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- Do you have general information about the history of the city of San Gabriel?
- What can you tell me about the early Native Americans who lived in the area that is now San Gabriel?
- What role did agriculture play in San Gabriel's history?
- What can you tell me about the history of the San Gabriel Mission?
- Can you give me some information about the history of the Mission Playhouse?
1. Do you have general information about the history of the city of San Gabriel?
San Gabriel's roots lie with the Catholic church and eighteenth-century
Spanish missionaries. The land the city currently occupies once belonged to
the Indians now known as the Gabrielino. In the late 1700s, Spanish explorers
first visited the area, with missionaries establishing Mission San Gabriel
Arcangel in 1771 to serve as a center for proselytizing among the Native
Americans. For more than half a century, the Franciscans at the mission not
only worked to save the souls of the native population but directed their
labors for the mission. Together the padres and Indians created a prosperous
agricultural community. In the 1830s, the Mexican government took the mission
and its extensive land holdings away from the church. Later, the United States
returned the mission, but by then Mexican and American ranchers and farmers
were establishing themselves in the neighborhood. Orange groves, fields of
grain, and broad expanses of grazing cattle and sheep characterized the area
for many years.
In the 1880s, San Gabriel was "a wild little town with eighteen saloons within
a two-block area." Most of its several hundred residents were not particularly
pleased with its reputation and in the early 1890s voted to eliminate the
saloons. Near the end of the nineteenth century, the coming of the railroads
started a migration of people to southern California, and the interurban rail
system that arrived on its heels similarly fostered the growth of the small
community of adobe homes and businesses known as San Gabriel. By 1913, some
residents were envisioning a bigger and better future, and, following a heated
battle, voted to incorporate the community as a city. In 1923, San Gabriel
had roughly 2,000 inhabitants. Subsequent years brought steady land sales
and housing construction, as new residents flowed into the city. San Gabriel's
population, like that of surrounding communities, swelled during the 1930s and
1940s. Home to approximately 12,000 citizens in 1940, San Gabriel residents
numbered more than 20,000 in 1950. Gradually agriculture gave way to
residential developments and commercial and industrial enterprises. In the
1960s, many San Gabriel firms were turning out component parts for the
burgeoning Southern California aerospace industry.
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Website Links:
Print Sources:
- The Historical Volume and Reference Works: Los Angeles County. Arlington, CA: Historical Publishers, 1962-65.
- San Gabriel, California: City with a Mission. San Gabriel Chamber of Commerce.
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Places to Visit:
San Gabriel Historical Association Museum
(open Saturdays and Sundays only)
546 West Broadway
San Gabriel, CA91776
(626) 308-3223
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Images:
- Cemetery in San Gabriel, c. 1910
[Courtesy of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum]
- Home of Mr. and Mrs. John McKay in San Gabriel, c. 1890
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Map showing the official land use plan of the city of San Gabriel, 1949
[Courtesy of the San Gabriel Historical Association Museum]
- Washington Elementary School, 1888
[Courtesy of the San Gabriel Historical Association Museum]
- Church of Our Savior in San Gabriel, c. 1915. The
church was established by the Patton, Henry Huntington, and other
prominent early San Gabriel families. It was built in 1867 with money
from Mrs. Vinton of Rhode Island.
[Courtesy of the San Gabriel Historical Association Museum]
- Class in front of Washington Elementary School in San Gabriel, c. 1930s
[Courtesy of the San Gabriel Historical Association Museum]
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2. What can you tell me about the early Native Americans who lived in the area that is now San Gabriel?
The Native Americans who lived in what is now the Los Angeles area spoke a
language distinct from their neighbors to the North and South of them. They
have come to be known as Gabrielino, after the Mission San Gabriel, where
many of them eventually lived.
When the Europeans arrived, they discovered numerous Indian villages between
the Pacific Ocean and the San Gabriel mountains. The Gabrielino lived in
domed, circular structures with thatched exteriors. Both men and women wore
their hair long and used a vegetable charcoal dye and thorns of flint slivers
to tattoo their bodies. They required very few clothes, though women usually
donned deerskin or bark aprons, and all might wear animal skin capes in cold
or wet weather. Passing through during the mid 1700s as part of Spaniard Gaspar
de Portola's famous expedition from San Diego to Monterey, Padre Juan Crespi
observed that the Indians in the area were very friendly.
When the Franciscans established the Mission San Gabriel in the late 1700s,
they did so with the intent of converting the nearby Indians and teaching them
useful skills-that is, weaving, spinning, farming and other skills typical of
a European lifestyle. Those Gabrielino who did not flee, either moved
voluntarily or were forcibly relocated to the vicinity of the mission, where
they worked its lands and contributed to its eventual prosperity. European
diseases killed many of these Indians, and others suffered from ill treatment
at the hands of the occupying Spaniards. Later, many became laborers for local
landowners. For more information on the Gabrielino, see the following sources:
Website Links:
Print Sources:
- Handbook of North American Indians,
edited by William C. Stuyvesant/Volume 8: California, edited by Robert
F. Heizer. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
- McCawley, William. The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles. Banning, CA: Malki Museum Press; Novato, CA: Ballena Press, 1996.
Images:
- Map showing the location of aboriginal (Indian) villages in the Los Angeles Basin
[Courtesy of the San Gabriel Historical Association Museum]
- A record of baptisms at the San Gabriel Mission, 1778. It notes the first adult Indian baptism at the Mission.
