The following article was written by Katherine Yamada and was published in the Glendale News-Press under the title "Verdugo Adobe was preserved by developer". The VWWHOA thanks both Katherine Yamada and the Glendale News-Press for their permission to reproduce the article on our web site. The Verdugo Adobe, at 2211 Bonita Avenue is in the area of the Verdugo Woodlands West Home Owners' Association.

The Verdugo Adobe

For many years, the old Verdugo adobe at 2211 Bonita Drive was owned by F. P. Newport, developer of the Verdugo Woodlands estates. He purchased it from the heirs of Teodoro Verdugo, who had built the adobe around 1860.

Newport realized the historic value of the place and was careful to preserve it as much as possible. The rose-covered building, the well kept grounds and the famed oak tree, under which the treaty of 1847 was discussed, were magnets for visitors.

Newport invited Mrs. C. R. Philips, whose husband was employed by him for 30 years to live in the house. She remained there for many years, caring for the house and entertaining visitors.

In 1920, a writer who identified himself only as "Old Timer" wrote a glowing account in the Glendale News [sic] of six weeks he had spent at the adobe 11 years earlier. The writer described his arrival at early dusk.

"At a bend in the road almost directly east of the old house, the highway was abandoned and a dash down the hill over the little rustic ridge across the brook brought me to the ranch house."

By the time the "Old Timer" wrote the account, the rustic bridge was a substantial concrete affair, the shady road was known as Opechee Way and, he says, it led to many handsome modern houses in the new Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood. Soon after his arrival in the historic adobe, the writer was warming himself in front of a roaring fire in the main room.

A woodpile at the rear of the house provided the logs for the fire he enjoyed each evening and for the wood stove in the kitchen. In the corner of the main room was a double bed. The "Old Timer" says he conjured up an image of old Teodoro lying there watching the firelight, then remembered the tale that the old don refused to sleep in the house after an unusually severe earthquake. Instead, Teodoro put his bed out on the veranda and slept there.

A second room in the original adobe was used as the guest chamber. The veranda was furnished with rustic chairs and settees made from gnarled and twisted limbs of trees from the woodlands below the ranch house. With a rug and numerous cushions, the veranda was a comfortable place.

"Setting on the rose-embowered east veranda in the moonlight, listening to the mockingbirds, with the fragrance of the roses filling the air, a day comes to mind when the old don left all this and was borne on the shoulder of sons and friends over the hills to San Gabriel and laid with his forefathers in the old churchyard at San Gabriel Mission. And the dreamer-in-the-moonlight thinks regretfully of bygone days".

To see a recent photograph of the Catalina Verdugo Adobe, Click on the Link below.

Picture of Catalina Verdugo Adobe

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