352 results for author: admin

Wolfskill Ranch established

William Wolfskill, a native of Kentucky, came to California in 1831 and settled in Los Angeles in 1836, where he soon met and married Magdalena Lugo, daughter of Jose Ygnacio Lugo. In March 1838, Wolfskill purchased a 100-acre lot bounded by 3rd to 9th streets and San Pedro to Alameda streets, which he named Wolfskill Ranch, and built a large adobe (known as "Wolfskill Adobe") located at 239 Alameda, between 3rd and 4th streets. This land is located a few blocks away from Azusa Street on the other side of the L.A. River. In 1839, Wolfskill became a major grape producer when he planted the first vineyard of table grapes in California. Two years ...

John Edward Hollenbeck

John Edward Hollenbeck was an American businessman and investor who was significantly involved in the 19th century development of downtown Los Angeles. Arriving in Los Angeles a wealthy man from his investments in Nicaragua in 1876, Hollenbeck purchased land on the east side of the Los Angeles River, and built a large residence with broad verandas and a tower on extensive grounds on Boyle Avenue and may have owned the land that became Azusa Street. He made twenty-seven acquisitions of property by 1880. In 1884 he purchased and developed an urban business district, known as the Hollenbeck Block, within Los Angeles. In 1878 Hollenbeck became a ...

Biddy Mason is Born

Bridget ("Biddy") Mason was born a slave on a Mississippi plantation. When her owner, Robert M. Smith, became a Mormon convert in 1847, Mason and her three daughters joined his family on a 2,000-mile trek to the Utah Territory during which Mason was responsible for herding the cattle, preparing the meals and serving as midwife. Four years later, Smith moved his household to San Bernardino County, Calif., where Brigham Young was starting a Mormon community. California being a free state, Mason and her daughters petitioned the court for their freedom, which was granted in 1856. Mason moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a nurse and midwife. A ...

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel

Founded by Fathers Pedro Benito Cambón and Angel Fernandez Somera y Balbuena in 1771, the mission was originally established along the slopes of the Montebello hills at the native site of Shevaanga, overlooking the San Gabriel Valley. In 1775 the mission was relocated to the native site of Iisanchanga about three miles to the northwest, where it currently stands being about nine miles east of Azusa Street. Within fifteen years of its founding San Gabriel had 1,000 neophytes, or newly converted believers. The highest population recorded was 1,701, in 1817. Well over 25,000 baptisms were conducted at San Gabriel between 1771 and 1834, making it the ...

Map of El Pueblo

Reproduction of Argüello's 1786 map of the town plan, translated into English, with the founding 11 families' and 44 settlers' homes. The plaza and residences appear in the top-left and the agricultural fields in the bottom-right. The two streams running from top to bottom are the zanja, an irrigation ditch, and the river. El Camino real, the road connected the pueblo to the San Gabriel Mission and other Spanish settlements, runs left-to-right between the plaza and the farmland. This map is thought to be of land 1.6 miles away from Azusa Street at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument and that settlers used the land at present-day Azusa street.

The Zanja Madre

The Zanja Madre (Mother Ditch) is the original aqueduct that brought water to the Pueblo de Los Angeles from the Rio Porciuncula (Los Angeles River). It was originally an open, earthen ditch that was completed by community laborers within a month of founding the pueblo in 1781. The Zanja Madre system ran from the Los Angeles River for more than a mile to La Placita, where the Olvera Street marketplace is now. Residents not only got their drinking water from the ditch, but its water also irrigated the surrounding vineyards and farmland. On the left, a image shows a woman carrying a jug of water from the Zanja Madre at La Placita’s well.

Los Pobladores: Founding Families of El Pueblo

Settling 1.6 miles away from Azusa Street to found present-day Los Angeles, the eleven families that established El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles were: VANEGAS
José Vanegas came from Real de Bolaños, Jalisco, and his wife, Maria Máxima Aguilar came from Rosario, Sinaloa. In 1788 José Vanegas became the first alcalde (mayor) of Los Angeles and served until 1789. He served a second term in 1796. He later became mayordomo (foreman) of Mission San Luis Rey. Their infant son, Cosme, owned Carpinteria Rancho in 1833. As alcalde, he served as both mayor and judge. QUINTERO
Luis Quíntero came from Guadalajara, Jalisco, and his wife, Petra ...

El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles established

On September 4, 1781, a group of 44 settlers founded El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles ("The Town of the Queen of Angels"). The pueblo flourished and, by the late 1840s, Los Angeles was the largest town in California. The center of the city lay a little to the north of the present Downtown, in the area we now call El Pueblo. El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument is located at 125 Paseo De La Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012, which is 1.6 miles away from Azusa Street. It is thought that present-day Azusa Street was a part of the outskirts of El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles. Over time, this name became shortened to El Pueblo de Los Angeles, and ...

El Camino Real

“El Camino Real,” or The Royal Highway, is the 600-mile California Mission Trail. The highway was established by the first two Spanish exploratory expeditions of the region, being the Portola expedition of 1769 and the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition of 1775. El Camino Real came by present day downtown Los Angeles to connect Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to the other 20 Alta California's missions. The highway is still being used today, as parts of the 600-mile trail have become paved highways.

El Aliso del Viento, the historical landmark of the Tongva people

El Aliso del Viento sprang from the ground near the western bank of the Los Angeles River in the late fifteenth century -- in an ominous coincidence, about the same time Columbus arrived in the Americas. Growing about one mile from Azusa Street on the other side of the L.A. River, the tree cut an imposing figure. It measured 60 feet tall and 22 feet around the trunk. Its canopy spread nearly 200 feet from tip to tip. Each year, the tree repeated its cycles—casting off leaves, resprouting them, dropping seeds, and stretching out ever so slightly—even as the surrounding landscape morphed from fertile flood plain into gritty city center. As it ...