[Courtesy of the San Gabriel Mission Museum]
- Shoshone Indian baskets
[Courtesy of the San Gabriel Mission Museum]
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3. What role did agriculture play in San Gabriel's history?
Nearly from the outset, the padres at the San Gabriel Mission tested the
fertility of the lands belonging to the mission, successfully growing limes,
pomegranates, figs, peaches, pears, and apples. More notably, they were soon
nurturing acres and acres of grape vines and orange trees. Cuttings from
their vines and seeds from their orange trees would eventually spread vineyards
and orange groves throughout California. In light of these achievements, the
Mission has often been called the "Mother of Agriculture in California." Along
with its fruit products, the mission boasted thousands of horses, sheep, and
cattle, with Indian women learning to spin and weave the sheep's wool, while
the cattle provided hides, tallow, and meat. Even after the mission's
influence declined, the San Gabriel Valley continued to be a land filled with
grazing sheep and cattle, fruit orchards, and fields of grain, as Mexican and
American ranchers and farmers maintained the agricultural traditions of the
Franciscan padres. Until a blight destroyed the vineyards, the San Gabriel
Winery was counted among the largest wineries in the world late in the century.
The arrival of the railroads portended the eventual demise of the agricultural
industry, but during the 1920s the lands around San Gabriel were still
producing generous quantities of fruits, vegetables, and grain. Rapid
population growth in the San Gabriel Valley during the 1940s and 1950s and
the spread of commercial ventures and industrial operations ultimately spelled
the end of the agricultural focus of the San Gabriel area.
Print Sources:
- King, William. The San Gabriel Valley: Chronicle of an Abundant Land. Alhambra Chamber of Commerce. Chatsworth, CA: Windsor Publications, 1990.
- The Historical Volume and Reference Works: Los Angeles County. Arlington, CA: Historical Publishers, 1962-65.
Images:
- Wine barrel at the San Gabriel Mission, c. 1800
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
- Citrus crate label showing the Titus Ranch at the corner of San Gabriel and Huntington Drive, c. 1920s
[Courtesy of the San Gabriel Historical Association Museum]
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4. What can you tell me about the history of the San Gabriel Mission?
Father Pedro Cambon and Father Jose Somera originally established the Mission
San Gabriel Arcangel under the direction of Father Junipero Serro in 1771 as
the fourth of twenty-one Spanish missions. Setting up the missions in the
wilderness of a new land that was still very much unknown and unexplored, the
Franciscan fathers felt called to convert the local Indians to the Catholic
religion and, at the same time, to teach them the skills useful to peasants
in an agricultural community. With land holdings encompassing all of
present-day Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties and
resident Indians who had been trained to weave and sew, care for livestock and
crops, tan leather, and tend orange trees and vineyards, the Mission San
Gabriel prospered. The "Pride of the Missions" furnished food and supplies
to settlements and other missions throughout California. In the 1830s, the
Mexican government secularized all of the California missions and San Gabriel
Mission fell into ruins, its Indians dispersed and forced to fend for
themselves. After the United States assumed control of California at mid
century, the American government returned the mission to the Catholic church.
From 1859 to 1908, it functioned as a parish church. Since that time, the
Claretian fathers have administered the mission.
Website Links:
Print Sources:
- King, Rev. William E., ed. Mission San Gabriel Two Hundred Years. Claretian Fathers of San Gabriel Mission, 1971.
- The Historical Volume and Reference Works: Los Angeles County. Arlington, CA: Historical Publishers, 1962-65.
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5. Can you give me some information about the history of the Mission Playhouse?
After enjoying a performance of the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany,
Henry Miller, a Riverside resident, decided that someone should write a play
about the history of California, particularly the story of its missions. He
looked about for an author and finally approached John Steven McGroarty, a
poet, Los Angeles Times columnist, and the writer of a history of California.
(McGroarty would later go on to become Poet Laureate of California and a U.S.
Congressman.) McGroarty developed a script for an epic production of more
than four hours duration involving some 150 actors. First performed in 1912,
the story of Father Junipero Serra and the missions of California would attract
more than two and a half million people during its twenty-year run. Staged in
an old tin-roofed building, the play eventually outgrew its original quarters.
In the late 1920s San Gabriel dedicated a brand new playhouse constructed
specifically for the staging of the "Mission Play" with funds raised by a
group of influential Los Angeles businessmen. The facility's designers modeled
the structure after the Mission San Antonio De Padua in Monterey and filled
its interior with Spanish, Indian, and Mexican-flavored furnishings. Shortly
after the playhouse opened with pomp and circumstance, the Great Depression
hit. Productions stopped, with a mortgage company obtaining control of the
building in the 1930s. For a time it was used as a movie theater. After
World War II, the city of San Gabriel purchased the playhouse and briefly
revived the "Mission Play," but found that it failed to generate the interest
and excitement it had in the past. In the years since, the playhouse has
served as the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium. For more information on the San
Gabriel Civic Auditorium, see the following sources:
Website Links:
Print Sources:
- The Historical Volume and Reference Works: Los Angeles County. Arlington, CA: Historical Publishers, 1962-65.
Images:
- Mission Playhouse, which is now the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium, 2000
[County of Los Angeles Public Library]
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