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Just a few blocks east of the campus of California State University at Long Beach is one of Los Angeles County's oldest adobe houses. Known as the Rancho Los Alamitos Adobe, it is located within a historical park site and stands upon a knoll called Bixby Hill. Seven-and-a-half acres is all that remains today of the former 28,000 acre nineteenth century rancho. The house is in excellent condition for being 190 years old. It has been significantly altered and expanded over the years and the original adobe structure is barely recognizable beneath all the later wood composed additions.
At one time, this house was the headquarters of over 200,000 acres of ranch land which was owned by one intriguing man: Abel Stearns. Stearns was a Yankee Don who came to California during the early Mexican period and went into the business of trading goods in Los Angeles. He gained wealth and started accumulating ranchos, beginning with Los Alamitos, until he owned nearly three hundred square miles of contiguous property. Being a man of diverse interests, he became involved in politics, mining, shipping, milling and various philanthropic endeavors. He was also a man of questionable repute as he was a revolutionary, an accused smuggler, an alleged seller of stolen goods and even a spy.
Although Abel Stearns was its most prolific owner, he was not the builder of Rancho Los Alamitos adobe. He was perhaps a ten-year old boy living in Massachusetts when the structure was supposedly built in 1806. It was Juan Jose Nieto who constructed about that year upon Rancho Los Alamitos, which was originally part of a much larger Spanish land grant belonging to his father, Manuel Nieto. Rancho Los Alamitos, which means Ranch of the Cottonwoods, became known by that name in the early 1800s because of the prevalence of cottonwood trees in the area. But, long before that, the area was known by a different name: Puvungna.
Floor Plan
The dark area indicates the original adobe.
Puvungna was an ancient Gabrielino Indian village that was established around 500 AD. This settlement was a very special place to the Gabrielino people because it was the origin of their mythological based religion. The name Puvungna may mean "the Place of the Crowd" or "the Gathering Place". This name may have derived from grand religious ceremonies which took place at this site and were attended by large groups of Gabrielinos from other villages. Puvungna was the legendary birthplace of Chinigchinich, who was a considered a Gabrielino god, lawgiver, and the founder of their religion.
In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer sailing under the flag of Spain, may have witnessed inhabitants of Puvungna along the coast of San Pedro Bay. In 1771, the San Gabriel Mission was founded twenty-one miles north of Puvungna, but it had a profound affect on the great village. Puvungna was brought into the control of the mission and the Indians were Christianized. During the Spanish period the rancheria of Puvungna was stricken with deadly disease brought by the newcomers. Survivors were subjected to work at the missions while others fled to remote areas. By the year 1805, Puvungna was abandoned. Archeological evidence indicates the site of this important rancheria was on probably on Bixby Hill. They were attracted to the area because of a natural spring originating at the southern base of the hill. This spring continued to be used as a fresh water source until it was contaminated by salt water in 1954. The kitchen midden, or refuse dump site, from this ancient settlement was where the tennis courts of Rancho Los Alamitos were later built. Materials from the kitchen midden may still be found in the vicinity. Some artifacts from Puvungna are displayed at the Rancho Los Alamitos Adobe.
Manuel Nieto was born in Sinaloa, Mexico in 1719. He joined the Spanish Royal Army and served in the rugged frontier of Northern Mexico. During his army career, he managed to collect cattle and horses. In 1784, he requested a piece of land to graze his livestock from Governor Pedro Fages. Fages, whom at one time was Nieto's former commanding officer, became the military governor Alta California the year before. Fages, in an effort to promote settlement in his province and to reward a member of his military, granted over 300,000 acres just east of the young pueblo of Los Angeles to Manuel Nieto. This enormous Spanish grant, the largest in California, became known as Rancho Los Nietos, named for the grantee. Nieto's land extended from the Puente Hills to the Pacific Ocean and from the Los Angeles River to the Santa Ana River. The padres at the San Gabriel Mission protested the Los Nietos grant by contending it overlapped mission property. A judgement favoring the mission was rendered and Nieto was forced to give up nearly half the acreage in the northern section of his original rancho. He was still able to keep 167,000 acres of land.
In 1784, Corporal Manuel Nieto built a small adobe house near the San Gabriel River at a point one half south of present day Whittier Boulevard. But, Nieto did not live on his rancho until he retired from the army in 1795. The retired corporal lived here until his death in 1804. At the time of his death, he was the richest man in California. Nieto left his estate to his four surviving children Juan Jose, Manuela, Antonio Maria and Jose Antonio. Each heir shared an undivided interest in Rancho Los Nietos.
By 1804, Juan Jose Nieto built three small adobes within close proximity to each other in the southeast section of Rancho Los Nietos, upon Bixby Hill. One of these primitive structures, a sixty-by forty-foot rectangular building of four-foot thick adobe walls and a crude reed roof, became the Rancho Los Alamitos Adobe. Nieto found the area appealing, as did the natives of Puvungna long before him. The high ground and the nearby spring were desirable for a remote adobe ranch house.
