Lopez Adobe

Tours of the Lopez Adobe in San Fernando, one of the oldest surviving houses in the area, are offered on a limited basis, on the fourth Sunday of the month. The house was built in 1882 near the San Fernando Mission by the Lopez family as a larger home than their nearby adobe from 1861 (no longer standing). The two-story, 1882 adobe was built of sunbaked brick by Valentin Lopez, a second cousin and brother-in-law of Geronimo Lopez. Geronimo had established the first general store in the vicinity and relocated his family to the new adobe in 1884. The house was partly occupied by the Lopez family until the early 1960s. Lopez Adobe was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The City of San Fernando purchased the home from the Lopez family in 1971, saving it from demolition. The city restored the adobe before opening it as a museum in 1975.

The Lopez Adobe was built in 1882 near the San Fernando Mission by the Lopez family as a larger home than their nearby adobe from 1861. The 1861 adobe was about a mile west of the 1882 adobe and was demolished in the 1910s and covered by a reservoir. The 1861 adobe of Geronimo and Catalina Lopez was on a land route between Los Angeles and San Francisco and was called Lopez Station; the area's first post office was established at the house in 1869. Geronimo was a messenger in the Mexican Army during the Mexican-American War; he is the one who delivered the message of surrender to U.S. forces in 1847. The couple remained in the area and established the first general store and English language school in the San Fernando Valley.

The two-story, new adobe was built in 1882 of sun-baked brick with walls two feet thick by Valentin Lopez, a cousin and brother-in-law of Geronimo. The adobe bricks were about 22 inches long in the lower story and 13 inches long on the upper story; they were set in adobe mortar and plastered on the exterior. The house combined Spanish Mission and Victorian stick styles; the balcony balustrade and wood bracket capitals of the porch columns were hand-sawed. Valentin reportedly only lived here for about a year. Geronimo relocated his family to the new adobe in 1884. The Lopez Adobe was the first two-story residence built in the San Fernando Valley (other, earlier adobes had a second story added later on). Also known as La Casa de Don Geronimo Lopez Adobe, the first newspaper in the area, the San Fernando Times, was published from the building from 1888 to 1889. The one-story rear wing was originally used as a kitchen and was separated from the two-story main portion (25 by 50 ft.) of the house by a breezeway; the breezeway was converted into adobe sometime between 1912 and 1918, connecting the two, according to Sanborn fire insurance maps.

In the late 1920s, the house was modified into several apartments; a part of the west side on the second story was partly enclosed for extra room in 1926. The wood shingle roof was replaced with Spanish tiles. The home was partly occupied by the Lopez family until the early 1960s; a daughter. Kate Lopez Millen, lived in the upper apartment from 1935 to 1961. The ground-floor porch, previously of wood, was modified into a concrete slab by 1963, when the Lopez Adobe was documented in the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). The building contained the medical office of Dr. Virginia Palais and two tenant apartments in 1963.

Lopez Adobe was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The City of San Fernando purchased the home from the Lopez family in 1971, saving it from demolition. and restoring the adobe before opening as a museum in 1975. Geronimo and Catalina Lopez had a large number of descendants; many of them returned to Lopez Adobe in 1982 to celebrate its one hundredth anniversary. Lopez Adobe was closed for several years after damage suffered in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Preserve L.A. and the Getty Trust awarded grant funding for completion of a conservation plan for Lopez Adobe, which was completed in 2004. The museum was closed again for grant-funded renovations and won a Secretary of the Interior's Preservation Award in 2013, before a grand re-opening in 2015. The city offers tours of Lopez Adobe on the fourth Sunday of the month from 1pm to 4pm.

Casa De Lopez - Geronimo and Catalina Lopez. S&W Roading. U.S. 2021. YouTube.

City of San Fernando. Lopez Adobe, Local Attractions. Accessed July 17th, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20041209014501/http://www.ci.san-fernando.ca.us/for_visitors/local_attractions/lopez_adobe.shtml.

City of San Fernando. Tours of Casa de Lopez Adobe to Resume, Press Release. January 27th, 2023. Accessed July 17th, 2023. https://ci.san-fernando.ca.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Press-Release-Lopez-Adobe-Tours-Resume-1-2023.pdf.

Getty. Preserve L.A., Projects & Initiatives. January 1st, 2003. Accessed July 13th, 2023. https://www.getty.edu/projects/preserve-la/.

Getty. Lopez Adobe Preservation Plan [Milford Wayne Donaldson] ... 2004. Archival item. April 26th, 2004. Accessed July 13th, 2023.

Gulbranson, James B. NRHP Nomination of Lopez Adobe, San Fernando, California. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1971.

Malnic, Eric. "Getty Trust Gives $1.4 Million to Preserve 20 Landmark Sites." Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles) July 28th, 2000.

Woollett, William. Girvigian, Raymond. HABS documentation of Lopez Adobe, San Fernando, California, HABS CA-341. Historic American Buildings Survey. San Francisco, CA. National Park Service, Western Office, 1963.