Workman Adobe

About this property

The Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum is a historic house museum at 15415 East Don Julian Road in City of Industry, California, that features the homes and private cemetery that belonged to the Workman-Temple family. Born in England, William Workman (1799–1876) immigrated to the United States as a young man with his older brother David. He went to Taos, where he married and worked for some time. Then he went further west, to the San Gabriel Valley in 1841, then within Alta California of the Mexican Republic. William bought part of the Rancho La Puente and built an adobe house in 1842. It was enlarged over the years and, by 1870, was remodeled with the addition of brick wings and a second story, as well as impressive exterior decorative details. This renovation was said to have been designed by the first trained architect in Los Angeles, Ezra F. Kysor, designer of the extant Pico House hotel, St. Vibiana's Cathedral, and the Perry House, all in Los Angeles. But there is no known documentation of Kysor's work on the building. The Workman Adobe was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on November 20, 1974. It was added to the California State Register of Historic Landmarks, No. 874, in conjunction with the family "El Campo Santo" Cemetery on the site. An historic marker was placed on the site on 5 November 1976, the 135th anniversary of the arrival of the Workman family to the area. The broad outlines of the structure, including large porches on the north and south sides, measure 19' deep by 72' wide. There are eight rooms on the first floor and three finished rooms (with three others evidently finished in the late 19th century) on the second story. The home was dramatically altered over the years, especially when it was used for military school classrooms from 1930 to 1935. It was later used as a residence and then office and nurses' quarters for El Encanto sanitarium from 1940 to 1963. The home and cemetery were then purchased by the City of Industry. Many original details have long been lost, but historic elements survive, such as the ca. 1870 interior staircase, two marble coal-burning fireplaces from the same period, and a ceiling cartouche from that era. Late 1970s-era restoration efforts were limited to the outside of the structure. The entire east wall was reconstructed, as it was mostly of adobe and had collapsed during work in 1977. The Homestead Museum also includes "La Casa Nueva" – a spectacular example of Spanish Colonial Revival style, built by the Temple family between 1922 and 1927. The family's own design was drawn up by the well-known Los Angeles architectural firm of Walker and Eisen, although in 1924, Beverly Hills-based architect Roy Selden Price was hired to reconfigure the design.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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