By 1833, the Nieto heirs had become dissatisfied with their respective shares of Los Nietos and requested an official distribution of the land. On May 22, 1834, Governor Jose Figueroa officially recognized the Los Nietos grant under Mexican rule and ordered its partition into six smaller ranchos: Las Bolsas, Los Alamitos, Los Cerritos, Los Coyotes, Santa Gurtrudes and Palo Alto. Juan Jose Nieto received Rancho Los Alamitos (28,612 acres), Rancho Los Coyotes (48,806 acres) and Rancho Palo Alto. It is unknown exactly where or how large was Rancho Palo Alto because it did not appear on the partition map. It was the smallest of the six ranchos and contained hilly terrain. Palo Alto may have been consolidated by Rancho Los Coyotes.
Today, the old boundary lines of Rancho Los Alamitos expands across two counties: Los Angeles and Orange. The western half of Long Beach, the southern half of Signal Hill, and the Orange County cities of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, and parts of Cypress, Garden Grove, Stanton and Westminister are contained within the land grant. The boundaries of Rancho Los Alamitos are described as follows:
Commencing at Alamitos Avenue and Shoreline Drive in Long Beach, the line followed the route of Alamitos Avenue northward to 21st Street in Signal Hill. From here, the line continued in a straight northeasterly direction to a point just west of Lakewood Boulevard and Spring Street. The boundary line branched off in a southeasterly direction to the Los Coyotes Diagonal, about one-quarter mile south of Spring Street. It followed along the Los Coyotes Diagonal northward to Parkcrest Street. From this point the line headed in a southeasterly angle following the course of Parkcrest, the northern edge of El Dorado Park, Ring Street and continued on through Cypress and Stanton to a point near Magnolia Street and Orangewood Avenue in Garden Grove. From here, the line crossed back southwesterly and followed the course of Anaheim Channel to Bolsa Chica Street in Seal Beach. The line continued in the same manner through the naval weapons station and terminated at the foot of Anderson Street at Seal Beach.
Due to events that transpired as a result of the partition, it seems apparent that Juan Jose Nieto made some sort of illicit deal with Governor Figueroa. Among the Nieto heirs, Juan Jose received the largest amount of acreage in the partition. Just two months after the partition decree, he sold the 28,000 acre Rancho Alamitos to Governor Figueroa for a mere $500. This incredibly low price, even for that time, also included the thirty-year-old adobe house, all livestock and the Nieto brand. Figueroa formed a partnership with Nicholas Gutierrez and Roberto Prado and established an agriculture company to run Rancho Los Alamitos.
The Governor's plans for the rancho were short lived as he died in 1835. His death brought about the dissolution of the company and the distribution of the rancho to his heirs and his former partners. Francisco Figueroa, the deceased Governor's brother, was left in charge of rancho operations and administrator of his brother's estate. The ensuing years left Rancho Los Alamitos in poor condition. Seven years later, Abel Stearns purchased the entire rancho for $6,000, of which, $1,500 was in cash and the remainder in cattle hides and tallow. The price included the adobe house, 900 cattle, 1000 sheep and 240 horses.
Abel Stearns was born in the Massachusetts village of Lunenburg on February 9, 1798. Lunenburg was forty-two miles northeast of the major New England port city of Boston. Abel was the son of Levi Stearns and Elizabeth Goodrich Stearns. Both the Stearns and Goodrich families came to the colonies from England in the early 1600s. Levi Stearns was a country farmer. In 1810, tragedy struck the Stearns household as both Levi and Elizabeth Stearns died, within three months apart from each other. Twelve-year-old Abel and his seven fellow siblings were left as orphans. Young Abel went to Boston to become a sailor. He sailed on several trading vessels and traveled to ports in China, the East Indies, West Indies and Spanish America. He quickly promoted to the position of supercargo or the head-purchasing agent of his ship.
Back at home, he married his first wife, a woman known only as Persis. The couple had a daughter in 1818, but she lived only three years. Later they had son named John. It was unknown what became of his wife and son because there is no further record of them. In 1820, Stearns lived in Roxbury, Massachusetts where he joined a Masonic Order. In 1821 he was the commander of his own ship and the following year he engaged in trade in New Spain. On May 16, 1826 he arrived in Vera Cruz, Mexico and applied for permission to live in the Mexican Republic. Two weeks later, he came to Mexico City where he lived for three years. In 1827 he received a passport from the Mexican government and on April 14, 1828, he became naturalized as a Mexican citizen.
Now that he was a Mexican citizen and a converted Roman Catholic, Stearns was eligible to own property, so he and another expatriated American, George Washington Eayrs, applied for land in the Sacramento River Valley of Alta California. In the summer of 1829, Stearns sailed into Monterey Bay on the schooner, Dorothea. He lived in the capitol of the province for two years. On October 30, 1830, Governor Jose Maria Echeandia granted twenty square leagues of land to Stearns and Eayrs along the San Joaquin River instead of the Sacramento River.
