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Photo, Print, Drawing Rancho La Brea Adobe, 6301 West 3rd Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA

[ Photos from Survey HABS CA-354  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS CA-354  ]
[ pdf version of supplemental pages ]

About this Item

Title

  • Rancho La Brea Adobe, 6301 West 3rd Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Rocha, Antonio
  • Hancock, Henry
  • Hancock, Ida Haraszthy
  • Hancock, George Allen
  • Denton, William
  • Orcutt, W. W.
  • Gilmore, Arthur Fremont
  • Cole, Cornelius
  • Gilmore, Mary E. Bell
  • Gilmore, Earl Bell
  • Gilmore, Marie Dent
  • American Institute of Architects (AIA), Southern California Chapter, sponsor
  • Girvigian, Raymond, historian
  • Sylvanus, Alfred, historian
  • Rand, Marvin, photographer

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  houses
  • -  domestic life
  • -  adobe houses
  • -  adobe buildings
  • -  adobe
  • -  California--Los Angeles County--Los Angeles

Notes

  • -  Significance: The one-story adobe house built by the original grantee of Rancho La Brea continues to serve as a family residence, the plan of the basic structure virtually unchanged since pastoral times. The history of the house, as simple and straightforward as the lines of its construction, contrasts dramatically with the complex development of the surrounding ranch lands it once governed. It has changed hands only twice and has retained its original function without interruption, while most of the 44 hundred acres granted in 1828 to Antonio Jose Rocha have lost identity beneath the grid of city streets. The rancho's gentle hill and stange, black-pooled brea marshes noted by the first Spanish explorers have seen herds of cattle and flocks of sheep come and go. The Indian brea artisans have given way before Californios loading carretas with the heavy asphaltum for the roofs of the flourishing pueblo of Los Angeles, and they in turn to the insistent gringos. A sudden forest of derricks once covered the oil-rich land, only to be succeeded by tracts of suburban homes, the houses by apartments, stores and towering office buildings. Skeletons of prehistoric animals came to light in the brea pits, drawing archaeologists from all over the world to the sorting tables set up where the new Los Angeles Museum of Art has recently taken shape. A racing stadium and a baseball park flourished and vanished; a vast television studio taking their place. Dusty roadside stands selling corn and melons during the depression years evolved into Farmers Market which now draws some 20 million visitors each year to the very courtyard of the adobe. The significance of the structure has been recognized by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board. The building bears a plaque placed by the Native Daughters of the Golden West on June 28, 1935 when Hancock Park-La Brea was made a State of California Historical Landmarks No. 170. The importance of the one square league of land (7 square miles, approximately 4400 acres) - granted by the Mexican government to Antonio Jose Rocha and Nemisio Domiguez as the Rancho La Brea - was well recognized in 1828 when Jose Antonio Carrillo, Alcalde of Los Angeles, set his signature to the document. It contained a provision that inhabitants of the pueblo were to have unmolested rights to take brea from the pits as they might have need of it for the roofs of their adobe houses. Only 8 miles west of town, the pits had been a source of supply for three-quarters of a century - ever since the first tule huts had been replaced by sapling-roofed adobes. Workmen called it "la huesementa," the boneyard, in joking allusion ot the debris of old bones which encumbered the pits. Much earlier the site had been noted as valuable for the missionary explorer Fray Juan Crespi in his journal entry for Thursday, August 3, 1769, wrote: "...the explorers saw some large marshes of a certain substance like pitch; they were boiling and bubbling, and the pitch came out mixed with an abundance of water. They noticed that the water runs to one side and the pitch to the other, and that there is such an abundance of it that it would serve to caulk many ships." The Indians used the brea, in fact, for just such a purpose. The plank canoes with which they navigated between the mainland and the Channel Islands were made water-tight with it. They also employed it to fix shell decorations in place, to secure fibre lashings, and as a fuel. A contingent of Spanish soldiers sent from San Diego in 1770, subsequent to Crespi's report, found themselves forced to battle with the Indians encamped at the pits before they could return with the load of brea they had been ordered to fetch.
  • -  Survey number: HABS CA-354

Medium

  • Photo(s): 7
  • Data Page(s): 15

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS CAL,19-LOSAN,26-

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • ca0248

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS CAL,19-LOSAN,26-
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

If Digital Images Are Displaying

You can download online images yourself. Alternatively, you can purchase copies of various types through Library of Congress Duplication Services.

