HISTORY OF LA LINDA DRIVE

Sketches From Way Back

 Loretta Berner secured the following account at the Los Cerritos Ranch House Museum from “Sketches From Way Back”

 When Jotham Bixby moved downtown in 1885 to the house on Magnolia and Ocean, the “Old Adobe” ranch house (Rancho Los Cerritos at north end of Virginia Road.) continued to be occupied by some of the Mexican ranch employees who knew no other home and by the few indians left in the small cluster of huts to the west. At times it was leased as a dairy, but mostly its occupants farmed various surrounding sections.

 Young George H. Bixby, Jotham’s oldest son, had married in 1897, and moved to a house at Broadway and Chestnut. He became the manager of the ranch properties, and in 1890 built the house that is now # 11 La Linda Drive in Los Cerritos. This house was the headquarters and home place for an average of 20 ranch hands, whose dining room was at the back of the house facing west. There were also a slaughterhouse and large storerooms on the place, besides barns and sheds for machinery. The Indians did much of the slaughtering, and both they and the Mexicans were kept in supplies from this storehouse. They regarded George Bixby as their Padrone, and looked to him for their necessities. It was his custom to distribute whatever they needed be it blankets, beans, sugar, flour, or farming equipment.

Click on map for larger image

 In 1910 the tract of Los Cerritos was planned, streets cut through and lots sold. By 1920 another fifty homes had been built and the community we know today was firmly established.

 In 1913 the first school, a portable one-room bungalow, was erected at Pine and San Antonio Drive. The first teacher had twenty pupils in all eight grades. In 1915 a two-room schoolhouse was built on the site of the present Los Cerritos School. There were four grades in each room. 

In the meantime the present Bixby Knolls area had been leased out as a barley ranch in 1908. In 1910, Mulhart rented this acreage and pioneered the raising of lima beans in this area. The northern section of our city was even in those days already beginning to feel the stir of progress.  

Letter From David Bixby   

This. letter is of particular interest and importance because it is from David W. Bixby, one of the sons of George H. Bixby (who had the house built at #11 La Linda Drive). We are quoting it practically in its entirety:

 “Concerning my parents, I should say that they were pleasant but conservative people, little given to formal entertaining. I recall that there were often relatives staying at the house and visiting with us.

 My father’s talents were chiefly literary. He was one of Yale’s great students of classic Latin and Greek. One of his hobbies was the composition of poetry in classic Greek. He was also equally fluent in Spanish, which was very helpful in carrying on the ranching business at that time.

 My mother was a fine home manager, overseeing the house, supervising many children and servants, and on occasion functioning adequately as a hostess. However, she never permitted the serving of alcoholic beverages in our home.

There were seven children. Beginning with the eldest, they were: George Hathaway, Jr., Richard Andrew, Philip Locke, Margaret Winslow (Mrs. Morgan Lupher), Barbara Lee (Mrs. Wayne Thornburg), David Weston, and Stephen Lawrence. My older brother George, Jr. died before I was born in 1905. He was sixteen at the time.

 The original estate covered ten acres. It was bordered on the east by what was then American Avenue (update note--now named Long Beach Blvd.), which was lined with eucalyptus trees. Much of the time there was only one head gardener, an Englishman named Fred Moore, who had seasonal help as required. At one period during Mr. Moore’s absence there were two Japanese employed. They lived in small houses in the southwest corner of the property. Mr. Moore and Thor Polson, the family chauffeur, shared quarters in what was called the tank houses, in a corner of the back garden. Later when this was removed, they had quarters in the large barn on the northeast portion of the estate. Previous to that time, the barn was on the northwest portion of the estate. The barn had no living quarters in it. The stable men and other ranch hands lived in a long bunkhouse between the barn and the main house. This was torn down with the advent of the automobile and the discontinuance of ranching operations, around 1910 or 1911. The ranch property was then subdivided and formed the first Los Cerritos tract.

 The barn was comprised of a large two-story hayloft, stalls for about a dozen horses, a large carriage room and tack room, plus several storage rooms for food, equipment, etc. On the west side of the rear quadrangle there were a long wagon shed and a carpenter shop plus another tank house. These I believe were torn down about 1914.

 The driveway was the main drive past the front of the home, entering through the gates (south—off what is now Bixby Road, then turning right) and curving on out to the barn area. There were also two other roads, one from the stable area along the west side of the property to Bixby Road, and another from the barn to American Avenue on the east side, where the north gates are at present (off Long Beach Blvd.). These, incidentally, were not put in until Mr. Gilchrist purchased the property. The original gate was to my knowledge never used but was occasionally opened and shut to keep it functional.

 The main house was designed by the firm of Coxhead from San Francisco, and the building was supervised by the younger Mr. Coxhead, who lived on the property while the house was being built, a period of nearly three years. I do not recall the exact date, but it must have been some time in 1886 or 1887. Actually the house was only two stories with a small portion of a third floor attic floored in and used for storage space only.