Early in 1831 Manuel Victoria arrived from Mexico to assume the governorship of the California province. Unfortunately, he chose despotism as his style of rule. Using the army as his enforcers, he abolished local ayuntamientos (town councils), refused to convene the diputacion (the assembly) and jailed or exiled anyone who opposed him. Abel Stearns attempted to get the dictator governor to set up the Diputacion. Victoria refused and banished Stearns to Mexico for this political disagreement. While en route, Stearns stopped in San Diego where he met his future father-in-law, Don Juan Bandini. There, he, Bandini, Pio Pico and Jose Antonio Carrillo conspired a revolt against the tyrannical governor. The revolutionaries and the governor's troops converged at Cahuenga Pass north of Los Angeles in February 1831. After a minor battle the governor was compelled to step down and departed for Mexico.
In 1832, Stearns moved to Los Angeles and opened a mercantile store. He gained invaluable experience as trader during his period as a sailor and made his business quite successful. In the early 1830s, Stearns was requested by several Los Angeles area rancheros to conduct surveys of their ranchos to help settle boundary disputes. Stearns surveyed a drafted a "diseno" (map) of the Los Nietos partition in 1834. Little did he know that he would later acquired the majority of the land he surveyed.
On December 22, 1834 Stearns purchased a lot in the pueblo of Los Angeles from Ramon Orduno. This town lot near the main plaza was four varas square and cost him 150 pesos. Here, he built a three-room adobe house with an attached kitchen. Gradually, he expanded the house over the years until it took on the proportions of a mansion. It had adobe walls three feet in thickness and wood support beams brought down from the San Bernardino Mountains. The house eventually was formed in the shape of the letter "U" with a wide open cobblestone court. The house contained a grand ballroom at least one hundred feet long. In time, the Stearns manor was the largest, most magnificent house in the pueblo and became known as "El Palacio" or "The Palace". Today, the southeast corner of Main Street and Arcadia Street in downtown Los Angeles was the site of El Palacio. Today, the Hollywood Freeway crosses beneath where this grand adobe mansion once stood.
Stearns sought to facilitate local trade in 1834 when he purchased the Casa de San Pedro, an adobe warehouse along the harbor front used to store cattle hides from surrounding ranchos. Casa de San Pedro was built in 1823 by a shipping firm owned by William Hartnell and Hugh McCulloch. The firm contracted with local mission padres to have their hides and tallow sold to ships anchoring in San Pedro harbor. Five years later, the company shut down and in the spring of 1829 and transferred ownership to the San Gabriel Mission.
When Stearns acquired the warehouse he improved the existing structure and erected others. Here he established a trade center without permission of the Mexican government. Monterey was the site of the customhouse and was the only port of entry of the California coast where international commerce could legally take place. Most of the cattle industry was concentrated in Southern California where ranchos were dominant and San Pedro was the most convenient port. Casa de San Pedro was used to store mostly hides, tallow, liquors and a variety of wares from New England. The place also served as a mail drop for American ships of the Pacific trade. In 1835, Richard Henry Dana visited the hidehouse when he sailed aboard the Pilgrim; a Boston based merchant brig. He wrote about his adventures at sea and of the Stearns warehouse in his renowned literary work, "Two Years Before the Mast".
Stearns hired others to operate the hide house while he tended his business in Los Angeles over twenty-two miles away. During a period of time in 1836, Moses B. Carson, the brother of legendary trapper and trailblazer Kit Carson, worked for Stearns at Casa de San Pedro. Since Stearns took over Casa de San Pedro he was often accused by Mexican authorities of smuggling; using the hide house to store and distribute contraband. Due to stringent trade restrictions, lofty tariffs imposed by Mexico, and a desperate need for imported goods, smuggling was generally widely accepted by the local community which stood to profit as well from the illegal activity. Stearns was convicted of smuggling, but his influence was so great that he was not imprisoned and officials went so far as to make him the local customs agent. However, accusations continued during his eleven-year ownership of the adobe hide house in San Pedro. On at least two occasions his warehouse was found loaded with improperly marked hides, which apparently were stolen. Smuggling was generally practiced by other seemingly respectable merchants. Abel Stearns was not the biggest contrabandist along the California coast, but he was perhaps the least cautious.
Stearns sold this property in 1845 to John Temple and David W. Alexander. The old adobe warehouse vanished by the late 1890s. The site of Casa de San Pedro, the first port of Los Angeles, was located near the present-day parade ground of Fort MacArthur's Middle Reservation located at 2400 South Pacific Avenue in San Pedro. It has been recently recognized as State Registered Landmark #920.
