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Today, the William Workman Adobe at 15415 E. Don Julian Road in the City of Industry barely resembles a traditional Southern California ranch house from the 1840s. Due to major alterations in the 1870s, the house looks more like a Victorian Eastlake country home. But, beneath the high peaked gables of the roof and the walls of stone and brick exists the original adobe structure built by William Workman in 1842.
Workman and his partner, John Rowland, came to California when they led a wagon train of settlers along the Old Spanish Trail from New Mexico. Both men brought their Mexican wives and their children along the 1,200-mile journey. Almost immediately, Workman and Rowland applied for ranch land near the San Gabriel Mission. In 1842, they became co-grantees of Rancho La Puente in eastern Los Angeles County. There, the two Yankee Dons built their adobe homes within a mile from each other and worked together to improve the land which consisted of over 48,000 acres. Although, Rowland's original adobe is gone, a later brick home built by him still stands near by.
Since 1771, Rancho La Puente belonged to the San Gabriel Mission. But, for more than 1000 years before the existence of the Spanish mission, Indians occupied the plains and hills of La Puente. The Spanish named this aboriginal race, "Gabrielinos", for the San Gabriel Mission that Christianized them and brought them into the fold of the Franciscan run operation. Within the boundaries of what became Rancho La Puente the Gabrielino village of Awingna stood along the banks of San Jose Creek. Awingna, which means "Abiding Place", was a special place to the Gabrielinos in the area. It was here that a great eighteenth century chief named Matheo lived. Matheo was the ruler of several Indian rancherias in the vicinity, which was quite rare for one man to be the leader of more than one Gabrielino village. In 1774, Matheo was Christianized when he was baptized at the San Gabriel Mission. Prior to his baptism he had two wives. He was forced to choose only one woman to comply with the doctrine of his new religion. Awingna survived well into the era when Workman and Rowland acquired Rancho La Puente, but it eventually disappeared. La Puente High School at 15615 E. Nelson Avenue in the city of La Puente now stands upon the site of the extinct Gabrielino settlement.
It is very likely that inhabitants from Awingna had their first encounter with "white men" when the Portola party passed through the area. Gaspar de Portola led a land expedition from Loreto, Mexico with the objective to colonize Alta California for Spain.
On July 30, 1769, Portola camped near San Jose Creek. It is said that the party built a bridge made of poles to cross the arroyo here. The old Spanish term for bridge was "La Puente", and since then the area was known by that name.
Two years after the passage of the Portola expedition, Franciscan Padres, Angel Somera and Pedro Cambon established the San Gabriel Mission. The place known as La Puente was under the control of the mission and was used to raise vegetable crops and cattle. The cattle industry was the main source of income in the early years, with hides and tallow sold or traded to New England ships at San Pedro. In 1834, the Mexican government ordered the secularization of all California missions. This act made all mission assets, including land holdings, available for private ownership. Secularization nearly destroyed the entire mission system and almost all the church property was sold or abandoned. Rancho La Puente remained vacant for about eight years until it was claimed by Workman and Rowland.
William Workman was born in England in 1802. He came to America in 1816 at age fourteen, first settling in Missouri. Later, he moved to Taos, New Mexico, where he operated a general store. In Taos, Workman met John Rowland in 1823, and formed a partnership by going into the fur trade together. They were trappers working for the American Fur Company, owned by John Jacob Astor. The American Fur Company was the first monopoly in America and by the time Astor died in 1848, he was the richest man in the United States. John Rowland was born in Pennsylvania and later moved to Maryland. He came to New Mexico in 1823 and eventually started a flourmill in Taos. The Workman and Rowland business partnership would last forty-six years, but their friendship continued beyond that.
At the time of their arrival, New Mexico was a territory of Mexico. They both became naturalized Mexican citizens and both married Mexican women. William Workman married Nicholasa Uriarte and they had two children: Antonia Margarita, born in 1830 and Joseph, born in 1832. Workman and Rowland made a good living for themselves in their adoptive country, but by 1840, the Mexican government made it difficult for them to remain. With the advent of the Texas Revolution in 1836, Mexico became suspicious of all former Americans living in its territories. Mexican authorities suspected that Workman and Rowland were part of a conspiracy to overthrow the government in New Mexico and join the Texas cause. Possibly persecution was the main motivating factor prompting the two families to move.
