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Hidden Treasures In and Around
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It’s not often that you find a historic site like the Homestead Museum [15415 E. Don Julian Rd., City of Industry, 626/968-8492] that is able to transport you through 100 years of southern California history in just an hour. This six-acre site was once part of the 49,000-acre Rancho la Puente, whose present day boundaries extend slightly beyond the #10, #60, #605, and #57 Freeways.
Throughout the year, visitors can travel from the days of the ranchos to the Roaring Twenties as they tour two historic homes (seen in the drawing above). The Workman House, a Victorian-era home constructed around an 1840s adobe was built by William and Nicolasa Workman when they settled here in 1841 after traveling overland from Taos, New Mexico. La Casa Nueva, a 1920s Spanish style mansion filled with decorative crafts ranging from tile to stained glass was built by the Workmans’ grandson Walter P. Temple and his wife Laura after the family made a profitable oil discovery on their property in the Montebello hills.
Free tours of the homes are offered on the hour Wednesday-Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. Tours for groups of ten or more are available daily with at least two weeks notice. The Museum is closed on major holidays.
Award-winning gardens that surround the houses contain numerous plants and trees from California natives to exotic species from Africa, Asia, and the Mediterranean. The site also includes a picturesque gazebo and lily pond.
Additionally, visitors can stroll through El Campo Santo, the family’s historic burial ground founded in the 1850s which holds the remains of numerous pioneer families. The Walter P. Temple Memorial Mausoleum, completed in 1921, contains many Workman and Temple family members along with Pio Pico, the last governor of Mexican California and a friend of the Workman and Temple families.
Brochures for self-guided tours of the cemetery are available in the Homestead Museum Gallery where you can also find information on the Museum’s upcoming special events.
This hidden gem is just one of many places of interest that you can visit using this guide. Incredible collections, historical sites, amazing architecture, unique places to shop, and even enchanting cities of the dead await you, and now, you’ll know exactly where to find them!