In 1835, Stearns was elected as "sindico" of the Ayuntamiento of Los Angeles. As sindico he acted as an attorney or legal counsel for the town council and to protect the interests of the Pueblo. In the fall of that year, Stearns was nearly murdered while in the prime of his life. On September 20, 1835, he was tending his store in the pueblo when he became involved in a business dispute with a man named William Day over a barrel of sour wine. Day, originally from Kentucky, was the proprietor of a local liquor shop. An intoxicated Day went to Stearn's store armed with a knife to complain about the supposed bad wine he purchased earlier from Stearns. When Stearns attempted to have a belligerent Day ejected from his store, Day attacked Stearns viciously with his knife. Stearns was left for dead with stab wounds to his hand, shoulder and face. The knife wound to the face was so severe that it nearly cut off his tongue. Thanks to the life saving efforts of Doctor William Keith, Stearns survived his near fatal injuries. However, he was left with disfiguring scars and a speech impediment for the rest of his life. William Day, who thought he killed Stearns, was convicted of the crime and jailed for approximately five years.
In January 1836, Stearns was appointed to the "Comision de Policia" or the Committee for Public Order in Los Angeles. This was a vigilante group as there was no formal law enforcement in the pueblo at the time. Later that same year, California was saddled with another unpopular governor from Mexico: Mariano Chico. Chico thought it was reprehensible what Stearns and the other instigators of the Victoria revolt did to depose the former governor. Stearns was again ordered exiled to Mexico, this time by Governor Chico. But as in 1831, Stearns was allowed to remain while his nemesis, the Mexican governor was ousted instead. Chico remained in power only two months whereupon he forced to leave on the very ship which he ordered to have Stearns taken to Mexico.
On June 22 1841, Abel Stearns married Arcadia Bandini at the San Gabriel Mission. Hugo Reid, Stearn's friend and owner of Rancho Santa Anita was a witness. Arcadia Bandini was the fourteen-year-old daughter of Juan Bandini and Dolores Estudillo Bandini of San Diego. Stearns knew Juan Bandini for a least twenty years, probably since the Victoria revolt. Bandini was originally from Peru and eventually came to San Diego where he became a large landowner. Arcadia Bandini was born in San Diego on January 12, 1827, the year Stearns arrived in Mexico. She was considered one of the most beautiful girls in all of California.
Stearns must have seen his bride grow up from baby to young womanhood. At the time of the marriage, he was forty-three years old and was embarrassed by the age difference. He lied about his age by making himself two years younger in his marriage application, and the ceremony was kept small and quiet. Although marriages of teen-aged Californio maidens were not uncommon in the day, however at age fourteen, Arcadia was considered too young. Stearns respectfully requested from Don Juan the hand of his lovely daughter. Bandini graciously gave his blessings.
Gossip in the pueblo regarding the marriage was relentless. People spoke not only of the age difference of the bride and groom, they made fun of their contrasting looks as well. Arcadia Bandini was considered to be one of the most beautiful women of all California, while Abel Stearns was thought to have been quite physically unappealing. His disfiguring facial scar added to his homeliness and people gave Stearns a Spanish nickname, "Cara de Caballo" or "Horse Face".
Arcadia Bandini Stearns became the celebrated hostess at El Palacio, but she left household operations to her younger sister, Isidora. El Palacio was the site of many social events, including dances, balls, and bullfights. However, Abel Stearns invited only the social elite and this often upset the general population who were accustomed to open invitation to festive occasions within the pueblo. At times, those not invited to a Stearns event would throw stones through the windows of El Palacio. One incident took place in which a cannon was fired at the house during a ball. Subsequently, the party crashers burst through the door, but were met with gunfire by Stearns' guests and were repelled.
Stearns realized that his trade business would improve greatly if he had his own cattle ranch and process his own hides and tallow. In 1842, he purchased Rancho Los Alamitos from Francisco Figueroa. This was the first of a long list of rancho Stearns would possess. He had become a Yankee Don like his neighbor John Temple of Rancho Los Cerritos. At Los Alamitos, Stearns improved the old adobe of Juan Jose Nieto, which was to be used as a summer home for his child bride, who had been accustomed to the rancho lifestyle while living with her family. Don Abel added the north wing to the house to be used by his vaqueros who ran the rancho.
Toward the end of 1841, Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones was placed in charge of the Pacific Squadron of the United States Navy. Jones and six ships were off the California coast when he received unverified information that the United States and Mexico were at war. Acting upon impulse and unofficial orders, Jones captured the town of Monterey and raised the American flag upon California soil in October 1842. Upon realizing his mistake, he lowered the stars and stripes and left Monterey. He went to seek out the provincial governor at Los Angeles to offer a humble apology. Governor Manuel Micheltorena graciously received the Commodore at a gala ball held in his honor at Abel Stearns' El Palacio. The incident at Monterey was a prelude of things to come.
