Stepping 200 Years Into the Past – A Visit To the Sanchez Adobe

This past weekend was the Los Angeles Conservancy volunteer party. Y’all know I’m a volunteer, right? If not, you can read my thoughts about this great organization here.

This year the party was held at a site that’s been in the news lately. It’s called the Sanchez Adobe and it appears the earliest parts of the structure date to the 1790’s. This mean that it may very well be (drum roll please) the oldest building in Los Angeles.

Currently, it belongs to an organization called the Consolidated Board of Realtists and is tucked away in a corner of Baldwin Hills. Now the building is surrounded by businesses and apartments but as you can see in the photo (within the photo) above it was once a rural location. A lot has changed in 200+ years.

Today, it’s hardly recognizable as the historic structure it truly is. The outside is pretty nondescript.

And the inside…well…there’s a reason I have no photos of it. Let’s just say it could use a lot of TLC.

But regardless of the condition of the building, it truly is a historic structure. To think that just by stepping inside the threshold I entered a structure that has withstood the test of time. It’s survived countless earthquakes, the evolution of the land from countryside to major metropolis, and the American itch to tear things down and replace them with something newer and (supposedly) better. And it’s survived all of this without any notice. It’s not a museum. It’s not a functioning historical site. There are no “friends of” supporting it. But yet, here it is. Still standing. And that alone is amazing.

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