Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum facts for kids
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Workman Adobe
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 Location in the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Location in California
Location in the United States
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| Location | 15415 East Don Julian Rd., City of Industry, California |
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| Built | 1842, 1870 remodel |
| Architect | Ezra F. Kysor (attributed 1870 remodel) |
| Architectural style | Picturesque Country |
| NRHP reference No. | 74000519 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | November 20, 1974 |
The Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum is a special place in City of Industry, California. It's a historic house museum where you can explore the old homes and a private cemetery that belonged to the important Workman-Temple family. This museum lets you step back in time and see how a pioneering family lived in California.
Contents
The Workman House: A Historic Home
The Workman House is one of the main attractions at the museum. It was built by William Workman, who was born in England in 1799. He moved to the United States and then traveled west, arriving in the San Gabriel Valley in 1841. At that time, this area was part of Mexico.
Building and Changing the Workman House
William Workman bought land from the Rancho La Puente and built his first adobe house in 1842. Over the years, the house grew bigger. Around 1870, it was updated with new brick sections and a second floor. It also got fancy decorations on the outside. People believe that Ezra F. Kysor, a famous architect from Los Angeles, designed these changes. However, there are no old papers to prove this.
The Workman Adobe became a special historic site on November 20, 1974. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It also became a California State Historic Landmark (No. 874) along with the family cemetery. A special marker was placed at the site on November 5, 1976, which was 135 years after the Workman family first arrived.
Inside the Workman House
The house is quite large, measuring about 19 feet deep and 72 feet wide. It has big porches on both the north and south sides. On the first floor, there are eight rooms. The second floor has three finished rooms, with three more likely finished later in the 1800s.
The house changed a lot over time. From 1930 to 1935, it was used as classrooms for a military school. Later, from 1940 to 1963, it was a home and then offices for a health center called El Encanto. In 1975, the City of Industry bought the house and cemetery. Many original parts of the house were lost, but some old features still remain. These include the staircase from the 1870s, two marble fireplaces, and a fancy ceiling decoration from that time. In the late 1970s, workers fixed up the outside of the house. The entire east wall had to be rebuilt because it was made of adobe and had fallen down.
Visiting the Workman House
Today, you can take free guided tours of two houses on the property. Each tour lasts about 45 minutes. Some parts of the Workman house are not open to visitors, like the cellars and the upstairs rooms. The old dorms from the military school are also closed off.
La Casa Nueva: The Temple Family Home
The Homestead Museum also features another amazing house called "La Casa Nueva" (which means "The New House"). This house is a beautiful example of Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture. The Temple family built it between 1922 and 1927.
Designing and Building La Casa Nueva
The Temple family helped design their own home. Famous architects Walker and Eisen from Los Angeles drew up the plans. Later, in 1924, another architect named Roy Selden Price was hired to change some of the designs.
The house was mostly built with adobe bricks. Skilled workers from Guadalajara, Jalisco, led by Pablo Urzua, made these bricks by hand. The main builder was Sylvester Cook from Whittier. The house is huge, with 9,000 square feet of space! It has 26 rooms, including nine bedrooms, six bathrooms, and even a barber shop. There's also a large electric cold storage unit and a basement with an old bank vault from the 1870s. The house has unique features like hand-painted window designs and colorful stained glass. One special stained glass window shows a Madonna and child, but the Madonna has a modern face.
Life at La Casa Nueva
The Temple family only lived in the fully finished house for two full years (1928 and 1929). After that, the house was rented to Lawrence Lewis, who ran a boys' military school called Raenford (later Golden State). The school moved from Redondo Beach and operated on the 92-acre ranch from 1930 to 1935.
After the school left, the California Bank owned the house. Caretakers lived there until Harry and Lois Brown bought it in October 1940. They ran a health center called El Encanto, which they moved to the site. The Brown family took great care of the house until they sold it to the City of Industry in 1975.
Restoring and Opening La Casa Nueva
Workers spent several years restoring La Casa Nueva. The house opened as part of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in May 1981. Most of the house was still in good shape. Some parts were rebuilt, and the house was filled with furniture and items from that time period. Some original family furniture and items were given to the museum by the Temple family's descendants.
El Campo Santo Cemetery: A Family Burial Ground
The family cemetery, called El Campo Santo (which means "The Holy Field"), was started in the 1850s. The first person buried there was William Workman's older brother, David, in November 1855.
Building the Chapel and Mausoleum
In 1856, an artist named Henry Miller visited the Workman House. He was traveling through California to sketch old Spanish and Mexican Catholic missions. While staying at the Workman House, he drew plans for a chapel that William Workman wanted to build. On May 30, 1857, the first stone of St. Nicholas's Chapel was laid. It was named after Workman's wife, Nicolasa Urioste de Valencia. The chapel was a beautiful Gothic Revival building, measuring 24 by 48 feet, with gold ceilings and stained glass windows. It was finished by the early 1860s.
The cemetery was only used for Workman and Temple family members and their friends. Church services were held regularly at the chapel, likely by a priest visiting from Mission San Gabriel Arcángel.
Challenges and Rebuilding
After the family's bank failed in 1876, they lost most of their land. By 1900, the chapel was said to have burned down and was torn down. Many gravestones were removed, and the site was damaged. In 1907, Walter Temple, William Workman's grandson, filed a lawsuit that stopped the destruction. However, the cemetery remained neglected for ten years.
Then, Walter Temple became rich from oil found on his Montebello ranch. From 1919 to 1921, his first priority was to fix up El Campo Santo. He also built a mausoleum (a large tomb) on the site of the old chapel. This mausoleum was designed by the architects Garstang and Rea. The cemetery reopened in April 1921. At that time, the remains of Pío Pico, the last governor of Alta California, and his wife, Ygnacia Alvarado, were placed in the mausoleum. It also holds the remains of other important pioneer families. The Workman Home and Family Cemetery are now a California Historical Landmark (No. 874).
Recent Burials
The cemetery continued to be used by the Temple family in the 1920s and the Brown family from 1940 to 1981. In recent years, there have been three burials. Walter P. Temple was moved to the site in 2002 from Mission San Gabriel. His son, Walter Jr., who was the last family member to live at the Homestead, and his daughter-in-law, Nellie Didier, were buried in the cemetery in 1998. A spot is saved for their daughter, after which the cemetery will no longer be actively used for burials.
Visiting the Homestead Museum
The museum opened on May 1, 1981. The City of Industry owns and pays for the museum. Guided public tours of the Workman Home, La Casa Nueva, and El Campo Santo Cemetery are available every hour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. The museum is closed on major holidays. The museum also hosts many events throughout the year, including festivals, living history tours, and workshops.
California Historic Landmark Marker
A special marker at the site tells part of its history:
- NO. 874 WORKMAN HOME AND FAMILY CEMETERY - William Workman and John Rowland organized the first wagon train of permanent eastern settlers, which arrived in Southern California on November 5, 1841. Together they owned and developed the 48,790-acre La Puente Rancho. Workman began this adobe home in 1842 and remodeled it in 1872 to resemble a manor house in his native England. He also established 'El Campo Santo,' this region's earliest known private family cemetery, in 1850, the miniature Classic Grecian mausoleum was built in 1919 by grandson Walter P. Temple.
Images for kids
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Historical Marker at Workman Home
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Temple Mansion
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Entrance to Temple Mansion
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"Tepee" at Temple Mansion
Local School Connection
There is a school in the City of Industry called Workman High School. It is named after William Workman, who was an important pioneer in the area.
