Rancho Los Alamitos | |
![]() The exterior house at Rancho Los Alamitos, circa July 2008. | |
Location | 6400 Bixby Hill Rd., Long Beach, California |
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Coordinates | 33°46′36″N118°6′25″W / 33.77667°N 118.10694°W |
Area | 7.4 acres (3.0 ha) |
Built | between 1800 and 1834 |
Architectural style | Spanish Colonial |
Website | www |
NRHP reference No. | 81000153 [1] |
Added to NRHP | July 7, 1981 |
Rancho Los Alamitos takes its name from an 1834 Mexican partition of the 1784 Rancho Los Nietos, a Spanish concession, covering an area in present-day California's southwestern Los Angeles County and northwestern Orange County. Los Alamitos means the Little Cottonwoods or Poplars in Spanish, after the native Fremont Cottonwood trees there.
Rancho Los Alamitos originally included much of the area of present-day eastern Long Beach, all of Los Alamitos and Rossmoor, and most of Seal Beach, Cypress, Stanton and Garden Grove. [2] It is also sometimes referred to as Bixby Ranch, after its last private owners. The early 19th century adobe ranch house still stands today, housing a museum which presents the history of the area.
The history of the 28,000-acre (110 km2) Rancho Los Alamitos is almost a microcosm for the history of expansion throughout Southern California, from the Native Americana cultures to contemporary times. [3] The area was first the location of the major circa 500 C.E. - 1780s Tongva — Gabrieliño sacred ceremonial and trading village of Povuu'nga, now an archeological site. [4] After Spanish occupation the ownership was to change and the boundaries would shrink many times. Situated in the floodplain between the mouths of the ever-shifting Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana Rivers, the coastal plain terrain of the rancho is virtually flat rich soil, and was subject to frequent flooding. The rancho building itself is located near Puvunga springs alongside on one of the few small hills, Alamitos Mesa, in the area.
Rancho Los Alamitos was one of five ranchos that resulted from the partition of the original Rancho Los Nietos grant given to Manuel Nieto, a former sergeant in the Spanish army, in 1784 by governor Pedro Fages, coincidentally his former commander. [6] Nieto's grant was not only one of the first three awarded by the Spanish in Alta California, it was also the largest. After Nieto died, his children requested his original grant be partitioned. In 1834, Mexican governor José Figueroa officially declared Rancho Los Alamitos as one of the five partitions.
In 1844 the rancho was purchased by Abel Stearns, a Massachusetts native who typified the many Yankees who settled in California and merged with the ruling Mexican Californios population. Stearns, who married Arcadia Bandini, the daughter of the early Spanish regional civic and business leader Juan Bandini, became one of the leading merchants and major ranchos owners in Mexican Alta California.
The rancho was on the periphery of the battles that settled the California Campaign of the Mexican–American War by 1846. During the California Gold Rush, the rancho supplied much of the beef that would be herded north to feed the growing number of Immigrants who were flocking to the gold fields of Northern California from 1848 on. After California became a U.S. state in 1850, Rancho Los Alamitos was the headquarters of the largest cattle ranch then in existence in the United States. Through shrewd business dealings, Stearns assumed control of Los Alamitos and many other surrounding ranchos.
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Los Alamitos was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, [8] [9] and the grant was patented to Abel Stearns Aug. 29, 1874, for 28,027.17 acres.
After a disastrous drought in the 1860s, Stearns lost control of the ranch which was then sub-let to a number of farmers until the early 1880s when John William Bixby, a cousin of Jotham Bixby and Llewellyn Bixby who controlled the adjacent Rancho Los Cerritos, bought the rancho along with a group which included his cousins and Isaias Hellman, the founder of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles.