 Irk the early 1900’s a small basement was dug at the north end of the main wing, to house a large wood-burning furnace. Prior to that time, most of the bedrooms had small grate fireplaces, which were walled over when the furnace was installed. The one in the master bedroom was an exception. I remember my father and mother used it occasionally. The three large fireplaces were in the living room, dining room, and in the ballroom.

 The oak paneling in the dining room and the ballroom was imported form England and much of it was hand carved in floral patterns. The ceiling beams were all hand adzed, as were the large redwood ceiling beams in the living room. Incidentally, the ballroom was always referred to as the billiard room as its chief occupants were a very large billiard table and a grand piano, both of which were seldom used. This room and the dining room could be thrown together by large sliding doors. Another unusual feature of the house was the windows in the downstairs rooms, which were made of small hand leaded panes imported from England.

 My family lived here until my father’s death in 1920. My mother, my younger brother, Stephen, and I then moved across Bixby Road into my oldest brother’s house, which was subsequently moved to Sunset Street off Atlantic Ave.

 (Update note—according to data from the Rancho Los Cerritos, there were two homes built at about the same time, by brothers, both sons of Jotham Bixby. One occupied 10 acres to the north and the other 10 acres to the south of Bixby Road, at American Ave., now named Long Beach Blvd. Older maps show the compound to the south of Bixby as owned by Richard Bixby. This home still exists, but was moved to Sunset Street.  The Richard Bixby estate has disappeared from Bixby road, but a portion of Locust Avenue south of Bixby Road appears to be left from the original circular drive, similar to the circular drive around the George Bixby estate which still exists north of Bixby Road.)

The first move was purely a practical one as the property became too costly to maintain, and was sold to a Mr. Gilchrist (whose first name I do not recall), who I believe, was partly of Osage (Indian) stock. The second move was necessitated by the encroachment of the Signal Hill oil field, as our property was under lease for drilling at that time 

The Amelia Mary Elizabeth Bixby Company was formed by my mother (from the George H. Bixby estate) as a privately owned stock company. At the present time it is active in the interests of the other Bixby Companies in Long Beach and the vicinity. I am currently its president.”

Mrs. John Menko

 In conversations with Mrs. John Menko, a close friend of George H. Bixby’s daughter, Barbara, she told us what their home was like between 1913 and 1920. 

George H. as he was always called in his adult years, was a very likable person. His wife, Amelia, an attractive former governess, had a very good business sense. They and their children were a wonderful family.   

Their estate on 11 La Linda Drive covered 10 acres. You entered the grounds from the south off of Bixby Road. There was just this one pair of gates on the estate at this time but they were closer together than they are now as the entrance was narrower. Along the fence on this south side were climbing Cherokee roses. American Avenue (currently called Long Beach Blvd.) bounded the east side. It was lined on either side by eucalyptus trees that also extended all the way down Virginia Road to the “Old Adobe”, Rancho Los Cerritos, where George H. had been raised. On the north side of the estate was a large pine grove. On the west side were the tennis court, rose gardens and garage area. (When the Bixby’s had first married the garage area had been used for machine sheds and stables including those for horse-drawn carriages.) 

The entire area gave you the feeling that you were decidedly on a knoll because of the open fields surrounding the estate. In spring the whole hill that is now called Los Cerritos was covered with blue lupines and yellow mustard. There were many meadowlarks. 

In 1913 George Jr. had died, Richard, Philip and Margaret had married. Left were Barbara who was now starting high school, and the much younger two little boys: David and Stephen. Beside these three children still at home, there were many servants, an English gardener with Japanese gardeners under him, cooks, upstairs and downstairs maids, and a chauffeur in livery who took the children to school every day and to their parties. 

No longer a center of ranch activities, the Bixby home had become a very different type of place. The grounds were kept up beautifully and the home was very elegant. As you came into the large hallway with its beautiful winding staircases, you were aware of the highly polished oak floors and oriental rugs. (There were in fact oriental rugs throughout the house and the floors and woodwork and entire house kept up perfectly). To the left of the hallway was the large library with books on all four sides from ceiling to floor. Here Mr. Bixby often helped entertain the young people with his record collection. He was very fond of good music. 

One of the rooms that was unusually beautiful was the dining room to the back of the house with large window overlooking the rose gardens. It was all in oak.. ceiling, walls and floor. It had a big fireplace with carved floral patterns on curved oak columns. A punch bowl of fresh roses was always in the center of the huge dining room table. As the children grew older they had dances here. This room and the library were used a great deal by the family and their guests. 

‘When Barbara’s friends married many of them built homes to the west of this estate. Around 1920 the discovery of oil resulted in these large houses being hurriedly moved up Virginia Road and vicinity. What had been a peaceful, serene community suddenly became a madhouse of frenzied activity ushering in an entirely new era. The leisurely life of house parties, country-club fun and close warm friendships was suddenly galvanized into the excitement and bustling activity of the surrounding community. With the striking of oil, the erecting of derricks, the countryside’s beauty swiftly destroyed and so ended an enchanting era.   

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Last modified: January 07, 2003