Rancho El Encino | |
 Thelimestone Garnier building at Rancho Los Encinos: restored from1994 Northridge earthquake damages and now the park's Visitor Center. | |
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| Location | Encino,California |
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| Coordinates | 34°9′34.40″N118°29′58.28″W / 34.1595556°N 118.4995222°W /34.1595556; -118.4995222 |
| Built | 1845 |
| Architectural style | Spanish Colonial,Basque vernacular |
| NRHP reference No. | 71000142[1] |
| Added to NRHP | February 24, 1971 |
Rancho Los Encinos (alsoRancho El Encino andRancho Encino) was a Spanish grazing concession,[2] and later Mexicanland grantedcattle andsheeprancho and travelers way-station on theEl Camino Real in theSan Fernando Valley, in present-dayEncino,Los Angeles County,California. The original 19th-centuryadobe andlimestone structures and naturalEncino Springs are now within theLos Encinos State Historic Park.
The name of the rancho derives from the original designation of the Valley by thePortola expedition of 1769:El Valle de Santa Catalina de Bononia de los Encinos,[3] withencino being theSpanish name forOaks, after the many native deciduousValley Oak(Quercus lobata) and evergreenCoast Live Oak(Quercus agrifolia) trees across the valley'ssavannah, which are still found on the park's property.
The naturally carbonatedEncino Springs on the land were used byTongva people ofSuitcanga village. Portola camped here, and the springs were a necessary stop for travelers onEl Camino Real, and the Ventura Road, which becameVentura Boulevard.
Francisco Reyes,alcalde, or mayor ofPueblo de Los Angeles from 1793–1795, established the original Rancho Encino in the northern San Fernando Valley. In or around 1797 Reyes ceded this land to theRoman Catholic Church to be the site ofMission San Fernando Rey de España, and relocated his Rancho Encino to one squareSpanish league (4,460 acres) of land in the southern valley adjacent to El Camino Real and between theLos Angeles River andSanta Monica Mountains.[4]
Reyes was accused of mistreating theMission Indians who worked his rancho, and in 1845 Mexican GovernorPío Pico re-granted the property to three of theTongvaNative American workers, recorded as Ramon, Francisco, and Roque, who raised cattle and corn. Ramon, Francisco and Roque had worked the land beginning in about 1834, however, by the time the claim was recognized in 1845 "Francisco and Roque were dead. Their widows inherited the land and worked it for a few years with Ramon and his family until 1849 when Roman deserted them and his daughter Aguedo, and ran off to the gold fields." The surviving widows of the grantees sold out.[5]
In 1849, DonVicente de la Osa or de la Ossa, the original owner of the nearbyRancho Providencia, acquired the Tongva Indians' interests in the property.[6] His wife was Rita de Guillén de la Ossa, daughter ofEulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné ofRancho San Pascual. He built a 9-room adobe farmhouse in 1849–1850 that still stands near the spring.[7] According to theLos Angeles Times, "A petition for Rancho el Encino was presented to the U.S. Board of Land Commissioners in 1852, in which Don Vincent de la Ossa claimed he had purchased one-third of the property in 1849. Unable to pay his taxes, Ramon sold the final portion in 1857 to de la Osa, who paid $9.33 for 312 acres."[8] After de la Osa died, his widow sold it to L.A. County sheriff James Paul Thompson, who was also her future son-in-law.[8]
With thecession of California to the United States following theMexican-American War, the 1848Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Los Encinos was filed with thePublic Land Commission in 1852,[9][10] and the grant waspatented to Vicente de la Osa et al Jan. 8, 1873, for 4,460.73 acres.
TheCalifornia Gold Rush of 1849 created a near-insatiable demand for beef, which was raised on the ranchos of southern California, including Rancho Los Encinos, and driven on the hoof to northern markets serving the gold fields. But the boom market in Southern California began to decline as early as 1855 as it became profitable to drive cattle and sheep to California from themidwest andTexas, and thedrought of 1856 increased the pressure on the ranchos.[11]
The De La Osa rancho was a popular stopping point forEl Camino Real and Camino Nuevo travelers, who could expect hospitality at the ranch house. TheButterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route betweenSt. Louis, Missouri andSan Francisco viaFort Yuma andLos Angeles passed through the rancho, making its first run in the fall of 1858.[12] A new stagecoach route opened in 1861, diverging from the old El Camino Real at Rancho Los Encinos and heading forSanta Barbara via theSanta Susana Stage Road overSanta Susana Pass in theSimi Hills. The rancho was astagecoach stop on it until the new railroad replaced Butterfield stages in 1875.[13][14][15]
With the cattle market in collapse and besieged by mounting debts, in 1859 De la Osa converted his house into a roadside inn and began to charge patrons for his legendaryCalifornio hospitality.[16] Don Vicente De la Osa died in 1861, and his widow Rita sold the property to James Thompson in 1867,[16] who raised sheep on the rancho for two years. Thompson in turn sold the property to twoBasque brothers, Eugene and Phillipe Garnier, in 1869. Eugene Garnier built a two-story limestone farmhouse similar to the former family home in theFrenchBasque Country,[17] and a brick-linedpond collecting the spring's outflow and shaped like aSpanish guitar. The Garnier brothers also raised sheep on the property, and were known for the fine quality of theirfleece, but they in turn became overextended and lost the property to foreclosure in 1878.[6]
The property changed hands three times in the next twenty years, having been acquired by Simon Gless a Basque who was married to a French woman and four other native women; eventually, he sold the property to his Basque father-in-law,Domingo Amestoy, <Gless family archives>in 1889. The fields were used forwheatfarming, as was most of the Valley afterIsaac Newton Van Nuys introduceddryland farming there. The Amestoy family lived on the property until 1945, selling off 1,170 acres (5 km2) of land in 1916 that would become the community of Encino, and further subdividing the ranchlands thereafter.
In a story typical of the San Fernando Valley's rapid urbanization, the adobe was used as the sales office for the post-war subdivisions surrounding it—and was to be torn down and used as commercial property. Concerned neighbors led a fight to have the adobe, and the spring, to be purchased by the State of California.
The last remaining parcel, including the historic buildings and thespring, was acquired by the state of California in 1949.
All of the historic buildings in the park were heavily damaged in the1994 Northridge earthquake. The De la Osa adobe and the stone Garnier building have been repaired and restored, with the Garnier building now serving as a visitor center with historic photographs and exhibits of the rancho's past.[18] TheLos Encinos Photos archives are also online.[18] The 1902 river stones and mortar walled, double-roofed, food-cool storage buildings built for the Amestoys still show signs of the earthquake and are used for Park storage.
A majorTongva village orrancheria site,carbon-dated at over 3,000 years old, was discovered in 1984 directly across Ventura Boulevard during excavation for a new structure. Archeologists found two million artifacts, such aslithic stone tools, shel and stonebeads, andarrowheads, and ancient burial remains. The park displays some of the pre-contact artifacts.[19]
In 2011, the State of California threatened to close the park, because the park makes no revenue to equalize the employees needed.Through community effort and the Encino Neighborhood Council, an anonymous donor was found who volunteered $150,000 (pending as of1/12) to keep the park open.
The park is located at 16756 Moorpark Street, Encino, California, 91436-1068, and is open to the public 10 AM to 5 PM, Wednesday through Sunday. There is a pedestrian entrance on Ventura Boulevard.
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