RLC Adobe - The Storerooms
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Furniture Storeroom
Food Storeroom
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The Furniture Storeroom has extra chairs and straw mattresses for visiting relatives who might stay for a few weeks at a time, as well as trunks for travelling and extra dressers and bed frames as needed. This room also displays horse tack and sheep ranching items, since the ranch’s outbuildings have been lost to time.
The Food Storeroom has dry goods in large containers, including beans, coffee, tea, chocolate, and molasses. Such items were commonly purchased in bulk to minimize trips to Harris Newmark’s mercantile in Los Angeles (half a day's journey). Perishable fruit, like apples, oranges, figs, and grapes, were harvested from the orchard and could be dried or canned for future use. Other perishables are stored here too, including meat, which could be salted or smoked for longer shelf-life, eggs that came from the ranch chickens, and cheese and cream that were provided by Marcellus Bixby’s dairy cows. Marcellus was the older brother of Jotham and Lewellyn Bixby; he lived about a mile from the RLC adobe – and he apparently had little interest in sheep ranching, preferring dairying instead.