is possible that any one of these fourteen settlements could have been the traditional Gabrielino village known to them as "Sa-an" or "Sa-angna". In Bernice Eastman Johnston's book; "California's Gabrielino Indians", she recorded; "We may be certain there were many other (villages) on high places overlooking pools and streams such as those the Spanish called "La Centinela" and the "Rodeo de las Aguas". The farther inland they lay, the less was life attuned to the moods of the sea" . These first inhabitants were hunters and gatherers; and they depended on the fresh water springs of Centinela Hill for their survival.
The 2,200 acre Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela was carved out of the much larger Rancho Sausal Redondo (Ranch of the Circular Willow Grove) which covered originally 22,458 acres. In 1822, Antonio Ignacio Avila obtained a permit from the newly empowered Mexican government, which gained control when it won its independence from Spain the previous year. The permit allowed Avila to construct a corral and graze cattle on the land he called Sausal Redondo, which was situated along the coast between Rancho La Ballona and Rancho San Pedro. Public lands belonging to the pueblo of Los Angeles bordered the property to the east. In time the cities of Redondo Beach, Inglewood, Hawthorne, El Segundo, Lawndale, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, as well as the communities of Westchester and Lennox, evolved from this large rancho.
Like the Indians before him, Antonio Ignacio Avila selected the hills near Centinela Springs as his homesite. In 1826, he built a small adobe house near what is now the baseball diamond at Centinela Park. It was built to comply with the Mexican law, which stipulated that a house must be built within one year upon a grant of land to establish residency. Don Antonio was a wealthy ranchero known throughout Southern California, as was his brother, Francisco Avila, who owned nearby Rancho Las Cienegas. It was Francisco Avila who built the famous Avila Adobe in 1818 on historic Olvera Street in Los Angeles.
Don Antonio was the first to non-Indian settle the area, but he initially failed to formally apply for title to the rancho. According to Spanish law the acreage was still available for public use by the citizens of the pueblo for farming and grazing livestock. One settler from the pueblo, Ignacio Machado, took advantage of the loophole and began cultivating the land just west of Centinela Springs. Ignacio Machado arrived in Los Angeles in 1781 as one of the "leather jacket soldiers" assigned to escort the original pobladores (settlers) of the pueblo.
Don Machado, already was one of the four co-owners of the 14,000-acre Rancho La Ballona, which bordered Rancho Sausal Redondo to the north. Much of La Ballona became the majority of Culver City, the southern half of Santa Monica and the Los Angeles districts of Palms, Mar Vista, Venice, and Marina Del Rey. Machado was granted La Ballona in 1839, along with his brother, Agustin Machado, Felipe Talamantes and Tomas Talamantes. The latter two were father and son respectively.
Ignacio Machado may have contemplated the possibility of not being able to provide adequate financial support for his large family. His family, consisting of his wife, Estefana Palomares de Machado , his mother, four sons and four young nephews, had to rely upon the income from a quarter share of Rancho La Ballona. So in search for more land, Machado moved to what he thought was public land in 1833. He settled in the canyon west of Centinela Springs, a place upon which he had been making vast improvements for at least five years prior. In 1836, he formally petitioned for approximately 2,200 acres located within the northeast section of Rancho Sausal Redondo, which was not being used at the time by Antonio Avila. The Mexican government granted Machado provisional title to the land he called Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela. This action prompted Avila to officially apply for title to Sausal Redondo, which he previously neglected to do. Avila viewed Machado as a squatter, and after several years of litigation over the right to use the land and boundary disputes, the Mexican government deemed that Avila was the first to settle the area. In 1837, the 22,458-acre Rancho Sausal Redondo was confirmed to Avila by Governor Juan B. Alvarado. However, Don Machado was allowed to retain his Rancho Centinela.
After Machado settled in the Centinela Valley, he planted fields of corn and cultivated vineyards that produced over 7,000 vines per harvest. Within a year after receiving Rancho Centinela, he constructed the existing adobe ranch house for his family. The original single story structure perched atop a hill overlooking a Centinela Creek consisted of only three rooms. The dense walls were made from sun-baked adobe formed into bricks. The windows were recessed deep into the walls and the ceilings were low. It had a wood shake roof that was weatherproofed by asphaltum from the La Brea Pits located six miles to the north.
