-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Related Web Page
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
A glimpse into how things used to be
A fun place for the whole family. There are lots of fun things to
do and look at here, feed the animals check out old farm equipment,
be sure to find Puma, Tag-a-long, and say Hi to Doris. On Saturdays
there is a great farmers market across the street. Please be sure
to place the cache back as it was. Also be careful, as there are
always eyes on you. A few small items for trade. BYOP. Please do not push the cache down too far as it can be difficult to retrieve.
Way back in
1844, six years before Los Angeles was incorporated and California
was given statehood, this modest little adobe structure was built
as... well, nobody knows for sure. One theory is that it served as
a stagecoach stop on the El Camino Real, the King's Highway
connecting California's missions. Miguel & Espiritu Leonis
Around 1880, Miguel Leonis and his wife, Espiritu Chijulla, the
daughter of a Chumash chief, moved into their adobe brick house,
enlarging and extensively remodeling the building into the gracious
Monterey-Style mansion you see today. Leonis was Basque, born in
the French Pyrenees. Once in the U.S., amassing huge wealth from
real estate, litigation, and dowry, he came to be known as "El
Basquo Grande" and "King of Calabasas" and pretty much ruled a huge
chunk of the San Fernando Valley. He died in 1889 from injuries
suffered in a wagon accident. In order to inherit the estate,
Espiritu had to go to court to prove she was Leonis's legal wife.
She ultimately did, but only a year before her death in 1906.
Jumping ahead to August 6, 1962, the first day of the Cultural
Heritage Board's public business, the Leonis Adobe was literally on
the verge of being demolished to make way for an adjacent
restaurant's parking lot. Luckily, the board's first action was to
declare the site California Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1. A
great deal of research, study, and skillful work has gone into
faithfully restoring the Leonis Adobe to the way it is believed to
have appeared after Leonis completed enlarging and remodeling it.
But there are one or two exceptions. For instance, the present
living room was originally two rooms, a parlor and living room,
separated by a wall just to the right of the front door. The wall
was removed around 1925, and has not been replaced in order to
provide a large room for group meetings. Leonis, in enlarging and
remodeling the house, sheathed the outside front of the house, and
paneled the interior living room with wood. He walled in the rear
and northeast side porches, both upstairs and downstairs, to add
more rooms. He added the Victorian fretwork balcony along the front
of the the house, and other enhancing details and features. In the
present living room, the family portraits hang on the wall where
they always have, but the mirror originally hung where the dining
room door now is. This door was cut through in the 1920s. The
bright colors that highlight the house were discovered under many
layers of paint, and presumably were the ones Leonis had used. If
Miguel Leonis were alive today, he'd certainly ask, "Whose idea was
it to put the 101 Freeway in my backyard?" In fact, the barn seen
here, built in 1912, had to be moved twice in order to accommodate
the 101, which runs just a few feet behind the property.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx haqre gung.