In 1843, Thomas O. Larkin, an American merchant living in Monterey was made the first and only United States Consul to California. Larkin believed that California was destined to be taken out of the hands of Mexico. Great Britain, Russia, France as well as the United States were contenders for the impending conquest. Larkin often tried to convince the Mexican echelon and leading citizens in the north that California would benefit greatly by voluntarily joining the United States. Since its inception, the far off province was neglected by the mother governments of Spain and Mexico; therefore some Californios were not entirely put off by the idea. By 1844, Larkin was selected to be a confidential agent to the United States and essentially acted as a spy. Larkin asked Abel Stearns to serve as his confidential informant by reporting the political and social climate in the south. Although Stearns never agreed outright, he provided Larkin with the desired information through discreet correspondence from 1845 to 1846. Stearns secretly favored an American takeover of California. He detested Mexicans and their sordid politics, but he loved Californios.
In 1845, Stearns the revolutionary played a role in the ouster of Governor Manuel Micheltorena, whereas the deposed provincial leader was replaced by Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California. Stearns was trusted by the Californios, even so much as to have Governor Pio Pico appoint him to the position of sub-prefect on June 21, 1846. A provincial sub?prefect was second highest political office in the Alta California and acted as governor in Pico's absence. What a unique opportunity he found himself, being the second highest political official of a Mexican province and a secret correspondent to an American spy. However, Governor Pico, at the same time was conspiring with English officials to have California become a part of the British Empire. Such was politics of California in the mid 1840s.
In July 1846, American troops invaded Monterey a second time, but it was no mistake: Mexico and the United States were at war. The following month, American forces occupied Los Angeles as well. Stearns, as did many other former Americans, remained neutral and refrained from any the ensuing hostilities. The war ended in California in 1847 bringing a new way of life. On January 21, 1847, John Charles Fremont, who was the military governor of California at the time, appointed Stearns to an investigative committee to determine citizen claims for damages brought about by American military operations during the year prior. Stearns, himself, submitted a claim of reimbursement to the United States government.
In 1849, Stearns was selected to attend the California constitutional convention in Monterey. His friend and fellow ranchero, Hugo Reid was also appointed to the committee that would compose the new laws of the future state. Stearns continued his political career during the American period. In 1850 he became alcalde of Los Angeles and was the last alcalde of the pueblo as the title of the position changed to mayor. He went on to be a state assemblyman, a supervisor for Los Angeles County, a justice of the peace and a member of the Los Angeles city council.
In 1849, Hugo Reid was in Northern California monitoring the inundation of mining activity created by the Gold Rush. He wrote to Abel Stearns that beef and tallow were in great demand in the northern towns and that cattle ranchers would profit handsomely if they killed their stock for shipping to the north. The price of beef and tallow for soap and candles skyrocketed. By this time, Stearns had over 10,000 head of cattle on Rancho Los Alamitos. Instead of destroying the cattle for shipping, Stearns decided to drive huge herds overland to San Francisco and other towns serving as gateways to the placers. This started mass cattle drives and a revitalizing boom in the Southern California cattle industry. Stearns made a great deal of money from this venture.
In 1850, John Charles Fremont offered Stearns $300,000 for Rancho Los Alamitos, but the Yankee Don refused this generous offer. His refusal to sell was indicative of the wealth that was to be made selling cattle. The cattle boom lasted until 1856 due to a decrease in gold mining and a series of droughts, which followed.
The United States Land Commission was formed in 1851 to investigate title claims of early Spanish and Mexican land grants in California. Stearns filed his claim for Rancho Los Alamitos, which was confirmed by the Land Commission in 1854. However, a group of San Francisco lawyers later protested Stearns' claim to the rancho. The lawyers claimed to represent the heirs of Governor Jose Figueroa in Mexico. They alleged that Francisco Figueroa and Nicholas Gutierrez suppressed the deceased governor's will and kept Rancho Alamitos a secret from Jose Figueroa's three surviving sons in Mexico. The attorneys attempted to prove that Francisco Figueroa and Nicholas Gutierrez fraudulently obtained possession of the rancho, therefore having no right to sell it to Stearns. In 1856, Stearns asked for the assistance of his friend and neighbor, John Temple, who was conducting business in Mexico. Temple, acting as a representative for Stearns, negotiated with Figueroa's heirs and managed to come to a compromise. Stearns' title to Rancho Los Alamitos would not be challenged, but he had to pay off Figueroa's heirs $10,000.
Stearns operated his Los Angeles store until the late 1850s. He became involved in other ventures, which included some bad mining investments that lost money. He opened a flourmill in Los Angeles. Later, he donated money to build roads and hospitals. He gave generously to a myriad of charitable organizations. In 1858, Stearns built Arcadia Block to the rear of El Palacio. Arcadia Block, located at the southwest corner of Arcadia and Los Angeles streets, was a two story brick building with iron shutters. It was an $85,000 building investment, which was used to house eight stores or offices. In order to pay off the final costs of this large commercial building, Stearns, in 1861, obtained a $20,000 loan from Michael Reese, a San Francisco financier. Rancho Los Alamitos was used to secure the loan, which included a one and one-half percent monthly interest payment.
