Rancho Los Alamitos Historic Ranch and Gardens

Please note that the Rancho will be closed due to special events on Thursday, May 30

The Cottonwood Awards Luncheon on May 30. Click here for details and reservations.

Conversations in Place 2013
June 23rd

Please join us at the extraordinary historic site, Rancho Los Alamitos, for the first of this year’s three part series linking the story of The Rancho to the Los Angeles Basin, past to present.

Conversations in Place 2013

Please join us at the extraordinary historic site, Rancho Los Alamitos, for the first of this year’s three part series linking the story of The Rancho to the Los Angeles Basin, past to present.

Enjoy California’s best, including top-notch historians and ecologists; urban planners, architects and critics; celebrated journalists and commentators; and nationally renowned writers

Consider Rancho Los Alamitos and the Los Angeles Basin then and now … where we have been and where we are going

Talk with the renowned speakers and panelists during the refreshing and filling mid-afternoon break or following the Conversation for the day

June 23rd 1:30 – 4:00 pm

The Nature of Place: From The Rancho to the New Urban Scene – When Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary

Christopher Hawthorne, architectural critic for the Los Angeles Times and co-author of The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture.

D.J. Waldie, Co-Moderator of Conversations in Place 2013, lifetime resident of Lakewood, CA, renowned commentator and essayist, and the award-winning author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir and Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles.

Greg Goldin, architectural critic, board member of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, and contributor to Los Angeles Magazine & LA Weekly.

Allan Pullman AIA, founder and Michael Bohn, AIA, design director, of Studio One Eleven, Long Beach

Click here for more information and reservations

Rancho Los Alamitos is twice listed on the National Register of Historic Places - once as the sacred Tongva village of Povuu’ngna, the traditional birthplace of the native people of the Los Angeles Basin and, second, for the evolution of its significant historic landscape over time. The site includes traces of the ancestral village, an adobe-core ranch house ca.1800, four acres of lush historic gardens developed during the 1920s and 30s, and the restored working ranch barnyard of the early-mid 20th century. With the opening of the Rancho Center, the film, new exhibits and room environments feature the landscape, the people and the place over time and within the context of the development of the region and the state.

This exceptional site reveals the early Tongva presence, the Spanish and Mexican periods, the ranching and farming era, and the imprint of 20th century development. A quintessential place for people to experience the living story of southern California, Rancho Los Alamitos is a microcosm of the region, past to present.

Rancho Center & Barns Area Restoration

The Grand Opening of the Rancho Center and Barns Area was a culmination of the comprehensive Master Plan for the restoration, preservation and interpretation of the site, and begins a new chapter of experiences at Rancho Los Alamitos.

Meticulous restoration of the barns area brings back the historical character, sights and sounds of the original working ranch, its historic barns, working blacksmith shop, feed shed and corrals. It’s also the new home of the Ranch animals— the ducks, chickens, rabbits, and the all-time favorite draft horses.

The 1948 Horse Barn creates the historic core for the new Rancho Center, a stunning blend of historic and contemporary architecture, which houses the new permanent exhibition, Rancho Los Alamitos -- Ever Changing, Always the Same.

Please click here to see images of the new Rancho Center and the Barns Area Restoration.

Rancho Los Alamitos Gardens and Gift Shop are open Wednesday through Sunday 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Guided tours of the Ranch House and Barns Area begin at The Rancho Center every thirty minutes, with the first tour at 1:00 p.m. and the last at 4:00 p.m. Reservations are not required.

Rancho Los Alamitos, 6400 Bixby Hill Road, Long Beach, California 90815 - (562) 431-3541
Visit The Rancho Wednesday - Sunday, 1 - 5 pm