Verdugo adobe was preserved by developer

Katherine Yamada

Photo: Catalina Verdugo Adobe on cd #1. (Photo of adobe with huge vine

covering roof.) Credit: Courtesy, Special Collections, Glendale Public

Library

Caption: A Lady Banksia rosebush, a type of wild rose almost immune

to disease and said to be more than 100 years old when this photo was

taken, grew up and over the veranda of the adobe built by Teodoro Verdugo

in the 1860s. The photo, taken by Bob Plunkett of Angelino Photo Service

in 1950, was made into a postcard and sold around town. Sadly, the rose

bush finally succumbed to old age and no longer screens the front

veranda, but another Lady Banksia blooms by the front entrance to the

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 in

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 home, the

highway was abandoned and a dash down the hill over the little rustic

bridge 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 usually

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 very comfortable place.

“Sitting 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.”

* KATHERINE YAMADA is a volunteer with the Special Collections Room at

Central Library. To reach her, leave a message at 637-3241. The Special

Collections Room is open from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays or by

appointment. For more information on Glendale’s history, contact the

reference desk at the Central Library at 548-2027.