A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. [1] [2] [3]
Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of these criteria: [4]
California Historical Landmarks numbered 770 and higher are automatically listed in the California Register of Historical Resources.
A site, building, feature, or event that is of local (city or county) significance may be designated as a California Point of Historical Interest. [4]
Mission San Buenaventura, formally known as the Mission Basilica of San Buenaventura, is a Catholic parish and basilica in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The parish church in the city of Ventura, California, United States, is a Spanish mission founded by the Order of Friars Minor. Founded on March 31, 1782, it was the ninth Spanish mission established in Alta California and the last to be established by the head of the Franciscan missions in California, Junípero Serra. Designated a California Historical Landmark, the mission is one of many locally designated landmarks in downtown Ventura.
Mission La Purísima Concepción, or La Purísima Mission is a Spanish mission in Lompoc, California. It was established on December 8, 1787 by the Franciscan order. The original mission complex south of Lompoc was destroyed by an earthquake in 1812, and the mission was rebuilt at its present site a few miles to the northeast.
Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura, is a city in and the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States. The population was 110,763 at the 2020 census. Ventura is a popular tourist destination, owing to its historic landmarks, beaches, and resorts.
The Stagecoach Inn Museum in Newbury Park, California, originally known as the Grand Union Hotel, was used as a resting area for people who traveled from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. Besides a hotel and stagecoach stop, it has also been used as a post office, church, restaurant and military school. It is California Historical Landmark No. 659 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It played a major role in the development of the stage line transportation network in California. The hotel was also the first business venture in the Conejo Valley.
Rancho Camulos, now known as Rancho Camulos Museum, is a ranch located in the Santa Clara River Valley 2.2 miles (3.5 km) east of Piru, California and just north of the Santa Clara River, in Ventura County, California. It was the home of Ygnacio del Valle, a Californio alcalde of the Pueblo de Los Angeles in the 19th century and later elected member of the California State Assembly. The ranch was known as the Home of Ramona because it was widely believed to have been the setting of the popular 1884 novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. The novel helped to raise awareness about the Californio lifestyle and romanticized "the mission and rancho era of California history."
El Presidio Real de San Diego is a historic fort in San Diego, California. It was established on May 14, 1769, by Gaspar de Portolá, leader of the first European land exploration of Alta California—at that time an unexplored northwestern frontier area of New Spain. The presidio was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Coast of the present-day United States. As the first of the presidios and Spanish missions in California, it was the base of operations for the Spanish colonization of California. The associated Mission San Diego de Alcalá later moved a few miles away.
Rancho San Francisco was a land grant in present-day northwestern Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County, California. It was a grant of 48,612 acres (19,673 ha) by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Antonio del Valle, a Mexican army officer, in recognition for his service to Alta California. It is not related to the city of San Francisco.
Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park is a California State Park of 670.68 acres (2.7141 km2) located in the city of Los Angeles, in Los Angeles County on the boundary between Ventura and Los Angeles counties, between the communities of Chatsworth and Simi Valley. Geologically, the park is located where the Simi Hills meet the Santa Susana Mountains. Here in the western part of the Transverse Ranges, the land is dominated by high, narrow ridges and deep canyons covered with an abundant variety of plant life. The park offers panoramic views of the rugged natural landscape as a striking contrast to the developed communities nearby. The park is also rich in archaeological, historical, and cultural significance.
The historic Simi Adobe–Strathearn House served as the headquarters of Rancho Simi, also known as Rancho San José de Nuestra Senora de Altagracia y Simi, one of the land grants in Alta California by the Spanish government. The name derives from Shimiji, the name of the Chumash village here before the Spanish. Rancho Simi was the earliest Spanish colonial land grant within Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. At 113,000 acres, Rancho Simi was one of the state's largest land grants.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the U.S. state of California.
The San Miguel Chapel Site is an archeological site in Ventura, California, United States, at the location of the first outpost and center of operations that was established while the first Mission San Buenaventura was being constructed. The San Miguel Chapel was located just outside the southwest corner of the walled garden that was constructed as part of the ultimate layout of the mission complex. The open space park is located at the southwest corner of Thompson Boulevard and Palm Street in downtown Ventura. Interpretative signs and public art have been added to the site, which is protected and managed as a natural environment by the city parks department.
The City of Ventura Historic Landmarks and Districts consist of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods designated by the City of Ventura, California, as historic landmarks and districts.
The Ventura County Historic Landmarks & Points of Interest consist of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods designated by Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board as historic landmarks and points of interest in Ventura County, California. The county board of supervisors created the Cultural Heritage Board in 1966 and in August 1968, two sites were designated: the Faulkner House near Santa Paula; and the Edwards Adobe in Saticoy. The scope was established to include the entire county: both cities and the unincorporated areas. The cities of Fillmore, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Simi Valley, and Thousand Oaks have the county Cultural Heritage Board advise them and those designations are listed here. The cities of Moorpark, Ojai, Santa Paula, and Ventura established their own separate historic designation systems with the City of Ventura Historic Landmarks and Districts developing into an extensive list. The Port Hueneme Historical Society Museum houses historical artifacts, photographs and information on the history of the Hueneme area. The museum is in the Hueneme Bank Building.
The Serra Cross, sometimes also known as the Cross on the Hill or the Grant Park Cross, is a Christian cross on a hill known as "La Loma de la Cruz" in Ventura, California. The site is in Serra Cross Park, a one-acre parcel within the larger Grant Park that overlooks downtown Ventura, the Santa Barbara Channel, and Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands.
The Santa Gertrudis Asistencia, also known as the Santa Gertrudis Chapel, was an asistencia ("sub-mission") to the Mission San Buenaventura, part of the system of Spanish missions in Las Californias—Alta California. Built at an unknown date between 1792 and 1809, it was located approximately five miles from the main mission, inland and upstream along the Ventura River. The site was buried in 1968 by the construction of California State Route 33. Prior to the freeway's construction, archaeologists excavated and studied the site. A number of foundation stones were moved and used to create the Santa Gertrudis Asistencia Monument which was designated in 1970 as Ventura County Historic Landmark No. 11.