Ignacio Machado waited ten years for the approval of his land grant. In 1844 the Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela was confirmed by Governor Manuela Micheltorena. The official boundaries of the rancho in relation to modern landmarks are indicated in the following manner:
Commencing from a point near the San Diego Freeway where it crosses Centinela Avenue, an eastward line roughly paralleled Centinela Avenue to the north, continuing past Hyde Park Boulevard to the center of Centinela Park (at the springs). From Centinela Springs, a southwesterly line cut through the city of Inglewood to the athletic field of Inglewood High School. From here a line headed due south to the west of Grevillea Avenue and on to a point just short of Arbor Vitae Street. From this point the boundary cut back in a northwesterly direction to a spot located mid-block on 83rd Street between Alverstone and Kentwood Avenues in Westchester. The line continued in a northerly direction paralleling Sepulveda Boulevard to the west and terminated back at the beginning.
Today, equal portions of Westchester and Inglewood lay within these boundaries. The Machado adobe was situated at the center of this relatively small land grant.
Unfortunately, Don Machado enjoyed formal ownership of Centinela for only one year. It was in 1845 when he made an unusual business deal with a member of the Avila family. Bruno Avila, one of five prominent sons of Cornelio Avila, owned a modest adobe town house near present-day 7th and Alameda Streets in the pueblo of Los Angeles. It was a three-room structure on a small tract of land with a fenced in vineyard. Don Machado traded his entire rancho, including the adobe hacienda, for Bruno Avila's little pueblo property. It was not a straight trade though, and Don Machado had to "sweeten the deal" by throwing in two, twenty gallon barrels of homemade aguardiente (brandy). It may seem that Don Machado may have drank too much of his aguardiente before he made this transaction, which would be unbelievable by today's standards. But, at the time, a small house near the plaza of the pueblo was worth more than a remote 2,200-acre rancho with a house of equal size. So the trade was actually considered fair.
Bruno Avila moved into the Centinela adobe and went into the business of raising cattle on the land, which was adjacent to his brother's Rancho Sausal Redondo. Within ten years, Bruno accumulated several thousand head of cattle. After the Mexican War an influx of Americans came to California, especially after the Gold Rush of 1849. Bruno Avila found the American way of business to be extremely foreign to him, as did most Mexican landowners. Either due to necessity or improvidence, Avila on two separate occasions mortgaged his rancho. In 1854 he borrowed $400 from John G. Downey and agreed to pay six- percent interest per month, or seventy-two percent per year, which was the standard lending rate at the time for private loans. The following year he borrowed $1400 from Hillard P. Dorsey at a similar interest rate. Avila, who put up Rancho La Centinela for collateral, was unable to repay the loans and subsequently lost his rancho in 1857. The land was seized and auctioned off at a Sheriff's sale in Los Angeles.
An American named Hillard P. Dorsey was the highest bidder and purchased the rancho for $2,000, or less than one dollar an acre. Dorsey was a veteran of the Mexican War. He was originally from the southern part of the United States and came to Los Angeles in 1853 where he pioneered in walnut cultivation. President Benjamin Pierce appointed Dorsey to register in the United States Land Commission Office in Los Angeles, a position he held until May 1857. Along with a group of prominent community leaders, he formed the first Masonic Lodge (#42) in Los Angeles and was the first "Worshipful Master" of the order on May 16, 1854.
Hillard Dorsey was known throughout California as an individual with a fierce temper and was heralded as a gunslinger. Having several notches carved into his gun, they indicating all the kills credited to him. He was not a bad man with evil intentions; he was a man of extreme honor in a lawless time when dueling was a common method of protecting such honor. In September 1854, Dorsey and Rasey Biven, a U.S. Indian Agent from Stockton, California, were involved in a physical altercation at the Bella Union Hotel in Los Angeles. The two men agreed to meet on the "Field of Honor" later that month in Oakland. The duel took place as agreed and both parties were injured by the first round of gunfire. Dorsey sustained a single wound to the abdomen and his opponent was struck in the left forearm. They were stopped from inflicting more harm to each other by local authorities and were arrested. The charges were eventually dropped, but the incident caused Dorsey to be expelled from the Masons. The reason for expulsion was for engaging in a duel with a fellow Mason, namely Rasey Biven.