Between the late 1850s and the early 1860s, Stearns had acquired several more ranchos, mostly though foreclosure of defaulted loans, and built a land empire consisting of a surplus of 200,000 acres. He owned two-thirds of the original Los Nietos grant in addition to ranchos in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. The following is a list of his local ranchos: La Bolsa Chica (8,272 acres), Las Bolsas y Paredes (33,509 acres), La Habra (6,698 acres), La Jurupa (41,168 acres), La Sierra (17,752 acres), Los Coyotes (48,825 acres), San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana (21,527 acres) and part of Santiago de Santa Ana. He also acquired 6,000 acres of Rancho Laguna, which was originally part of the Lugo family's Rancho San Antonio. He also owned land in Baja California. Rancho Los Alamitos served as the main hub of all the Stearns ranchos. At the time, Stearns was the largest landowner and cattle producer in Southern California.
During the Civil War, Stearns was in support of the Union. He once again assumed the role of confidential agent and by monitoring and reporting activities of Secessionist sympathizers in Southern California. By 1864, cattle prices plunged due to drought and the increased demand for sheep. The drought of 1863-64 killed thousands of Stearns' cattle and nearly bankrupted him. He was unable to meet his tax obligations on his properties and faced a lawsuit from the County of Los Angeles. He had difficulty paying his debts and could not repay the Reese loan. Reese foreclosed upon the loan and on February 18, 1865 he acquired Rancho Los Alamitos through a court ordered decree of sale. Reese granted a one-year extension, but Stearns still could not meet the loan requirements and lost the rancho in 1866.
In 1868 Stearns mortgaged all his remaining ranchos in order to receive a $43,000 loan from a San Francisco loan company to consolidate his debts. Then, Alfred Robinson, a long time dear friend of Stearns, came to his aid. Stearns' and Robinson's friendship went back as far as their Monterey days in 1829. Robinson convinced Stearns to subdivide and sell all his ranch property though a trust company. Robinson gathered a group of San Francisco investors, and along with Abel Stearns they formed the Robinson Trust Company on May 25, 1868. Stearns signed over all his ranchos to the trust company, except Rancho Laguna, which he gave to Arcadia. Robinson Trust Company established the Los Angeles and San Bernardino Land Company to sell 177,000 acres of Stearns' land holdings. Stearns had a one-eighth interest in the Trust and stood to make $1.50 for every acre sold. The organization platted several townsite and sold farm lots ranging in size from twenty to sixty acres. This was the largest real estate subdivision that ever transpired in state up to that period and it sparked a land boom in Southern California.
By 1870 over 22,000 acres of his ranchos were sold and Stearns had recovered from his financial woes. He was on his way to not only regaining his former wealth, but surpassing it. He was to never experience the full success of this major real estate venture. Don Abel Stearns died on August 23, 1871 at the Grand Hotel in San Francisco.
Dona Arcadia outlived Stearns for over forty years. She and Don Abel had no children so she received the bulk of the Stearns estate. She went on to marry Robert S. Baker, who was one of the founders of Santa Monica, California. In 1878, Baker leveled El Palacio and Arcadia Block to make way for his Baker Block. Baker died in 1894 leaving Dona Arcadia widowed a second time. She retained most Rancho Laguna until the early 1900s when the value of the land multiplied due the expansion of the Los Angeles area. She became one of the wealthiest women in the state. When she died at the age of 85 in 1912, she was presumed to be worth $15,000,000.
Michael Reese was not a rancher and had no intentions of settling upon Los Alamitos. He leased the land to W. S. Lyons. Lyons, in turn, sublet about 2000 acres to John W. Bixby, a cousin to the Bixby brothers who at the time owned Rancho Los Cerritos. John William Bixby was a schoolteacher in Maine, who came to Rancho Los Cerritos in 1870 to help his cousins with their ranching business. He married Susan Patterson Hathaway in 1873 and the couple moved into a rented house in Wilmington. They had a son, Fred, and a daughter, Susanna.
After working for a while at Rancho Los Cerritos, John wanted to try ranching on his own. In 1878, he leased a portion of the adjacent Rancho Los Alamitos from Lyons and moved his family into the old Nieto adobe. On June 11, 1881, Bixby purchased the entire Rancho Los Alamitos from Charles Lux and Joseph Rosenberg, executors of the Reese estate for $125,000. Reese had died when he broke his neck as a result of a fall. Bixby owned an undivided one-third interest of the ranch, while the J. Bixby Company, owned by his cousin Jotham Bixby and Issiah W. Hellman, a Los Angeles banker, owned the remaining two-thirds.
