History
The Romulo Pico Adobe, often known as the Andres Pico Adobe, stands at 10940 Sepulveda Boulevard in the Mission Hills district of Los Angeles, on land once part of the Mission San Fernando grazing lands. The core of the building dates from the mission and early Mexican periods and is associated with the Pico family, one of the principal Californio political and ranching lineages of southern California. The Pico family produced both Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, and his brother Andres Pico, who negotiated the Treaty of Cahuenga with John C. Fremont in January 1847 to end hostilities in California during the Mexican-American War.
Architecturally the building is a two-story adobe in the Monterey tradition. The lower walls were laid up from sun-dried adobe brick produced on or near the site and set on a stone foundation, finished with lime plaster. The upper story is framed in timber and sheathed in wood siding under a low-pitched roof, with a long covered balcony along the principal elevation in the standard Monterey pattern. The plan is organized around an enclosed courtyard. Subsequent owners enlarged and remodeled the building during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but the principal adobe walls of the original mission and Pico-era core remain.
The building is the second-oldest surviving residential structure in the city of Los Angeles. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 under reference 66000211, in the first cycle of register listings, recognizing its rarity as a pre-statehood adobe within the modern city.
The property is operated as the headquarters of the San Fernando Valley Historical Society, with restored interiors and limited public hours, and is maintained as a public historic site within the surrounding Mission Hills neighborhood. Within the broader California adobe tradition, the Pico Adobe is one of the principal surviving documents of the Californio rancho and political class in the San Fernando Valley.
Common questions
What is Pico, Romulo, Adobe?
The Pico, Romulo, Adobe is a historic adobe building located in Mission Hills, California, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places under reference number 66000211. It is associated with Romulo Pico, a member of the prominent Pico family of California.
When was Pico, Romulo, Adobe built?
No precise year is preserved in the registry data for the Pico, Romulo, Adobe. It dates to the 19th-century adobe-building tradition of southern California and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
Where is Pico, Romulo, Adobe located?
The Pico, Romulo, Adobe is located at 10940 Sepulveda Boulevard in Mission Hills, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.
Is Pico, Romulo, Adobe open to the public?
The Pico, Romulo, Adobe is recorded as a private residence in current records and is not listed as a regularly operating public museum. Public access to the building is not generally available.
Why is Pico, Romulo, Adobe historically significant?
The Pico, Romulo, Adobe is significant as a surviving 19th-century adobe in the San Fernando Valley and was associated with Romulo Pico of the prominent California Pico family. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places under reference number 66000211.