Workman heard what a wonderful place California was from his friend, Kit Carson. Kit Carson, the legendary trapper and explorer made several journeys into the California frontier during the 1830s. Workman, influenced by the exciting accounts of Carson, decided that his new home should be California.
In 1841, Workman and Rowland organized a group of about twenty-five people to make the 1,200-mile trek across hazardous territory. The Rowland-Workman Party was comprised mostly of families from New Mexico and Missouri, including Benjamin Davis Wilson, who became a wealthy businessman, ranchero, and politician in Southern California. In Santa Fe, the party of immigrants formed a wagon train and took the Old Spanish Trail, which was the route traveled by Kit Carson. Although, they traversed unforgiving wilderness and desert land, the party experienced very few problems and no Indian attacks. They reached the San Gabriel Mission on
November 5, 1841. The Rowland-Workman party was the first overland wagon train to come to California beating the Bidwell-Bartelson Party, who ended up in Northern California, by just a few days.
Apparently, troubles from New Mexico followed the group to California. When the Californios (Spanish Californians) heard of the large band of gringos heading their way, they feared a possible invasion. Mexican authorities in California sent a small contingency led by Jose Castro to meet the party. Some of the tension was relieved when Rowland provided Castro with a list of the settlers and promised to obey all legal requirements of the province.
Just before arriving at the mission, Workman and Rowland passed through and admired the unclaimed land known as La Puente. In 1842, they applied for the ex-mission property under protest by Padre Duran of the San Gabriel Mission. John Rowland personally delivered the request to governor in Monterey. In February 1842, correspondences from Mexico were sent to officials in California stating that Workman and Rowland were traitors. Padre Duran used this to fuel his protest, but Governor Juan B. Alvarado was not swayed in his decision to grant Rancho La Puente to the two men. They paid $1,000 for the 48,790-acre rancho and divided it between them. The grant was confirmed to Workman and Rowland in 1845 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena.
The boundary lines of Rancho La Puente as compared to modern landmarks are as follows:
Starting at the east city limits of La Habra Heights, approximately one quarter of a mile north of the Los Angeles-Orange County line, the rancho boundary followed the city limits northeasterly, then northwesterly until it reached the Bixby firebreak. The straight line continued in a northwesterly direction paralleling the prolongation of Del Prado Drive in Hacienda Heights to Turnbull Canyon Road and Skyline Fire Road. From here, the line took a forty-five degree turn northward crossing through Rose Hills Memorial Park, Rio Hondo College, and the north edge of the Whittier Narrows Dam to the east side of Pico Rivera's Bicentennial Park. From here, a jagged line followed the old San Gabriel River bed in a northeasterly course through Bassett and Baldwin Park to Ramona Boulevard. At Ramona Boulevard the line turned eastward and followed Ramona until it changed into San Bernardino Road. It continued along the same route as San Bernardino Boulevard to Grand Avenue in Covina, where it continued along East Wingate Street to Glendora Avenue. Here, the line angled northward to the intersection of Asherton Avenue and Bellbrook Street in the Charter Oak section of Covina. From this point, a southwesterly line cut through San Dimas and through the center California State Polytechnic University at Pomona until it reached the city limit of Pomona just north of Temple Avenue. The boundary line continued southwesterly along the city limit line until it left Pomona, where it crossed the southeast part of Walnut and came to a point just northeast of Brea Canyon Road and Cheryl Lane in the City of Industry. From here, the line turned west and followed the route of Carrey Road until it reached Commerce Way in Walnut. Then a straight line due south briefly followed Lemon Avenue and the western city limits of Diamond Bar until it passed Brea Canyon Cutoff. The boundary line continued this direct course to a point a quarter mile into Orange County near the bend of North Brea Boulevard. From here, the line turned northwesterly crossing back into Los Angeles County and went on to the commencement point at the La Habra Heights city limits.
Today, the present communities of Avocado Heights, Bassett, Baldwin Park, San Dimas, Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, City of Industry, La Puente, Walnut, Covina, West Covina, and small sections of South El Monte and Irwindale are contained within the old boundaries of the 48,790 acre Rancho La Puente.