Dorsey's tumultuous disposition ultimately caused his untimely demise. He was married to a woman named Civility Rubbottom. Her father, William Rubbottom, settled in El Monte in 1853 and became one of the founders of the settlement of Spadra, near Pomona. Rubbottom was furious over Dorsey's poor treatment of his beloved daughter and the two became involved in a verbal dispute at Rubbottom's home in El Monte. The quarrel turned violent when Dorsey armed himself with a knife and charged at his father-in-law. Rubbottom, in self-defense, shot and killed Dorsey.
After Dorsey's death in 1858, his widow, Civility, sold Rancho La Centinela at a mere thirty-five cents an acre. The total she received was $630, taking nearly a $1,500 loss. The buyer was a man named Francis J. Carpenter, who held the position of city jailer in Los Angeles in 1857. The drastic drop in the value of the property was due to an illegal squatter living there named Fernando Ayala. Fernando Ayala was the son-in-law of the prior owner, Bruno Avila. Ayala claimed that Avila gave him permission to settle on Rancho Centinela. A clause in Carpenter's deed stipulated that he, as part of the consideration, was to "run off and dispossess" Ayala . Carpenter was successful in evicting the squatter and that caused the value of the land to increase back to one dollar an acre.
Carpenter immediately turned around and sold La Centinela for $3,000 to Joseph Lancaster Brent, one of the rancho's most illustrious owners. Brent was a southerner from Maryland and was a veteran of the Mexican War. He came to Los Angeles in 1850 at age thirty and started a law practice. Don Ygnacio del Valle, owner of Rancho San Francisco, rented out two rooms of his home on the plaza to the young lawyer. The house on Los Angeles Street faced the plaza and was located next door to the Lugo family adobe. Brent used one of the rooms for his attorney's office and the other was for lodging.
Brent specialized in land law and became well known for his defense of rancheros against the annoying squatters, boundary disputes and other circumstances threatening their land claims. He often presented cases for the ranch owners in State and Federal Courts. Brent once told long time friend and fellow lawyer, James A. Watson; "Land was becoming the state's new gold rush. Opportunities were great for attorney's skilled in the intricacies of land law."
Brent's forecast of things to come eventually proved to be true. His law practice grew in leaps and bounds, enabling him to purchase his own ranchos, including La Centinela. Brent represented many of the prominent and wealthy Californio families in their claims to land titles. He brought claims before the United States Land Commission on behalf of the Dominguez family of Rancho San Pedro, the Verdugos' of Rancho San Rafael, the Yorbas' of Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, the Lugos' of Rancho San Antonio, Hugo Reid of Rancho Santa Anita and Pio Pico, who owned several ranchos. Some of the old Dons or their heirs were unable to pay the costly legal fees and ended up giving Brent a portion of their land holdings in lieu of a cash payment. He also represented the pueblo of Los Angeles for the claim to the original pueblo lands consisting of 17,172 acres. He would receive $6,000 if the pueblo's claim was accepted by the District Court and an additional $3,000 if the claim was confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The title for the original Pueblo de Los Angeles was confirmed in February 1856 and a United States Patent was secured on December 28, 1869.
Brent quickly established a good reputation and gained the trust of the Mexican landowners in Southern California when he tried one his first cases. In January 1851, two grandsons of Don Antonio Maria Lugo, the owner of Rancho San Antonio, were charged with a double murder. They were accused of slaying two cattle rustlers whom they suspected of stealing stock from their father's Rancho San Bernardino. Brent, well versed in the area of jurisprudence, was able to obtain acquittals for the two teen-aged boys. He was paid $20,000 for his services by the Lugo family.
