Jose Maria Verdugo

At the edge of the Verdugo Adobe's porch hangs a sign, "Catalina Adobe." And therein lies a tale. For many years, Glendale's newest historic site, the Verdugo Adobe at 2211 Bonita Drive, bore the name of Catalina Verdugo, the daughter of land grant owner Jose Maria Verdugo. When Jose Maria Verdugo signed his will in 1828, he divided his estate between two of his children, his son, Julio, and one of his daughters, Catalina. Although he had two other daughters, they had both married and were presumably well provided for. Catalina, however, was blind from smallpox and had never married.

Glendale's new historic site, the Verdugo Adobe, has been fully furnished with furniture and items from the 1850s to the 1900s and is ready for visitors. Although it is not open to the public on a regular basis, Ann Denis, president of the Days of the Verdugos Heritage Assn., says groups of at least six people can make an appointment to visit the house at 2211 Bonita Drive. The heritage association, formerly the Days of Verdugos, has been working with the city's Parks, Recreation & Community Services Department to create a living museum at the adobe.

Under the leadership of Ann Denis, a group of residents has been busy at the Verdugo Adobe, the oldest documented site in our city, turning it from an empty house last used by park rangers to a vibrant dwelling filled with items from the time of the Verdugo family. Don Jose Maria Verdugo and his family were one of Glendale's earliest settlers and he received a land grant of 36,000 acres in 1874. It all started a couple of years ago, when Denis, a member of the Days of Verdugos, volunteered to gather furnishings for the adobe and prepare it for its new life as a museum.

I was on the phone with George Ellison of the Special Collections Room at Central Library the other day when he suddenly put me on hold. When he came back, he told me he had just given the historic Verdugo branding iron to someone from the parks department and that it was on the way to the Verdugo Adobe. There it would join the Verdugo platter, which had been delivered several weeks before. "It's too bad to see it go." Ellison said. "But people will be able to see it up there."

Early in the 1900s, a trio of adobe houses stood along the foothills of west Glendale. Only one remains. One was the old Jose Maria Verdugo home, placed by old-timers near the present Hoover High School. Another was an adobe near Brand Boulevard and Mountain Street, owned by Rafaela Verdugo Sepulveda and her husband Fernando Sepulveda. Later, their home was the site of the Casa Verdugo restaurant. The third adobe was built by the stepdaughter of Rafaela Verdugo Sepulveda.

San Fernando Road, one of the oldest and most historic streets in Glendale, is part of a route that traces its roots back to Southern California's earliest days. Once a primitive, dusty trail, it was the primary route for those traveling from Mexico City to Northern California. No doubt, many of the Spanish soldiers, priests, Indians and early settlers used the trail as they passed through this area. The route ran right through the 36,000 acres on which Spanish soldier Jose Maria Verdugo grazed his cattle.

The first Verdugo Views history column appeared just a little more than a year ago, on the last Saturday in June, and since then, I've come to know a lot more about Glendale's early history. Lots of information has come from the pages of two comprehensive books. The first, "Glendale Community Book," edited by Carroll W. Parcher in 1957, was a Christmas gift from a friend. Leafing through its pages and reading tidbits of history, I thought of the wonderful pictures I'd seen while volunteering in the Special Collections Room of the Central Library and was inspired to put the pictures together with information from Parcher's book and turn it into a column series.

Actress Vanessa Verdugo was in the fourth grade when she realized that she was related to some of the area's most famous settlers. She was on a field trip to San Fernando Mission when classmates pointed out that her name was the same as those mentioned by the guide. "That's the day I first made the connection," she said. Later, she talked to her father and learned that she was descended from two old California families, Verdugo and Pico. Verdugo has another connection with some of her relatives: acting.

Katherine Yamada Photo: Casa Verdugo Restaurant, (you'll find it on CD #2) Credit: Courtesy, Special Collections, Glendale Public Library Caption: Casa Verdugo Restaurant, established in 1904, was in an old adobe built by the Verdugo family near what is now the intersection of Brand Boulevard and Mountain Street. Glendale's Casa Verdugo Restaurant provided a romantic getaway for Los Angeles residents in the early 1900s. One advertisement of the time invited patrons to sit on the broad porch, "with ancient pepper trees all around and the languorous, sweet breath of the fragrant valley floating up," all the while listening to a picturesquely clad attendant singing favorite old songs.