Extremely bizarre sculpture remnants, left in the side yard of the Catalina Verdugo adobe in Glendale.
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Tag Archives: Glendale
The Oak of Peace
…under whose o’erspreading branches the California Lancers mulled their endgame, is gone at the Rancho Verdugo. But a few yards up the slope there yet stands another oak, as magnificent as any in California, whose branches once interlaced with those of its famous partner.
With its immense size and age it may have been a youngster in 1847, when a Jesus Pico was paroled to parlay with his cousin Andres, to negotiate peace with Fremont. It may have been listening as the men parlayed, the horses whinnied, and the wounded Lancers called out from the corredore for aguardiente… Ah, Romance, the enemy of History.
Still, it’s a magnificent oak in its own right.
San Rafael Rancho, granted to retired soldier Jose Maria Verdugo in 1784. I believe this grant, green, fertile and cool, was the very first land transfer of all the ranchos in California. It is a dramatic accident of history that, 62 years later, the last proud Californios found themselves holed up at Verdugo’s, arguing about how they could protect what they saw as their patrimony from American annihilation.
The humble but useful ox-drawn careta is, along with the ubiquitous bell, a symbol of California life during the Mission and rancho period. In fact, many of the famous mission bells, including those used at San Diego in 1769, arrived in California strapped onto a careta. During the Mexican War, caretas served as artillery carriages for both sides. This careta carries a dracaena as cargo.
This cactus on the grounds has fruited, and is setting seed.
The chimney cap on the old river-stone chimney seems almost Streamline. (If it is, thank the Native Daughters of the Golden West!)
Visiting the Rancho San Rafael, in Glendale, on a very hot August afternoon. At least the verandah was breezy and cool.
The Valley Village View 