Joseph Brent was a man of versatility. Aside from his scholarly nature, he had a taste for adventure. He became a member of a group of hearty men known as the Rangers. The Rangers, led by A.W. Hope, were brave vigilantes who were armed, mounted and formed posses to search for dangerous fugitives on the run. The organization was comparable to the famous Texas Rangers. Often their pursuits of desperate criminals led them through some rugged and unfriendly mountain and desert territory. Southern California in Joseph Brent's day, was every bit as wild and lawless as depicted in the old westerns created much later by Hollywood filmmakers. The Rangers were often the last line of defense against crime because organized law enforcement did not come about until the late 1860s.
Socially, Brent became quite active among the Californios. Often, he was invited to attend fiestas, balls, and fandangos. He related well with the Latino populace in and around Los Angeles. He befriended a business client, Manuel Dominguez, whose immense Rancho San Pedro south of the pueblo became one of his favorite retreats. He was equally sociable with his fellow Anglos who were newcomers to California. Like Hillard P. Dorsey, he became a member of Lodge #42 of the Masonic Order.
Another one of Brent's talents was his flare for politics. He was a dedicated member of the Democratic Party. The Democrats formed a strong political foundation in Los Angeles in the 1850s and 1860s, especially among the Californios and the Americans from southern states. In July 1852, California's first Democratic Party convention was held in Benicia, in the northern part of the state. Brent attended and was selected as an alternate elector to cast a vote for Franklin Pierce, the Democrat candidate for the President of the United States. California electorates voted for Pierce in December 1852 and he became the nation's 14th President.
In the summer of 1853, Joseph Brent was appointed State School Commissioner. During the general election of September 1855, he was elected to the State Assembly as a Democrat from Los Angeles. He served on the Assembly until 1857. In 1856, he was selected as a delegate to attend the National Democratic Convention to support James Buchanan for President. Brent was such an influential power in California politics in the 1850s that he later credited himself by stating; "No one could be elected whom I did not support, and no one defeated whom I befriended". Brent could have had a promising political career if he continued, but he decided to pursue ranching and return to his lucrative law practice.
During the first year of his ownership of Rancho La Centinela, Brent was away at Washington, D.C.; working diligently to get all the land claims confirmed which he filed earlier in the decade. He returned home to La Centinela in February 1859, but remained only a few years. Brent made another attempt at politics and was an influential force during the election of 1861. That same year the nation was ripped apart by a bloody Civil War. The majority of Californians were in support of the Confederacy, especially Democrats. A subversive organization known as the Knights of the Golden Circle formed to get California to succeed from the Union and create an independent Pacific Republic. Organizers of the group approached Brent on several occasions asking him to lead them in their cause. He adamantly refused each time he was asked.
Brent, a Confederate sympathizer, felt that the best way to serve the Confederacy was to return to the South and assist their efforts first hand. Maintaining a professional obligation to his clients, Brent spent several weeks concluding all remaining business, including the sale of Rancho La Centinela. When General Sumner of the Union army learned of Brent's plan to go and fight for the Confederacy, he intended to have him arrested for his disloyalty. Brent planed to board a New York bound steamship in San Francisco, jump ship along the way, and flee to a Southern controlled port. However, General Sumner had Brent arrested and imprisoned in New York. He was held captive for a short time and was soon released by an order from President Abraham Lincoln.
Brent immediately went to New Orleans where he joined Confederate forces. By 1862, he achieved the rank of Brigadier General and served as an aid to General Robert E. Lee. He was in the company of Lee when the defeated old warrior surrendered to General Ulysses Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia on April 8, 1865. This event ended the American Civil War. After the war, Brent resided in Louisiana and eventually returned to his home state of Maryland. He was known to be still living there in 1901.
The next owner of Rancho La Centinela was a man of European nobility. Sir Robert Burnett was a Scottish baron from Crathes Castle, in Banchory, Scotland. In the late 1850s, while touring California, he came upon the lands of La Centinela and was instantly attracted by its natural charm. Burnett purchased the rancho from Brent in 1860 for $3,000. It was the same price Brent paid for the property two years prior. Burnett and his wife, Lady Matilda Josephine Burnett, a native of New York, moved into the modest Centinela adobe.