Trying to capitalize on the 1880s Southern California land boom, John Bixby developed the townsite of Alamitos Beach, which would eventually be assumed by Long Beach. Before Bixby could do much more he died suddenly in 1888, apparently due to an appendicitis attack, and Rancho Los Alamitos was separated between three major parties. The developed Alamitos Beach properties were shared equally, while John Bixby's heirs kept the central section of the remaining rancho, the Bixby cousins from Rancho Los Cerritos assumed control of the northern section, and Hellman took control of the southern lands around present day Seal Beach. Unfortunately, a financial crisis prevented the various parties from seriously pursuing John Bixby's dream of developing Alamitos Beach.
The Bixbys had once flirted with sugar beet production on properties they held in Northern California. In the 1890s, Jotham Bixby arranged to provide land on the rancho for sugar beet production and recruited the capital of William Clark, who was amongst the richest men in the United States, to build a sugar beet refinery plant on a portion of the Bixby Ranch property. Later oil discoveries from the Long Beach Oil Field continued to fund the rancho.
The historic ranch house, surrounding ranching facilities, and some open landscape of Rancho Los Alamitos can still be found adjacent to Cal State Long Beach. [10] The Bixby family descendants donated the property to the City of Long Beach in 1967. [11]
The early 19th century adobe ranch house still stands today, surrounded by its historic gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Florence Yoch & Lucile Council, [12] all of which are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Rancho Los Alamitos house and grounds are a museum which presents the history of the rancho era, the country house era, and the region. [13]
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the 43rd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California, and the second most populous city in Los Angeles County, after the city of Los Angeles.
Los Alamitos is a city in Orange County, California. The city was incorporated in March 1960. The population was 11,780 at the 2020 census, up from 11,449 at the 2010 census. The adjacent unincorporated community of Rossmoor uses the same 90720 ZIP code in its mailing address, but is not part of the city. The Los Alamitos Race Course is named for the city, but lies in the neighboring city of Cypress.
Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker (1827–1912) was a wealthy Californio landowner and socialite of Los Angeles. She played an important role in the elite society of Los Angeles and, later, Santa Monica. She was married to two wealthy Anglo-American men over the course of her life, Abel Stearns and then Colonel Robert S. Baker. Like many californias of her time, Arcadia Bandini provided to her Anglo husbands opportunities for entrance into and alliances within the established californio elite society. She was a skilled businesswoman in her own right, as well as a renowned hostess and organizer of balls and other social functions. Through her Bandini family wealth and the wealth of her husbands, Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker amassed an enormous estate and fortune, and upon her death was one of the wealthiest women in America. In her later life, she was considered "the great benefactress of Santa Monica" for her investments in and contributions to the development of the city. Because she had no children and did not leave a will, her death prompted an infamous court battle for control of her estate.
Puvunga is an ancient village and sacred site of the Tongva nation, the Indigenous people of the Los Angeles Basin, and the Acjachemen, the Indigenous people of Orange County. The site is now located within California State University, Long Beach and the surrounding area. The Tongva know Puvunga as the "place of emergence" and it is where they believed "their world and their lives began." Puvunga is an important ceremonial site and is the end to an annual pilgrimage for the Tongva, Acjachemen, and Chumash.
Lakewood Village, or simply known as The Village, is a neighborhood in the northeast portion of the city of Long Beach, California. It is bordered on the west, north and east sides by the City of Lakewood. It is located south of Del Amo Boulevard, north of Carson Street, east of Lakewood Boulevard and west of Bellflower Boulevard.
Rancho de los Palos Verdes was a 31,629-acre (128.00 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to José Loreto and Juan Capistrano Sepulveda. The name means "ranch of the green trees". The grant encompassed the present-day cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, as well as portions of San Pedro and Torrance.
California Heights is a historic neighborhood of Long Beach, California.
Los Cerritos Ranch House, also known as Rancho Los Cerritos or Casa de los Cerritos, in Long Beach, California, was "the largest and most impressive adobe residence erected in southern California during the Mexican period". Los Cerritos means "the little hills" in English. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. It is currently a museum.
Abel Stearns was an American trader who came to the Pueblo de Los Angeles, Alta California in 1829 and became a major landowner and cattle rancher and one of the area's wealthiest citizens.