HABS/HAER/HALS materials have generally been scanned at high resolution that is suitable for most publication purposes (see Digitizing the Collection for further details about the digital images).

  • Photographs--All photographs are printed from digital files to preserve the fragile originals.
    • Make note of the Call Number and Item Number that appear under the photograph in the multiple-image display (e.g., HAER, NY,52-BRIG,4-2).
    • If possible, include a printout of the photograph.
  • Drawings--All drawings are printed from digital files to preserve the fragile originals.
    • Make note of the Survey Number (e.g., HAER NY - 143) and Sheet Number (e.g., "Sheet 1 of 4"), which appear on the edge of the drawing. (NOTE: These numbers are visible in the Tiff "Reference Image" display.)
    • If possible, include a printout of the drawing.
  • Data Pages
    • Make note of the Call Number in the catalog record.

If Digital Images Are Not Displaying

In the rare case that a digital image for HABS/HAER/HALS documentation is not displaying online, select images for reproduction through one of these methods:

  • Visit the Prints & Photographs Reading Room and request to view the group (general information about service in the reading room is available at: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/info/001_ref.html). It is best to contact reference staff in advance (see: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/address.html) to make sure the material is on site. OR
  • P&P reading room staff can provide up to 15 quick copies of items per calendar year (many original items in the holdings are too old or fragile to make such copies, but generally HABS/HAER/HALS materials are in good enough condition to be placed on photocopy machines). For assistance, see our Ask a Librarian page OR
  • Hire a freelance researcher to do further selection for you (a list of researchers in available at: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/resource/013_pic.html).
  • You can purchase copies of various types, including quick copies, through Library of Congress Duplication Services (price lists, contact information, and order forms for Library of Congress Duplication Services are available on the Duplication Services Web site):
    • Make note of the Call Number listed above.
    • Look at the Medium field above. If it lists more than one item:
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      • All the items in a particular medium (e.g., all drawings, all photographs) can be ordered as photocopies or high-quality copies.

Access to Originals

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  1. Is the item digitized? (A thumbnail (small) image will be visible on the left.)

    • Yes, the item is digitized. Please use the digital image in preference to requesting the original. All images can be viewed at a large size when you are in any reading room at the Library of Congress. In some cases, only thumbnail (small) images are available when you are outside the Library of Congress because the item is rights restricted or has not been evaluated for rights restrictions.
      As a preservation measure, we generally do not serve an original item when a digital image is available. If you have a compelling reason to see the original, consult with a reference librarian. (Sometimes, the original is simply too fragile to serve. For example, glass and film photographic negatives are particularly subject to damage. They are also easier to see online where they are presented as positive images.)
    • No, the item is not digitized. Please go to #2.
  2. Do the Access Advisory or Call Number fields above indicate that a non-digital surrogate exists, such as microfilm or copy prints?

    • Yes, another surrogate exists. Reference staff can direct you to this surrogate.
    • No, another surrogate does not exist. Please go to #3.
  3. If you do not see a thumbnail image or a reference to another surrogate, please fill out a call slip in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room. In many cases, the originals can be served in a few minutes. Other materials require appointments for later the same day or in the future. Reference staff can advise you in both how to fill out a call slip and when the item can be served.

To contact Reference staff in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room, please use our Ask A Librarian service or call the reading room between 8:30 and 5:00 at 202-707-6394, and Press 3.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Antonio Rocha, Henry Hancock, Ida Haraszthy Hancock, George Allen Hancock, William Denton, W. W Orcutt, et al., Rand, Marvin, photographer. Rancho La Brea Adobe,West 3rd Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. Los Angeles County Los Angeles California, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/ca0248/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Rocha, A., Hancock, H., Hancock, I. H., Hancock, G. A., Denton, W. [...] Sylvanus, A., Rand, M., photographer. (1933) Rancho La Brea Adobe,West 3rd Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. Los Angeles County Los Angeles California, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/ca0248/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographer by Rand, Marvin. Rancho La Brea Adobe,West 3rd Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/ca0248/>.