It was quite a change in living standards, going from a Scottish Castle to a three room house of mud and straw, but Burnett put forth a great deal of effort into improving the casa and the surrounding ranch. His first improvement began with the second eviction of Fernando Ayala, the squatter who was first removed from the land by Francis Carpenter. Evidently the persistent trespasser made another attempt to make La Centinela his home. After he was ousted by Burnett, Fernando Ayala returned to the pueblo where he found work as a tortilla maker. As time passed, Ayala grew discouraged with his life in California and returned to his native home in Sonora, Mexico.
Other enhancements contributed to the rancho by Burnett are the placement of wood shake roofing to the adobe and the covering of the dirt floor with one of wood. He built brick fireplaces and added a kitchen to the house. He may have been responsible for adding a second story to the south side of the adobe. Burnett constructed a windmill and began general cultivation of the surrounding area. The nearby springs provided nourishment for Burnett's vegetable garden and vineyards. Sir Robert also bought the neighboring Rancho Sausal Redondo for $30,000, increasing his land holding to 25,000 acres. Burnett used the Sausal Redondo to raise sheep because the land there was considered to dry for farming. Burnett's flocks grew to an overwhelming 24,000 head.
The Burnetts were societal leaders and graciously entertained many important personalities at the Centinela adobe. But after thirteen years of the romantic rancho lifestyle in Southern California, the Burnetts decided to return to Scotland and to Crathes Castle following the death of Sir Robert's brother. In 1969, Ms. Lila Fernyhough visited on of Burnett's descendants at the old Scottish castle. During the visit she was given two original paintings of Sir Robert and brought them back to the United States. These portraits are currently on display at the Centinela adobe.
In 1873, Burnett leased his two ranchos to a Canadian born man named Daniel Freeman. The lease consideration was for $7,500 a year with the option to buy the properties. A further stipulation included that Freeman would have to carry out Burnett's original intention of planting thousands of various fruit trees. Freeman was a lawyer who was born in 1837. He and his wife, Catherine Higginson Freeman, and their three children arrived in Southern California in 1873. They were attracted to the area after reading, "California, Land of Health, Pleasure and Residence", a popular book by Charles Nordhoff which contained positive features of the local environment. The book described California's warm Mediterranean climate and Freeman figured it would be therapeutic for his wife who was in poor health, suffering from tuberculosis. Mrs. Freeman lived at the rancho for only a year and died in 1874.
Like Burnett before him, Freeman utilized the land for sheep ranching. It was a profitable business for a few years, but the drought of 1875-1876 brought on disastrous results. About 22,000 head of Freeman's sheep died in that period. Looking for other means of income, Freeman attempted dry farming in 1875. He planted fields of wheat and barley, which turned out to be a wise move leading to financial success. By 1880, Freeman was shipping a million bushels of grain a year to New York City and to Liverpool, England. At this time, over 22,000 acres of his property were under cultivation. On Rancho La Centinela, Freeman maintained vast orchards and raised horses, which he would periodically race along a trail that was to become Hillcrest Boulevard in Inglewood.
The Centinela adobe was the Freeman home and primary headquarters of his prosperous empire. In 1882, Freeman paid Sir Robert Burnett $22,243 for a portion of both ranchos. Later, with his business on a continuous upward trend, he was able to make a final payment of $140,000 in gold coin for acquisition of the combined 25,000 acres. Within twenty-five years the land increased in value from one dollar an acre to $4.25 an acre, leaving the Burnetts with a tremendous profit. The final papers for the sale of the two ranchos were signed in London on May 4, 1885 and Daniel Freeman officially became the owner of Rancho La Centinela.
The Centinela Valley remained sparsely settled for several years with the exception of a few tenant farmers and Freeman's ranch hands. The Land Boom of the 1880s in Los Angeles County changed the profile of the valley drastically. Promoters from Los Angeles sought the potential for land development and wanted to plat a townsite near Centinela Springs. In 1887, the Centinela-Inglewood Land Company was formed and began surveying the two ranches belonging to Daniel Freeman in August of that year. Freeman, interested in the long-term plans of the organization, sold 11,000 acres of his prime orchard land to the company at $1.25 an acre. This tract was to become the city of Inglewood.