William Workman, known to the Spanish as Don Julian, built his adobe on a small knoll overlooking a valley in 1842. Indians from Ex-Mission San Gabriel assisted with the construction of the house, which looked nothing like it does today. That same year, John Rowland, also known by his Spanish name Juan Roldan, built his adobe about a half-mile east of Workman's home, near San Jose Creek. Rowland's adobe house was built close to the site of the old pole bridge (La Puente) built by the Portola party in 1769. In 1855, Rowland built a two-story brick house just a few hundred feet south of his first. This house, which was the first brick building in Southern California, was built for his second wife, Charlotte Gray Rowland. The original Rowland adobe is gone, but two ash trees and an olive tree near the south bank of the creek mark the site. They were planted by Rowland in 1850. The second brick house still stands at 16021 Gale Avenue in the City of Industry. Currently, it is a museum open to the public.
The Workman adobe, as it first appeared, was a standard Southern California adobe hacienda. It was a nineteen-foot by seventy-two foot rectangular structure with a flat "brea" (tar) covered roof. Sometime between 1843 and 1868, the house was enlarged and made into a "U" shaped building. Two, seventy-five foot long, parallel wings extended southward from the ends of the original rectangular structure. An adobe wall attached to the wings at the south formed an enclosed patio area with a large fifty-foot wide wooden gate that provided access to the house from outer perimeter. The house included a sunken indoor kitchen and two cellars, which were rare features of early adobe.
Another interesting characteristic of the house was a secret underground passageway. This subterranean tunnel was put in by Workman to be used for defense purposes. It became useful in their first years at La Puente when the Workman home was under attack by hostile Indians. The siege lasted three weeks while the Workmans safely hid in the cellar of the adobe. Unknown to the surrounding Indians, this tunnel, which from the house went several hundred feet to the northeast, provided the family an access to drinking water from the San Jose Creek nearby. After surviving the ordeal, Workman dug a water well in the cellar as part of a contingency plan for possible future raids.
In later years, when the threat of hostile Indian attacks faded, the tunnel was used primarily as a service access. Workman would send his Indian servants down into the tunnels on various errands. At the east terminus of the passageway, Workman laid out his one-acre family cemetery in 1850 upon the site of an old Indian burial ground. Don Julian's superstitious employees claimed the dark underpass was haunted as they reported seeing ghosts and witches materializing from the ground. Later, other mysterious tales about the Workman homestead surfaced with rumors of buried treasure located at the place. It is unknown for certain if such a treasure existed.
If it did, it seems to have never been found, or at least not reported to be found. In time, the underground passage linking the Workman home to the family cemetery has either been sealed of covered with earth.
Prior to 1850, Workman and Rowland constructed a pair of gristmills along San Jose Creek, with one being at the site of Portola's La Puente, near the Rowland adobe. For the next two decades, the mills served the needs of local farmers and provided Workman and Rowland a healthy income in addition to cattle ranching. Although the mills no longer exist, some reminders of their presence still remain. Workman Mill Road in the City of Industry passes the site of the early milling operation and the actual millstones were saved and have been used to construct the patio fountain of La Casa Nueva, adjacent to the Workman house.
The 1840s was an interesting and exciting decade for William Workman and John Rowland. In the first months of 1845, the two men took part in a revolt against Manuel Micheltorena, the Mexican governor of California at the time, and ironically the same individual who confirmed their title to Rancho La Puente. Micheltorena led an army from Monterey to put down the uprising formed in Los Angeles by ex-Governor Juan Alvarado, Jose Castro and the Pico brothers-Jose Andres and Pio. Don Julian was made captain of the revolutionary forces and placed in charge of about fifty expatriated Americans. John Rowland, his lieutenant, was second in command. The two opposing sides met at Cahuenga Pass about eight miles northwest of Los Angeles, on February 20, 1845. Here a minor skirmish took place.
Some comical events occurring the night before the conflict significantly reduced the volatility of the engagement. During the eve of battle, members of Workman's platoon went to Micheltorena's camp armed with large quantities of brandy. They met with Americans from the north who were supporting the governor and they drank robustly together throughout the night. As the alcohol flowed freely, Workman's men managed to persuade their intoxicated American counterparts to abandon this cause and leave the fighting to the native Californios. By morning, Micheltorena's army was depleted almost by half as he lost fifty Americans due to a lack of interest. That day, the nearly bloodless battle ended resulting in Micheltorena's decision to step down from power.
