Rancho de los Palos Verdes
Rancho de los Palos Verdes was a 31,629-acre (128.00 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to José Loreto and Juan Capistrano Sepulveda.[1] The name means "ranch of the green trees". The grant encompassed the present-day cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, as well as portions of San Pedro, Torrance, Redondo Beach, Compton, Gardena, Lomita, Harbor City, Carson, Dominguez Hills, Wilmington, Los Angeles[2]
History
[edit]
The grant was originally a part of Manuel Dominguez's Rancho San Pedro Spanish land grant. Around 1810 Manuel Guttierez, executor of Dominguez's will and de facto owner of his rancho, granted permission to then 17-year-old Jose Dolores Sepulveda to herd livestock in the southwestern reaches of the Rancho San Pedro. This eventually became the basis for the Sepulveda family's contested claim to the Rancho de los Palos Verdes. Dolores had trouble getting his land title cleared, so he took a trip to Monterey to get the matter definitely settled and, on his return trip, he was killed in the Chumash revolt at Mission La Purísima Concepción in 1824. In 1834, a judicial decree was made by Governor Jose Figueroa which was intended to settle the dispute between the Dominquez and Sepulveda families.[3]
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican–American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho de los Palos Verdes was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,[4][5] and the grant was patented to José Loreto and Juan Capistrano Sepulveda in 1880.[6]
.jpg)
By 1882 ownership of the land had passed from the Sepulveda through various mortgage holders to Jotham Bixby of Rancho Los Cerritos, who leased the land to Japanese farmers.[7] After the turn of the century most of Bixby's land was sold to a consortium of New York investors spearheaded by Frank A. Vanderlip that created The Palos Verdes Project and began marketing land on the peninsula for small horse ranches and residential communities.
Spanish era
[edit]The first Spanish sailor and soldier to come into contact with the Indigenous population on the Palos verdes Peninsula was Juan Cabrillo. While Juan Cabrillo's journey took him the entire California and Oregon coast he is noted with having stopped near Catalina island and is known to have skirted along the coast of the Peninsula. Vizcaino was to be the Second Spanish soldier and Sailor to land near the peninsula. “The smoke from many fires and green vegetation on the hills of the Palos Verdes Peninsula attracted them, but as they approached the bay to its southeast end, Vizcaino evaluated the harbor as having insufficient protection from the wind.”[8] He would later land near Catalina and continue up the coast.
In 1781 the Spanish set out to build a community on the land that would later become known as Palos Verdes along with the families that joined a group of soldiers were supposed to join. One such soldier was Francisco Xavier Sepúlveda the soldiers came with their wives and children as well. Francisco brought his wife Maria Candelaria de Redondo. His grandson would later become the founder and owner of Rancho de los Palos Verdes.[citation needed]
Sepúlveda family and ranch
[edit]The Sepúlveda Family was granted a larger tract of land of which was the Rancho de los Palos Verdes. José Dolores was the first Sepúlveda to officially own the land as he had worked the land under his presumed relative Manual Gutiérrez. Manuel Gutiérrez had owned the Rancho San Pedro which would be broken up and a section given to Jose Dolores Sepúlveda. Jose Dolores was born to Juan Jose Sepúlveda and his wife Tomasa Gutiérrez in 1793 by the time he was 16 both of his parents had passed away. This is when he started to work the land he eventually settled there on the land that was to be his in the future. The family needed to fight for their right to own the land as the man who had awarded them the right to farm the land had a tenuous claim to the land which was later fought by Cristobal Dominguez the nephew of the original owner.
When Cristobal Dominguez sent a decree for the removal of Jose Dolores it was immediately denied and he immediately set out a counterclaim to the Pueblo officials. “He took immediate action to the fight for his land. He filed a format counterclaim with the Pueblo officials, insisting that he was entitled to remain… The he took of for Monterey to make a personal appeal to the New Mexican Governor.”[9]
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
[edit]On February 2, 1848, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed between the United States and Mexico which officially ended the Mexican–American War that began in 1846. The treaty stated that certain territories that belonged to Mexico would now become part of the United States. A total of seven states were acquired by the U.S. government one of which was the state of California, where the Rancho de los Palos Verdes is located. The treaty also granted full American citizenship for those who lived in these states before becoming part of the United States.[10] This included the people who lived in the Ranchos that were established in were established during the Spanish and Mexican periods in California.
Once the state of California became part of the United States, the area became part of the United States government.
Frank A. Vanderlip
[edit]Frank A. Vanderlip was a successful banker in New York who in 1913 purchased the Land
The Palos Verdes Project
[edit]Historic sites of the Rancho
[edit]- Site of Adobe Home of Jose Dolores Sepulveda. Dolores Sepulveda's adobe was built in 1818. The Jose Dolores Sepulveda Adobe was designated a California Historic Landmark (No. 383) on Jan. 03, 1944.[11]
- La Venta Inn - The site of Frank Vanderlip’s original Real estate office and the first building to be built in Palos verdes estates. It was the first permanent building constructed by the Palos Verdes Project and was originally called "Clubhouse 764".[12]
- Vanderlip Estate
- Wayfarers Chapel
- Neptune Fountain On February 16, 1930, the Neptune Fountain was unveiled in the Malaga Cove Plaza by Jay Lawyer who was the manager of the Palos Verdes Project as a gift for the people of the city. The fountain is a replica of another one that is located in Bologna Italy.[13]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco
- ^ Diseño del Rancho de los Palos Verdes
- ^ The Rancho San Pedro Collection Archived 2010-06-18 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ United States. District Court (California : Southern District) Land Case 93 SD
- ^ Finding Aid to the Documents Pertaining to the Adjudication of Private Land Claims in California, circa 1852-1892
- ^ Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886 Archived 2009-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Meares, Hadley (June 18, 2015). "The Colonists: The Many Cultures That Have Called Palos Verdes Peninsula Home". KCET. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
- ^ Fink, Augusta (1987). Palos Verdes Peninsula:Time and Terraced Land. Santa Cruz California: Western Tanager Press. pp. 11–36. ISBN 0-934136-37-8.
- ^ Fink, Augusta (1987). Palos Verdes Peninsula: Time and the terraced land. Santa Cruz California: Western Tanager Press. p. 48. ISBN 0-934136-37-8.
- ^ Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Definition and List of Community Land Grants in New Mexico. Washington, D.C.: Exposure draft. 2001. pp. 8–10.
- ^ Home of Jose Dolores Sepulveda (No. 383)
- ^ Phillips, John (2009). Images of America: Palos Verdes Estates. Arcadia Publishing. p. 31.
- ^ Gnerre, Sam (August 20, 2019). "South Bay History: Fig leaf or not, the Neptune Fountain has been a Malaga Cove icon since 1930". Daily Breeze. Retrieved November 8, 2024.