The Centinela-Inglewood Land Company initially named the development Centinela Colony. They divided parcels of land into 20, 40, 80 and 160-acre plots. Residential lots were priced between $200 and $750 a piece. Farmland was offered at $200 to $400 an acre, and fine orchard property was listed between $600 to $1500 per acre. Centinela Colony was one of the most successful of the land boom subdivisions with the developers procuring over $1,000,000 in capital by 1888. In the first year of its existence, the incredible amount of $20,000 was spent for advertising alone. Local real estate moguls of the era were among the Board of Directors of the land company including: Dan McFarland, Edward C. Webster, L.T. Garnsey and Leonard J. Rose, the founder of Rosemead, California.
In 1887 a railroad was completed linking Los Angeles to Santa Monica Bay. This line was constructed by California Central Railroad (forerunner of Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe) and coursed through the center of Freeman's ranchos. Known as the Los Angeles and Ballona Branch, it had a depot built at Centinela Colony. Another rail line was extended to Redondo Beach from the Centinela Station. In 1888, the Centinela-Inglewood Land Company merged with land promoters from Redondo and reorganized under the name of Redondo Beach and Centinela-Inglewood Land Company.
By 1888, all lots for the young town were occupied and two business blocks were completed. The name of the town was changed from Centinela to "Inglewood", named for Daniel Freeman's Canadian hometown. Construction was underway for a stately, elegant hotel. One of Freeman's barns was used as one of the first schools in Inglewood. Population of the town was 300 at the Boom's peak in 1888. Plans for a college of applied sciences, with emphasis in farming and agriculture was in the making. The college was to be operated by the University of Southern California (USC). Daniel Freeman donated $600,000 to the University, with $100,000 of it designated for construction of the buildings.
When Freeman designed the Inglewood plat, he selected for himself sixty acres near Centinela Springs to be used as his new manor. He started building a grand three-story Victorian mansion on the site in 1888. It was completed the following year. When finished, the Freeman's left the primitive Centinela adobe to occupy their new lavish home. The site of the Freeman mansion was at 333 N. Prairie Avenue, Inglewood. The old adobe served as the residence of Freeman's mayordomo (ranch manager) until 1912.
In 1889, a huge financial crash brought an end to the Great Land Boom. The collapse proved devastating for most real estate developments in Southern California and some towns were propelled into oblivion. Inglewood fared better than most, but still felt the harmful effects. The newly completed hotel went bankrupt without it ever being furnished and plans for Daniel Freeman's college were scrapped permanently. In 1890, Freeman repossessed all lots that the land company was unable to sell, yet the town of Inglewood survived and continued to grow. It incorporated as a city in 1908 with a population of 1,200. From 1920 to 1925, Inglewood was the fastest growing city in the United States.
Daniel Freeman continued selling town lots until 1912, when the Los Angeles Extension Company purchased the last 4,000 acres surrounding the old adobe. The company proceeded to subdivide the land into small farms available for lease. Eventually this area evolved into the community of Westchester and was annexed to the city of Los Angeles on June 16, 1917. During this period the Centinela adobe was transformed from a home into an exclusive riding academy.
Daniel Freeman was a multi-faceted individual being a lawyer, farmer, rancher, educator, land developer, businessman and philanthropist. Freeman, "The Father of Inglewood", died on September 28, 1918 in the town he founded thirty years earlier. His daughter, Grace Freeman Howland, who spent her childhood at the Centinela adobe, lived in the Freeman Mansion on Prairie Avenue until her own death in 1956. She donated land near the home where the Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital was built. Near the hospital grounds are Grace Avenue and Howland Drive, named in honor of Mrs. Howland. The Freeman Mansion was demolished in 1972.
In 1923, Martha Crawford, the wife of a Los Angeles Extension Company executive, Charles Crawford, moved into the adobe with their two children. For 25 years, Mrs. Crawford resided here and maintained the aged structure. The east side of the house was used as the main entrance. Prior to construction of the freeway, the adobe was accessible from Redondo Beach Boulevard (now Florence Avenue) via a long private driveway aligned with flowers and trees. During her occupation of the place, Mrs. Crawford operated a nursery school here and opened the house to the public periodically, hosting several small social events. In 1937, she had the Centinela adobe placed in the National Register of Historic Places and recorded in the Library of Congress. In 1949, Martha Crawford vacated the adobe and the casa was subsequently rented to a succession of families.