Just a few months following the Micheltorena revolt, a more joyous event happened for Workman. On September 7, 1845, his fifteen-year-old daughter, Antonia Margarita Workman, married Francis Pliney Fisk (F.P.F.) Temple. This was the first marriage in Los Angeles between two people with Anglo-Saxon sir names. F.P.F. Temple was the younger brother of ranchero and merchant, John Temple. The younger Temple, a Massachusetts native, came to Los Angeles via Cape Horn in 1841, when he was nineteen years old. He went into the mercantile business with his brother in the pueblo. No one knew that several decades later, F.P.F. Temple would unintentionally bring about the end of William Workman and Rancho La Puente.
In 1846, Governor Pio Pico began selling the California missions to finance a local defense at the start of the Mexican War. On June 8, 1846, the governor granted Ex-Mission San Gabriel, including the church and its appurtenances to William Workman and Don Hugo Reid. The pair was to split the mission's $7,000 debt as a consideration for the 500 varas by 200 varas lot, and they were to support the padres living there. Reid, an immigrant from Scotland, was the owner of Rancho Santa Anita, which was a former mission ranch like La Puente. In August 1846, American army officers from the occupying military government revoked their title to the mission. The following year Reid and Workman were made administrators of the mission. In 1855, the United States Land Commission declared the 1846 sale of the San Gabriel Mission invalid based upon the opinion that Pio Pico had no right to sell the missions. Therefore, all California missions were returned to the Catholic Church.
When the Mexican War came to California, Workman and Rowland tried to maintain a position of neutrality, but they were thrust into the hot caldron of warfare. Workman using his negotiating skills found himself involved as a peacemaker during the conflict. Rowland and a group of former Americans residing in Southern California were surrounded by Californio forces at Isaac Williams' Rancho del Chino. On September 26 and 27, 1846, the two sides exchanged volleys of gunfire. The Americans, most of whom were wounded, surrendered to the Mexicans. The Americans were taken under guard to John Temple's Rancho Los Cerritos for imprisonment. They were threatened with execution or deportation to Mexico to face charges of being traitors. William Workman negotiated with the Californios for their release, which he ultimately achieved.
In January 1847, General Stephen W. Kearny and Commodore Robert F. Stockton led a combined American force comprised of army, navy and marine personnel from San Diego. They were intent upon the recapture of Los Angeles, which fell back into Mexican hands in September 1846. On January 4, 1847, William Workman met with Commodore Stockton near Las Flores to discuss a truce between the Californians and the Americans. Stockton refused to negotiate and vowed to kill General Jose Maria Flores, the military commander-in-chief of Mexican forces in California. Workman accompanied Stockton to San Juan Capistrano, where he persuaded the commodore to issue a proclamation offering all Californios clemency, providing General Flores was delivered to him as a prisoner of war.
The Californios did not accept the conditions, and on January 8th and 9th, the Battle of San Gabriel and the Battle of La Mesa were fought respectively, a few miles southeast of Los Angeles. The victorious Americans were on the cusp of capturing the pueblo. At nine o'clock on the morning of January 10, 1847, Workman, along with Avila and Eulogio de Celis, rode out to Stockton's camp under the flag of truce in order to intercede on behalf of the people of the pueblo. Workman promised that no resistance would come from the Californios in exchange for Stockton's kind treatment and protection of the citizens of Los Angeles. Stockton agreed and the deserted town was taken without bloodshed.
By the late 1840s, Juan Matias Sanchez arrived at Rancho La Puente and became Workman's mayordomo (ranch manager). Sanchez was a good friend of Workman back in Taos where he was also a trapper. In 1849, Workman sent Sanchez to Northern California to participate in the Gold Rush. Workman paid for the trip under the agreement that Sanchez would share the profits equally with him. In 1850, Workman purchased Rancho La Merced for $2,500 from Dona Casilda Soto. The 2,300 acre triangular shaped land grant was situated near the site of "Mission Vieja", the original location of the San Gabriel Mission. Today, portions of Montebello and Monterey Park cover this rancho. When Sanchez returned from gold country, he was a wealthy man and made a handsome profit for Workman. To repay his old friend, Workman sold Sanchez half of Rancho La Merced for only one dollar in 1851. Workman's son-in-law, F.P.F Temple, received the other half of the rancho for the same price. Sanchez lived at the old Soto adobe on La Merced and Temple built his own adobe near the Mission Vieja site, which became known as Temple's Four Corners. Here, Temple and Antonia Margarita raised their eleven children.