The adobe had become decrepit and rat infested during the Reese ownership, so Bixby had to put forth a great deal of effort to restore it. All but two trees remained of a garden planted by Stearns. Bixby put in a wood floor and built a fireplace. The adobe walls on the inside were exposed so, Bixby placed newspaper to cover them. Later, the newspaper was replaced by wallpaper. In time, he added a bathroom and a hallway on the west side of the house. On the north he constructed a music room with windows that extended from the ceiling to the floor. In 1882, Bixby purchased a large wooden warehouse from Phineas Banning. During Civil War, the building was used as a water front depot by the Union Army at the Drumm Barracks in Wilmington. Bixby moved the structure to Rancho Los Alamitos, painted it red and used it as a barn. This historic barn burned down in 1947 and was replaced by the current one.
In addition to cattle, Bixby had sheep on his ranch, as many as 30,000. Under favorable conditions, his sheep produced up to 200,000 pounds of wool per year. He also operated a dairy and cheese factory at Los Alamitos. High quality livestock was introduced to the Bixby herds in order to improve them.
In 1880, Jotham Bixby sold 4,000 acres of Rancho Los Cerritos, near the ocean, to William E. Willmore. Willmore intended to develop a farming community and sell lots to families. Originally the tract was known as the American Colony, but the name was later changed to Willmore City. By 1885, Willmore was unable to make payments to Jotham Bixby and was forced to abandon the project. The Long Beach Land and Water Company took an interest in the waterfront property forfeited by Willmore and paid Jotham Bixby $240,000 for the defunct subdivision. The name was changed to Long Beach in 1885. Long Beach incorporated as a city on February 10, 1888.
Undoubtedly influenced by the development of nearby Long Beach, John Bixby tried his hand at subdivision. In 1886, he platted the tract of Alamitos Beach upon Rancho Los Alamitos. The townsite was situated along the coast and lay to the east of Long Beach (at Alamitos Avenue) stretching eastward to Redondo Avenue. The tract was twenty blocks long and only two blocks wide. Bixby gave the streets perpendicular to Ocean Avenue Spanish names, which went in alphabetical order from east to west. He dug artesian water wells and planted trees. Tragically, in 1887, John Bixby died at the early age of thirty-nine. He never realized the his dream of seeing his town thrive. However, his dream did not die with him. Cousins Jotham and George H. Bixby along with Issiah W. Hellman organized the Alamitos Land Company to continue John Bixby's work with Alamitos Beach. The town was annexed to the city of Long Beach in 1903 and became Bixby Park.
After John Bixby's death, Rancho Los Alamitos was divided into three sections. His widow, Susan, received half the rancho, the middle section that contained the adobe and main ranch buildings. Fred and Susanna Bixby each received a quarter interest. Susan Bixby lived at the old family adobe until her death in 1906. Fred Bixby and his family moved into the centenarian adobe where they would lived there for over half a century.
Fred Hathaway Bixby, the only son of John and Susan Bixby, was born on April 20, 1875. He was a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley in 1898. One month after his graduation, he married his college sweetheart, Florence Green. The couple, at first, lived at the Rancho Los Alamitos adobe with Fred's mother, but later moved into a house that Fred Bixby built at Cherry and Ocean Avenues in Long Beach. Located on a bluff, the house had a spectacular 180-degree view of the ocean. Bixby assumed the ranching responsibilities of Los Alamitos for his mother. Every day he would travel on horse back to the rancho from his house and return. Eventually he grew tired of the commute to work and moved his whole house on to the rancho, at the site of the Puvungna kitchen midden. This house was razed and replaced by the present-day tennis court.
When Susan Hathaway Bixby died in 1906, Fred Bixby moved into the adobe house of his parents. Florence Bixby added a skylight above the parlor, which she converted to a library. The old bunkhouse built by Abel Stearns was transformed into a kitchen, dining room for the ranch hands, and two bedrooms used as servants quarters. Fred Bixby's office was located in the west end of the former bunkhouse. The Bixbys added to the main house a wooden south wing, which included two bedrooms and a bathroom. In the 1920s Florence Bixby developed the beautiful garden surroundings. During this time an accounting office was added to the south wing. It was used to keep financial records of all the Bixby ranches. Since the ranch payroll was administered from the office, a huge vault was installed.
Fred Bixby was a cowboy at heart. He loved the hard work involved in ranching and frequently labored right alongside his employees while shearing sheep or roping and branding cattle. In 1908, he began acquiring other ranches in Southern California and later bought a 250,000-acre ranch in Arizona. In 1910, Rancho Los Alamitos was partitioned between Fred and his sister, Susanna. Each received 3,800 acres and Fred kept the family homestead, including the adobe. Eventually, Fred acquired his sister's interest as well. In 1931, Bixby established the Bixby Home Property Trust in order to reserve 120 acres of ranch land surrounding the family adobe. This was done so that the Bixby children and future generations would always have a place to come and enjoy the splendor of ranch life. Fred Bixby died in the spring of 1952. He was inducted to the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Florence Green Bixby died nine years later in 1961.
