{"nrhp_refnum":"78000698","name":"La Casa Alvarado","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1459 Old Settlers Lane","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pomona","county":"Los Angeles County","state":"CA","lat":34.07379744600007,"lon":-117.75605746599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-04-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"La Casa Alvarado is a one-story adobe and redwood residence at 1459 Old Settlers Lane in Pomona, Los Angeles County, California, built about 1840 by Ygnacio Alvarado on the San Jose Rancho.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the second oldest known residence and the first public schoolhouse in Pomona. It hosted monthly Catholic mass for about 45 years and has been continuously occupied as a residence since construction. It is one of three remaining adobes in Pomona and one of the few landmarks from before the city's founding.","narrative":"Built about 1840 on the San Jose Rancho, this one-story adobe and redwood house at 1459 Old Settlers Lane in Pomona was the ranch home of Ygnacio Alvarado, who agreed to settle there at the invitation of Ygnacio Palomares on condition that he provide space for worship. For 45 years, padres from the San Gabriel Mission came monthly to celebrate mass in the house. In 1870 it served for about a year as Pomona's first public school. After the Pomona Land and Water Company bought the property in 1886, Dr. Benjamin S. Nichols added Victorian redwood wings, a two-story tankhouse, a moved bunkhouse and a wraparound porch. The original adobe walls are about two and a half feet thick, with open-beam ceilings inside. The Nichols family lived there until 1951, when the present owners began a gradual restoration. It is one of three surviving adobes in Pomona and has been a residence throughout its history.","period_of_significance":"c. 1840","architect_builder":"Ygnacio Alvarado (built the adobe); Dr. Benjamin S. Nichols made later additions","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied as a residence since construction; parts of the structure have been slowly restored since 1951. A redwood tenthouse on the property is used for storage.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.54156-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/78000698.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000698/dfd210675b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000698/dfd210675b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Los Angeles","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Casa_Alvarado,_Pomona.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Casa_Alvarado,_Pomona.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123859252","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Casa_Alvarado","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6461569"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/los-angeles-county/la-casa-alvarado-78000698/"}