Ygnacio Palomares Adobe facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
|
|
Ygnacio Palomares Adobe
|
|
Ygnacio Palomares Adobe, August 2008
|
|
| Location | 491 East Arrow Highway, Pomona, California |
|---|---|
| Built | 1855 |
| Architectural style | adobe |
| NRHP reference No. | 71000156 |
| Added to NRHP | March 3, 1971 |
The Ygnacio Palomares Adobe, also known as Adobe de Palomares, is a historic house in Pomona, California. It was built between 1850 and 1855 for Don Ygnacio Palomares and his family. An adobe is a building made from sun-dried earth bricks.
After the family left in the 1880s, the house slowly fell apart. In the 1930s, the City of Pomona bought it. With help from the Historical Society of Pomona Valley and the Works Project Administration (WPA), the adobe was carefully restored in 1939.
Since 1940, the Ygnacio Palomares Adobe has been open to the public. It is now a museum where you can learn about life on Spanish and Mexican ranchos (large farms or ranches). In 1971, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which lists important historical sites in the United States.
Contents
A Look Back: Rancho Life
The Ygnacio Palomares Adobe was built between 1850 and 1855. It was once the main building of a huge property called Rancho San Jose. This rancho covered about 22,000 acres (89 square kilometers).
The Rancho San Jose Story
The land for Rancho San Jose originally belonged to the Mission San Gabriel. In 1834, the Mexican government took control of mission lands. In 1837, Mexican Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado gave this large piece of land to Ygnacio Palomares and Ricardo Vejar. They were both Californios, which means they were people of Spanish descent born in California.
The Rancho San Jose was so big it included land that is now part of many cities. These include Pomona, LaVerne, San Dimas, Diamond Bar, Azusa, Covina, Walnut, Glendora, and Claremont. Before building the current adobe, Palomares lived in an older adobe called "La Casa Primera".
Building the Adobe Home
Between 1850 and 1855, Ygnacio Palomares built his new home, which is the adobe you can visit today. This large house had 13 rooms and was shaped like a "T" with a central courtyard.
The main living room and master bedroom were at the top of the "T". The house also had four other bedrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, and storage areas. The kitchen was near the outdoor oven, called a "horno." The adobe shows a mix of Mexican building styles and American ideas. For example, it used traditional adobe bricks but also had wooden roofs and floors.
Life at the Palomares Adobe
The Palomares Adobe was a busy place. It even served as an overnight stop for stagecoaches traveling between Los Angeles and San Bernardino. The Palomares home was known as "the heart of the rancho." Its doors were always open to travelers, and it had a small store for settlers to buy goods.
The large living room was used for many years as a meeting place. Priests from the San Gabriel Mission would visit once a month to hold church services there. Ygnacio Palomares and his wife raised sheep and cattle on their ranch. They also grew their own crops and raised five children in the adobe.
The ranch did well for many years. However, a very bad drought in the early 1860s hurt the ranch. Sadly, three of the Palomares' children also died from smallpox. Don Ygnacio himself passed away in 1864.
After Don Ygnacio died, his wife, Dona Concepcion Lopez de Palomares, started selling parts of the ranch land in 1865. In 1874, she sold the last 2,000 acres (8.1 square kilometers) of the ranch, including the adobe, for $8 an acre. The new owners, the Meserve family, continued to use the adobe as a community gathering place for a while. However, by the mid-1880s, the old adobe was left empty.
The Adobe Falls Apart
From the 1880s to the 1920s, the adobe was left alone. It slowly fell apart due to weather and neglect. Parts of the house washed away, and the walls and roof crumbled. Old photos from 1938 show how badly damaged the adobe had become.
Bringing the Adobe Back to Life
In 1934, the City of Pomona bought the land where the adobe stood. The Historical Society of Pomona Valley then made plans to restore the old building.
Restoration Work Begins
In 1939, seventy workers from the WPA began restoring the adobe. They used traditional methods, making new adobe bricks by hand. They mixed dirt from the nearby Ganesha Hills with straw and let the bricks dry in the sun. About 25,000 new adobe bricks were used in the restoration. Many of these new bricks were even made from the broken pieces of the original adobe bricks. The whole restoration project cost about $54,000.
The restoration was finished in December 1939. After that, the house was furnished with furniture that looked like what people would have used on California ranchos during that time. The original gardens were also brought back to life. This included planting wisteria vines, wild cherry, black walnut, pomegranate, and poplar trees.
Opening as a Museum
The adobe was officially opened to the public in April 1940. It became a museum to teach people about life on early California ranchos. At the opening ceremony, the keys were given to the Historical Society of Pomona Valley. Ygnacio Palomares, the grandson of Don Ygnacio, even danced traditional dances with his granddaughter.
The restoration was praised by many. Ed Ainsworth from the Los Angeles Times newspaper wrote that it was "an imperishable glorification of early California." Two years later, the Los Angeles Times said the adobe had become "famous throughout the nation as a permanent museum." In 1968, it was called "one of the pleasantest and most complete of the rancho restorations."
Members of the Palomares family were even invited to live in the restored adobe as caretakers. Porfiero R. Palomares, who was born in the adobe and was Don Ygnacio's grandson, moved in with his wife and daughter in December 1939. He lived there until he passed away in 1942. His widow, Hortensia Yorba Palomares, continued to live in the adobe until her death in 1958.
The Rebuilding of the Palomares Adobe Mural
In 1941, an artist named Frank Stauffacher created a large painting about the adobe's construction. This 16.5-foot long oil painting shows workers and people watching the building process. It is now displayed on a wall at the Pomona Transit Center.
California Historical Landmark
The Ygnacio Palomares Adobe is recognized as California Historical Landmark NO. 372. A marker at the site explains:
- NO. 372 ADOBE DE PALOMARES - Completed about 1854 and restored in 1939, this was the family home of Don Ygnacio Palomares. Governor Juan B. Alvarado granted Rancho San Jose to Don Ygnacio and Don Ricardo Vejar in 1837.
See also