The ensuing years left the adobe dwelling in a tragic state of disrepair, until a group of local residents purchased the building in 1950. This group, known as La Casa de la Centinela Adobe Association, began restoration efforts. They plastered the inside walls and applied a stucco coating over exposed adobe brick outside. The old roof was replaced with a wood shake roof, replicating the one that existed during the Burnett ownership. The Association received numerous donations of Victorian era furnishings to fill the rooms of the house.
The Centinela adobe was deeded to the city of Inglewood in 1956 and was maintained by the Inglewood Department of Parks and Recreation, although the property is actually within the city limits of Los Angeles. The old adobe is important to Inglewood and is recognized as the birthplace of the city. In 1965, the Centinela Adobe Association joined with the Historical Society of Centinela Valley. The organization provided the adobe with volunteer resident docents to keep it open to the public as a historic showplace. Today the Centinela adobe is managed by the historical society and still maintained by the Inglewood Parks and Recreation Department. It is open to the public for tours. For history buffs, it is a remarkable site to be explored.
As you enter the ground from the east side of quiet Midfield Avenue, you will proceed up a slight hill upon the semi-circular driveway leading to the front of the house. The grass covered front yard originally was the rear courtyard. Here, two large olive trees planted by early Spanish settlers in the 1840s shades the area from the bright sun. Various small bushes, including yucca plants and roses, border the front corredor (an open roof covered porch) of the house. The original adobe was much larger in size and in the latter part of the nineteenth century it had a wood frame second level, which eventually was destroyed by fire. Three rooms remain today: the living room, bedroom, and kitchen. As you tour the house, note the thickness of the adobe walls and the recessed windows, which is quite typical of a casa of its era.
The living room has a varnished wood floor covered by a rust colored rug. The Victorian style furniture in this room is reminiscent to the period when the Freeman's lived at the adobe. Several photos and paintings in this room depict former owners of the rancho. Some show the pastoral rancho life of yesterday. An antique square grand piano stands in one corner and along the east wall, there is an old fashion brick fireplace. Many important people were entertained in this room.
The kitchen contains many interesting items, including a colonial style handmade brick oven installed by Robert Burnett. Indoor ovens were uncommon in the adobe days, as much of the cooking was done in outdoor "bee-hive" ovens called hornos. Beside the oven, sits a spinning wheel that is over 250 years old. The old copper sink dates back to 1905. It is still functional and used today. The bedroom has nineteenth century furnishings and other articles of that time. Here, a leather storage trunk, once owned by the Machados, rests near the bed.
Out the back way, along the east side of the house, the support posts of the veranda are entwined with grapevines planted by Daniel Freeman. Within the east corredor, at its center, is the original entrance to the adobe. Looking eastward, there is a downward sloping lawn enclosed by a high fence. From here it is easy to hear the rushing sounds of traffic from the freeway below, as easy as it may have been for Don Machado to hear the calm rippling tones of Centinela Creek meandering by.
Daniel Freeman Land Office
Within the grounds, just south of the adobe, is Daniel Freeman's Land Office. Built in 1887 for the Centinela-Inglewood Land Company, it was originally located next to Inglewood's Santa Fe Railroad Station on Florence Avenue east of Eucalyptus Avenue. Here, plots were sold for the Inglewood townsite. It was moved to the Freeman mansion in 1892. On May 1, 1975, the structure was moved to its present site, adjacent to the Centinela adobe. It is a small wood frame Victorian style structure painted yellow with white trim.
The Heritage and Research Center built within the park was dedicated on May 4, 1980. It was designed to house artifacts salvaged from the Daniel Freeman mansion, which was razed in 1972. Collections of books, articles and photos about the history of Centinela Valley are displayed here.
The Centinela Adobe
7634 Midfield Ave, Westchester, CA 90045
Map
310 649-6272
Open the the public
Sundays and Wednesdays from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
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Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County © 1997 John R. Kielbasa
Unless otherwise noted, photos 