In 1852, John Rowland's personal property was assessed at $35,000, making him one of the top ten wealthiest men in Los Angeles County. In the same year, he and William Workman filed a formal claim to Rancho La Puente with the U.S. Land Commission.
Workman and Rowland avoided a life of public service and politics. They both preferred the quiet, slow paced lifestyle they found at their ranchos out in the country. Not distracted by other responsibilities, the two were able to dedicate their time and energy to improving their ranchos. They also brought diversity into the ranching business, while so many other rancheros focused mainly on cattle. During the 1850s and the disastrous 1860s, many rancheros lost their land when the cattle industry suffered heavy losses due to an extensive drought. Workman and Rowland introduced new breeds of cattle that improved their herds. They also raised fine breeds of horses. They planted fruit trees, and vegetables. With their vineyards, they each made over 8,000 gallons of wine per year. Each tried dry farming, which helped them during the drought years and their fields produced thirty bushels of wheat per acre. Of course, they had their milling operations as an additional source of income.
In 1857, Workman built a Gothic style chapel at El Campo Santo, the family cemetery near his home. By 1858, he had over 15,000 grapevines, 400 apple trees and 2,000 head of cattle. The following year he established rodeo grounds in the vicinity of present intersection of Procter Road and Turnbill Canyon Road. This was where his cattle were round up. In the early 1860s, the cotton industry came to an abrupt halt with the outbreak of the Civil War. Workman made an attempt to grow cotton in a field he owned near Los Angeles. This was the first experiment in cotton cultivation in California. However, this venture failed.
Throughout their partnership, William Workman and John Rowland shared the development and success of Rancho La Puente. They worked together on many projects involving the rancho.
Their cattle roamed free and mingled without barriers separating their sections of the property. In 1868, the two partners requested an official partition of Rancho La Puente. When the partition was formally completed and divided into equal shares, Workman held the west half and Rowland kept the east half. This division of the rancho interests proved to be beneficial for the Rowland family, because Workman would lose his land within the next eight years.
John Rowland further partitioned his share of La Puente and divided it among his heirs, each receiving 3,000 acres and 1,000 head of cattle. There were several adobes built in the area by the Rowland heirs, but only the ranch house of William Rowland remains. The aging John Rowland retired from ranching and lived the remainder of his life at his beloved home at La Puente. He died in 1873, at the age of eighty, and was buried at the Workman Family Cemetery. The community of Rowland Heights is named for this early pioneer.
William "Billy" Rowland, a son of John Rowland, was the Sheriff of Los Angeles County in the early 1870s and again from 1880 to 1882. It was a posse led by Sheriff Rowland that captured the notorious California bandit Tiburcio Vasquez in 1874. In 1883, Sheriff Rowland improved an adobe structure on his cattle ranch given to him by his father. John Rowland built the adobe structure around 1850 for his mayordomo. William Rowland constructed the redwood section of the house and another room was added about 1900. The Rowlands move to Los Angeles in 1902 after the death of their son. The William R. Rowland adobe ranch house has been restored as it appeared in the 1880s and it stands near a stream in Lemon Creek Park in the City of Walnut.
William Rowland and his brother, Albert, were among the founding fathers of the city of La Puente. In 1885, George Stimson and A. E. Pomeroy, a pair of real estate developers purchased twenty acres from Albert Rowland. In March 1886, the town of La Puente was plotted and the map was filed with the county recorder. In 1887, William Rowland built the Rowland Hotel in La Puente, which stood until 1956. On August 1, 1956, the city of La Puente was incorporated.
By 1870, William Workman had come to admire the new architectural styles appearing Los Angeles and he decided to change the look of his adobe hacienda. He hired Los Angeles architect, Ezra F. Kysor to design and remodel the adobe. Kysor designed the Pico House Hotel and Saint Vibiana's Cathedral, both of which are still standing in downtown Los Angeles. In 1872, the transformation of the Workman adobe began. The original "U" shaped structure was redesigned into an "H" configuration, with the dimensions of the house increasing to 75 feet by 150 feet. Essentially, a structure made of burnt brick and stone was superimposed upon the existing adobe house. The long wing extensions had steep gabled roofs and arched Norman windows. Wood shingles replace the old flat tar covered roof. When completed, the simple adobe was converted to a Gothic country manor similar to the homes Workman knew as a young boy in his native England.
