Pre-Colonization
Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site is located on the ancestral and current homeland of the Gabrielino/Tongva people, who are the past, present, and future caretakers of the Los Angeles Basin and Southern Chanel Islands.
The Tongva have lived on this land since time immemorial, living in 50-100 communities across the greater Los Angeles area. A village called Tevaaxa’nga (Te-vaah-ha-nga) was located near what became known as Rancho Los Cerritos. They lived off the land, gathering acorns, seeds and berries, fishing the rivers and oceans, and hunting for small game.
After Spain began colonizing California, the Tongva and other Native Americans across California were forced to move to nearby missions, where they were converted to Christianity. Thus, the Tongva became known as the Gabrielino, named after the nearby Mission San Gabriel.
Despite numerous historic attempts at assimilation and removal, the Tongva never left. The Tongva are still here, playing an active role in the Southern California community. To learn more, click here.
1784-1843
In 1784, the king of Spain granted 300,000 acres to a former soldier named Manuel Nieto, who was originally from Sinaloa (in present-day Mexico). This land grant was given as a reward for Nieto’s military service and to encourage Spanish settlement in California. Nieto’s acreage was reduced in 1790 because of a dispute with the Mission San Gabriel, but he still laid claim to 167,000 acres stretching from the hills north of Whittier to the sea, and from today’s Los Angeles River to the Santa Ana River. Upon his death in 1804, his children inherited his property.
Daughter Manuela Cota received the 27,000 acre area known as Rancho Los Cerritos (“Ranch of the Little Hills”). She and her husband Guillermo built at least two adobes on the land and raised cattle as well as crops. Following her death, her heirs sold the Rancho to Massachusetts-born John Temple in December 1843.
1843-1866
Indigenous laborers built the present two-story Monterey-style adobe house for John Temple in 1843-1844. The adobe became the headquarters for John Temple’s cattle ranching operation; he pastured as many as 15,000 cattle here and engaged in the lucrative hide and tallow trade.
Although it included living space for Temple and his family, Rancho Los Cerritos never served as Temple’s primary residence. His main residence was in the pueblo of Los Angeles, but much care and considerable expense was lavished upon both the adobe house and the formal garden at Rancho Los Cerritos. (Several trees from Temple’s time still exist on RLC grounds today!) While Temple himself did not live at the Rancho, there were many workers and their families who made a home here. The 1850 census shows that there were upwards of 30 people living and working at Rancho Los Cerritos, many of whom were Indigenous. A mayordomo, or ranch manager, was employed to oversee the cattle ranching business and employees.
The Gold Rush (1848-1855) gave a boost to the Southern California cattle industry. Ranchers such as Temple drove their herds north to feed the hungry miners. They could still sell the hides and tallow of the cows, but the meat was now profitable as well.
By the early 1860s, however, successive years of severe droughts and flooding brought an end to the cattle ranching era in California. As tens of thousands of his cattle died, Temple decided to sell Rancho Los Cerritos. In 1866, the firm Flint, Bixby & Co. purchased all structures and land for $20,000.
1866-1881
Brothers Thomas and Benjamin Flint and their cousin Lewellyn Bixby founded Flint, Bixby & Co. and began raising sheep in Northern California in 1854. In 1866, the company selected Lewellyn’s brother Jotham to manage their southern ranch here at Rancho Los Cerritos. From 1866 to 1881, Jotham Bixby and his family resided in the Cerritos adobe. As many as 30,000 sheep were kept at the ranch and sheared twice yearly to provide wool for trade.
Jotham, with his wife Margaret and seven children, lived at Rancho Los Cerritos full-time. Various friends and family members also visited or even lived with the Bixbys from time to time.
In addition to the family, there were many workers who resided at the Rancho. There were several domestic workers who helped with household chores, including Ah Ying, who did the cooking and laundry for all residents. In addition, there were laborers who helped with various aspects of the sheep ranching business, including sheep herding, sheep shearing, and more. All in all, there were regularly around 30 people living at Rancho Los Cerritos.
By the late 1870s, the sheep industry in Southern California was on the decline and Jotham Bixby chose to lease or sell portions of the property. By 1884, the new town of Long Beach occupied the southwest corner of the Rancho. Eventually the cities of Downey, Paramount, Signal Hill, Bellflower, and Lakewood were founded on Rancho Los Cerritos land as well. On the outskirts of these towns, dairy farms thrived. In addition, beans, barley, and alfalfa were grown to feed the inhabitants of the new cities that were being established.
1881-1929
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Cerritos adobe housed a succession of tenants, most of whom worked for the various farms and dairies. When the Virginia Country Club was established next door in 1921, some of the tenants went to work there as groundskeepers and in other roles. During this period, however, the Cerritos adobe, which was still owned by J. Bixby & Co., fell into disrepair through general neglect.
Some of the workers from the Bixby sheep ranch remained at the adobe as tenants, including Ah Ying. From 1906-1919, the adobe was run as a boarding house by Ramona Lopez García. During the 1920s, the house was primarily rented by the families of men who worked at the Virginia Country Club next door.
Learn more about the tenants who lived at Rancho Los Cerritos during this time.
To listen to interviews with some of the Rancho Los Cerritos’ tenants, click here.
1929-1955
By 1929, Llewellyn Bixby, Sr., purchased the remaining five acres and hired an architectural firm to remodel the Rancho Los Cerritos adobe and a landscape architect to renovate the gardens. Llewellyn Bixby and his wife Avis moved into the adobe in 1931; their college-age son also lived in the house, as did several domestic servants and their gardener/driver, Arthur Orchard. Although the renovation was extensive and included a new roof, expanded rooms, electricity, plumbing, fireplaces, and a sunporch; the original configuration of Temple’s adobe was left intact. After Llewellyn, Sr.’s death, his family eventually sold the house to the City of Long Beach. In 1955, the site opened as a public museum dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the Rancho and the surrounding area.
Maps