Don Juan Temple was a Californian ranchero and merchant. Born in Massachusetts, he emigrated to Alta California in 1827, becoming a Mexican citizen, adopting the Spanish language and a Spanish name, and eventually marrying into a prominent Californio family. After acquiring Rancho Los Cerritos in 1843, he became one of the largest landowners in Los Angeles County.
Rancho Santa Gertrudes was a 21,298-acre (86.19 km2) 1834 Mexican land grant, in present-day Los Angeles County, California, resulting from a partition of Rancho Los Nietos. A former site of Nacaugna, the rancho lands included the present-day cities of Downey, Santa Fe Springs and the northern part of Norwalk.
Rancho Los Coyotes was a 48,806-acre (197.51 km2) 1834 Mexican land grant resulting from the partition of the Rancho Los Nietos grant, in present-day southeastern Los Angeles County and northwestern Orange County, California. The rancho lands include the present-day cities of Cerritos, La Mirada, Artesia, Stanton, and Buena Park.
Rancho Los Cerritos was a 27,054-acre (109.48 km2) 1834 land grant in present-day southern Los Angeles County and Orange County, California The grant was the result of a partition of the Rancho Los Nietos grant. "Cerritos" means "little hills" in Spanish. The rancho lands include the present-day cities of Cerritos, Paramount, Bellflower and Long Beach.
Rancho Las Bolsas was a 33,460-acre (135.4 km2) 1834 Mexican land grant resulting from the partition of Rancho Los Nietos, located from the coast on inland within present day northwestern Orange County, California. The Spanish name "las bolsas" means "the pockets", and refers to pockets of land amongst the marsh wetlands of the Santa Ana River estuary. The rancho lands, adjacent to the southeast of Rancho La Bolsa Chica, include the present day cities of Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley and Westminster.
The Battle of Chino, a skirmish of the Mexican–American War occurred on September 26–27, 1846, during which 24 Americans led by Benjamin D. Wilson, who were hiding in the adobe house of Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, were captured by a group of about 50 Californios.
Rancho La Bolsa Chica was an 8,107-acre (32.81 km2) Mexican land grant in present day coastal northwestern Orange County, California given in 1841 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Joaquín Ruiz. The name means "little pocket", and refers to pockets of land amongst the marsh wetlands of the Santa Ana River estuary. The rancho lands include the present day city of Huntington Beach, the community of Sunset Beach, and the significant Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.
The Bixby family is an American family that was heavily involved in the development of California ranches and real estate in the 19th and 20th centuries. Through various companies, they controlled at one time or another large swathes of California real estate, much of it derived from Mexican land grants. Over several generations, their holdings included Rancho Los Cerritos and Rancho Los Alamitos, and parts of Rancho San Justo and Rancho Palos Verdes, totaling well over 100,000 acres. Parts of the towns of Long Beach, Bellflower, Paramount, Signal Hill, Lakewood, and Los Alamitos emerged from former Bixby-held lands. Within Long Beach, the neighborhoods Bixby Hill, Bixby Knolls, and Bixby Village are named after the family, as well as Bixby Park in the Alamitos Beach neighborhood.
Sarah Bixby Smith (1871–1935) was a California writer and an advocate of women's education. Adobe Days, her memoir of growing up in southern California, is considered a classic of the genre.
The Bixby land companies were a group of California-based land companies founded by various members of the Bixby and Flint families from Maine. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the firms of Flint, Bixby & Company, J. Bixby & Company, J. W. Bixby & Company, the Alamitos Land Company, and the Bixby Land Company controlled large swathes of California real estate, much of it derived from Mexican land grants. At various times their holdings included Rancho Los Cerritos, Rancho Los Alamitos, half of Rancho San Justo, and part of Rancho Palos Verdes together with other property in San Benito, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles counties. Parts of the towns of Long Beach, Bellflower, Paramount, Signal Hill, Lakewood, and Los Alamitos emerged from former Bixby-held lands.
Willmore is a neighborhood in Long Beach, California. It is adjacent to Downtown Long Beach.