On November 23, 1871, Workman and his son-in-law, F.P.F. Temple, opened the Temple and Workman Bank in Los Angeles. Temple talked Workman into going into the banking business with him, although he had no banking background. The bank was located in the Temple Block, now the site of Los Angeles City Hall. Temple managed the bank while Workman preferred to be a silent partner and remained at his rancho. Temple was a poor bank manager and granted many bad loans. In August 1875, a financial panic in California caused a wave of withdrawals from the bank. The first day of the run, the bank lost $125,000. Temple was forced to close the bank temporarily and traveled to San Francisco to obtain a loan to save it. He received a $210,000 loan from Comstock millionaire, Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin. The terms of the loan included a one and one-quarter percent interest rate due monthly and that Temple and Workman put up all their ranch land and other properties as collateral. Not only did Baldwin want to hold the mortgage to all of Temple and Workman's land, he wanted Juan Matias Sanchez to mortgage his half of Rancho La Merced as well, or there would be no deal. Sanchez was faced with a dilemma, but out of loyalty to his old and dear friends, he pledged to offer his property also.
Temple reopened the bank, but it never recovered sufficiently and he asked for another $100,000 from Lucky Baldwin. The failed Temple and Workman Bank was closed forever on January 13, 1876. Baldwin foreclosed on the loans and acquired the deeds to nearly all the property belonging to Sanchez, Temple and Workman. Sanchez was able to save 200 acres when he set aside that property in his wife's name. Temple lost all but a small piece of land because he too transferred ownership in the name of his wife. Temple became a hated man and was forced to retired to his adobe home on what was left of Ranch La Merced. He suffered a paralyzing stroke shortly after the bank failure due to stress. He died in a shepherd's hut at the corner of his ranch in 1880 and was interred at the Workman-Temple Family Mausoleum.
The pressure of the loss had a more immediate and harmful effect on William Workman. Not only was he financially ruined and lost all but seventy-five acres of his rancho, but he also felt responsible for the loss of Juan Matias Sanchez's land. On May 17, 1876, William Workman committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at his La Puente home. He was seventy-five years old at the time of his death. Originally he was laid to rest next to his long time friend and partner John Rowland in the family plot. Later, he was moved to the side of his wife in the mausoleum.
Workman's family held on to the old homestead and the remaining acres for several years, but they lost this also through foreclosure in the early 1890s. From 1895 to 1910, the Workman home passed through several owners. During this period some minor alterations were made to the house to give it a Mission Revival flavor. Plaster arches were added, but these were removed during restoration efforts in the 1970s.
In 1914, nine year old Thomas Workman Temple II, a great-grandson of William Workman discovered a natural gas source while playing in the fields near Temple's Four Corners, which was owned by his father, Walter P. Temple. This find meant the possibility of oil beneath the property. Drilling began in 1917 and oil spewed abundantly. This developed into the Montebello Oil Field and once again restored wealth to the Temple and Workman families. In 1919, Walter P. Temple purchased the old Workman family homestead and lived at the old house while he constructed his mansion next door. His beautiful home, "La Casa Nueva" or the "New House" was completed in 1923. It was a two story Spanish Colonial Revival with nineteen rooms. The house was dedicated to his wife, Laura Gonzalez Temple, who died in 1923 prior to its completion.
Walter Temple, the youngest son of F.P.F Temple, restored the Workman adobe and the El Campo Santo Cemetery while he hired Mexican artisans from La Puente to help build his 9,000 square foot mansion. He hired a Whittier firm to design and build the current concrete and marble mausoleum at the cemetery and the remains of the Temples and Workmans were transferred there. The mausoleum is a smaller version of a Doric Greek Temple and was placed on the site of the previous Workman family chapel, which burned down in 1903.
In 1905, the cemetery was almost destroyed when the owner at the time, L.F. Lewis, began knocking down the heart shaped brick wall encasing the graveyard. But, quick action by Walter P. Temple saved the family plot when he obtained an injunction to stop the demolition. Unfortunately, by the time the court order was issued, the majority of the wall, except the western section, was left standing. In 1921, the bodies of Don Pio Pico and his wife, Maria Ygnacia Pico were entombed in the mausoleum. They were relocated here from the old Calvary Cemetery on North Broadway in Los Angeles. The Picos who were good friends and neighbors with William Workman and his family. They lived on Rancho Paso de Bartolo next to Rancho La Puente to the west.
