Comments (3) A brown-painted plywood structure sitting amid industrial businesses on the northern edge of Riverside doesn’t look like much, but it’s protecting an important piece of the community’s history. The Trujillo adobe, or what’s left of the nearly 150-year-old building after years of exposure to the elements, sits inside the plywood covering and behind a locked gate, safe from weather and vandalism. But descendants of the Trujillo family and historic preservationists hope to restore the adobe and someday open it to the public. Today, the adobe is little more than an outline, with remaining parts of three mud-brick walls that were later covered with plaster. Even a bronze plaque commemorating the site was stolen some years ago. But historians say it’s the last structure left of twin communities that predate Riverside’s founding in 1870, Agua Mansa and La Placita. The adobe’s story begins around 1842, when Lorenzo Trujillo brought a group of settlers from New Mexico to farm and herd livestock along the Santa Ana River. A few years later, they established Agua Mansa on what is now the San Bernardino County side, and La Placita across the river. The communities flourished until a devastating flood in 1862 washed them away and many people resettled in towns that had sprung up nearby. A descendant of Lorenzo Trujillo built the adobe on higher ground near La Placita, and though the home was occupied until the 1970s, the surrounding area failed to thrive as the open range on which it relied began disappearing, said Keith Herron, Riverside County’s historic preservation officer. Riverside County owns the property where the adobe sits. Now Trujillo descendants such as Suzanne Armas, 43, a Riverside resident whose grandfather was born in the adobe, are urging Riverside city and county officials to come up with funding and a plan to preserve the historic structure. Armas didn’t know the details until recently, but she always knew the adobe was important. She felt that way the first time she saw it up close, she said. Just setting foot on the property moved her to tears, Armas said, because she felt the love and acceptance of her ancestors. “You knew that there was something special on this land. It wasn’t just an old building.” Descendants in Arizona and New Mexico as well as California are supporting efforts to preserve the adobe, she said. They’d like to set up a foundation for its future management, Armas said, but they also want to see local officials pitch in after years of neglecting the property, which Herron said was declared a state place of historic interest and a county landmark in 1968. “It is really sad the way that historic facility has practically wasted away,” Riverside Councilman Andy Melendrez said. He is working with the Trujillo descendants to save the site. Family members and officials will have to decide how best to interpret the pre-Riverside history that the adobe represents. Herron said one positive aspect is that some of the original adobe is intact.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 20:24:42 +0000
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