By the late 1960s, the city of Long Beach had expanded well within the boundaries of Rancho Los Alamitos. Neighborhood tract houses and shops were replacing vast empty plains of the rancho. The campus of California State University at Long Beach evolved upon what was once a Bixby barley field. By 1968, there was only 7 1/2 acres left of the original rancho. That year, the Board of Trustees of the Bixby Home Trust, who were Fred Bixby's children, decided to give the remainder of the rancho to the city of Long Beach to be used by the public as a historic site. It was their intention to preserve the historic rancho for generations to come. The Bixby heirs donated to the city the old adobe house, which had by then grew to nineteen rooms, along with all the contents and furnishings. The barns, antique farm implements and the blacksmith shop were also included in this generous gift.
Today, the Rancho Los Alamitos adobe is still a working ranch, but a much smaller scale. This historic site is preserved as a museum depicting life on the rancho, primarily during the Bixby occupation. The grounds of the adobe, the supporting structures, and the magnificent gardens are contained within a high brick wall that surrounds the park-like setting. Tall trees help to drown out the sights of modern day living. This historic site is situated at the top of Bixby Hill right in the center of a upper-middle class gated community. At the southern end of Palo Verde Street, there is a security shack where visitors must check-in prior to entry to the neighborhood in order to get to the rancho grounds.
Photos: LAOkay.com
At first glance, the Rancho Los Alamitos adobe looks like a 1950s ranch style home of mostly wood construction. It is painted white with bright red trim. The original adobe is contained within the main section of the house and may be seen through the enclosed front corredor (porch) at the east side. The corredor is totally enclosed by mission-style arches with screens and wood latticework placed between the space of each arch. The front of the house has a low sloping wood shake roof with a pair of dormer windows. Abel Stearns' north wing is made of wood as is the later south wing addition built by Fred Bixby. A wall connects the two wings and encloses a grass-covered patio.
Inside the house, the original adobe is distinguishable by the four-foot thick walls visible in each window and doorway. Now, the walls are covered with plaster, wallpaper or wood paneling, but a small section of the interior wall is cut away to reveal the adobe bricks. Each room of the adobe contains original furnishings and artifacts that belonged to the Bixby family. The present state of the house would give one the impression that the Bixbys just stepped out and were expected to return shortly. The library is in the main adobe portion of the house and is filled with books, many of which were gardening books of Florence Bixby. The music room and the master bedroom are the other two rooms in the adobe portion of the house. Some of the furniture was built by John Bixby, who was a gifted carpenter. The main bedroom contains a wardrobe cabinet handcrafted by John Bixby in 1879. The kitchen contains two china closets that he built in the 1880s. One of the closets has the original glass, while the other had its glass replaced in 1933 after being damaged by the Long Beach earthquake. Also displayed is an extensive glassware collection, which belonged to the Bixby women. John Bixby's office is still contains his desk and chair.
The barns and the stables are not in their original locations. They were brought in closer to the house as the rancho decreased in size. A variety of farm animals are kept in stables and stock pens. They are a diminished representation of what types of animals roamed Rancho Los Alamitos during the Bixby era. Included in the collection are a Belgian draft horse, an English shire horse, cows, goats, sheep, house cats, chickens and geese. One set of stables have has the names of Fred Bixby's prize horses. Another stable contains displays about different periods of the rancho. It also has a collection of saddles and a black open coach with velvet seats. There is an old red barn, which housed the diary and cheese factory. Another barn was used as a blacksmith shop, which is still operational. Toward the south slope of the property there is a hydraulic water ram that was used to pump water from the underground spring to a water tank near the house. The water ram still works.
The beautiful tranquil gardens alone are worth a visit to Rancho Los Alamitos. In front of the house stand two tall, thick-trunked bay fig trees with massive sprawling roots. They were planted in the late 1880s by Susan Bixby and are the largest pair of bay fig trees in the state. North of the house is a mission-style fountain and nearby is the stump of the old pepper tree planted by Abel Stearns. To the west of the house, wisteria vines hang from a long shady arbor. Florence Bixby hired professional landscapers and architects to help her design the fine rose gardens and spice gardens. Different varieties of cacti abound in a thoughtfully arranged cactus garden.
In September 1961, the local chapter of the Native Daughters of the Golden West placed a plaque upon a stone near the adobe, indicating its landmark status. In 1937, the Rancho Los Alamitos adobe is recognized as a historic building by the US Department of the Interior, Historic American Buildings Survey Committee and registered in the Library of Congress.
The Rancho Los Alamitos Adobe and Gardens is operated by the Rancho Los Alamitos Associates and open to the public as a museum. Special community programs and events, such as California Rancho Days, are offered year round.
Rancho Los Alamitos Website
6400 Bixby Hill Rd., Long Beach, CA 90815
Map
562 431-3541
Open the the public
Every Wednesday through Sunday, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County © 1997 John R. Kielbasa
Unless otherwise noted, photos © 2001-2004 LAokay.com