Walter P. Temple was as unlucky as his father in the handling of his personal business affairs. In 1929, Temple fell into financial difficulty as a result of the stock market crash and lost the family homestead, including his La Casa Nueva. He died in 1938 and was buried at the San Gabriel Mission cemetery.
In the 1930s, the Workman-Temple homestead became a military school for young boys. From 1947 to 1963, the property was used as the El Encanto Sanitarium owned by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Brown. In 1957, the City of Industry was founded. In 1963, the City of Industry purchased a portion of the property containing the Workman adobe and El Campo Santo from Harry Brown. In 1970, La Casa Nueva was also purchased by the city. The intent of the City of Industry was to restore the historic structures, but plans were slow to mature and the Workman home stood vacant for ten years. It was subject to theft, vandalism, and decay caused by the elements and was in need of extensive rebuilding. In 1974, the restoration process began and the city solicited the services of Gruen Associates of Los Angeles. They, in turn, called upon Raymond Girvigian, a talented architect in the field of historic restoration, to manage the project. The renovation of the Workman house was difficult and time consuming. It was two structures in one, with two distinctly separate styles, and three different types of fundamental building materials.
In 1980, the restoration project was nearly complete, with the exception of the interior of the Workman adobe. The house was designed to look as it did between 1873 and 1876. La Casa Nueva was also restored and the grounds were magnificently improved. Several additions to the homestead were made, including an ornate Mexican glorietta (gazebo), brick walkways, a visitor's center and the Pio Pico Galleria. The City of Industry contracted with the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum Foundation to operate the facility as a museum. The Temple-Workman Homestead was officially opened to the public on May 1, 1981. The Workman adobe and the family cemetery are both designated as California State Landmark #874 and are both listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
La Casa Nueva
Today, the Workman-Temple homestead is a wonderful place to visit. The park setting is very pleasant and well maintained. Tours of La Casa Nueva are offered where one can experience a documentation style presentation of the Workman and Temple families. Many of articles and heirlooms belonging to both families are contained within, including an oil painting of William Workman hanging on the living room wall. Outstanding features of the house are the fine wood craftsmanship, ceramic tiles and the colorful stained glass windows. One of the windows portrays the covered wagon trains of the Rowland-Workman Party of 1841.
Located a few feet southwest of La Casa Nueva is a unique dome shaped stucco building. This was called the "Tepee" and served as a cabana. It is said to have been salvaged from the old Temple Block built in 1871 by F.P.F. Temple. However, it was more likely built by the Temples in the early 1920s.
As you face the front of the Workman house, focus on the center of the building and imagine that the high pointed gable roofed wings are gone. You may get some idea of what the original adobe looked like during the 1840s. The bricks of the exterior walls are plastered over and painted white, and the stone outlining the walls are beige. The columns in the Norman windows, the porch railing and the support posts are green in hue. There are four tall brick chimneys protruding from the peaked shake roof.
Original plantings of large trees, rose and grape arbors are found throughout the grounds. Beautiful gardens accentuate the landscape. A long narrow brick walkway edged by a row of trees on both sides is known as El Paseo de Memorial de Pio Pico. This path extends from the rear courtyard of La Casa Nueva to El Campo Santo and the Memorial Mausoleum. The small graveyard is surrounded by a brick wall and the stone mausoleum stands in the center. Within this sacred enclosure, the earthly remains of William Workman and his family are entombed crypts, along with Pio Pico and his wife. Pio Pico was the last Mexican governor in California prior to the American conquest. The old cast iron gate to El Campo Santo goes back to the 1850s.
Plans are underway to restore the interior of the Workman adobe. For now, La Casa Nueva and the John Rowland house on nearby Gale Avenue are both restored as museums dedicated to the history of the Workmans, Rowlands, Temples and Rancho La Puente. The Workman-Temple Homestead is on Don Julian Road, name for Don Julian (William) Workman, the proud English ranchero of a grand Mexican rancho.
Workman-Temple Homestead Official Website
15415 East Don Julian Road, City of Industry, CA 91745
Map
626 968-8492
Open the the public
Free, guided tours are offered Wednesday through Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County © 1997 John R. Kielbasa
Photos © 2001-2004 LAokay.com