Antonio Jose Rocha built an excellent adobe in the Pueblo of Los Angeles as his pueblo home and this adobe, later known as the Rocha House, was purchased in 1855 by the Board of Supervisors and the City of Los Angeles and used jointly as the Jail, the Sheriff’s Office, the Court House and the City Hall.
In 1860 the Rocha heirs sold the Rancho to John Hancock by a deed which described the property as being a rancho “some 4 or 8 miles West of the Pueblo of Los Angeles.” Cornelius Cole, then United States Senator from California, received 500 acres of land in this rancho as an attorney fee for services rendered the Hancock family and on these acres platted Colegrove, now a part of Hollywood. However, much of the rancho was held intact by Mr. Hancock and Major Henry Hancock, and later G. Allan Hancock, and for many years the land with its springs, flowing streams and gentle ravines provided excellent hunting ground for the people of the town of Los Angeles. As late as 1892 there appears a conveyance, executed by Mrs. Hancock, conveying 20 acres of land and reserving for fifteen years the right to hunt for game. The subsequent platting of the land following the completion of the Los Angeles-Pacific Interurban lines soon ruined the land for hunting purposes.
For years the Hancock heirs took immense quantities of oil from the productive oil field and, as the oil decreased, the development and growth of the city changed the character of the land and the black sump holes gave way to green lawns and the tall, ugly (but profitable) derricks to fine homes, as the Wilshire District, one of the world’s finest residential sections, was built on the Rancho La Brea.
Famous La Brea Pits and Ranch House, Now in Hancock Park
Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La Tijera
How differently the Spanish and the Americans viewed their ranches is quite apparent from the names they gave them. The Americans dubbed their ranches the “Diamond Bar,” the “3 X,” the “109,” or some other rather picturesque but meaningless title.
The Spaniards blessed their ranchos by dedicating them to Santa Anita, San Rafael, Santa Gertrudes, or San Geronimo. They saw the many little streams of water flowing from the springs on what is now Beverly Hills and named that Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas—the gathering of the waters. They loved the big oaks of the district along Ventura Boulevard between North Hollywood and Girard and named it Rancho El Encino—the oaks. What the Americans call the Baldwin Hills—they saw naturally formed a pass resembling scissors and thus was named Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La Tijera.
In 1843 Governor Manuel Micheltorena granted Rancho Cienega o’Paso de La Tijera to Vicente Sanchez, friend of the Mexican government, valiant soldier and good citizen. But he did not live long to enjoy his rancho and at about the time California became a state his heirs partitioned his land holdings. Tomas A. Sanchez acquired the rancho—his sisters taking property on Nigger Alley in the Pueblo of Los Angeles as their share.
Tomas Sanchez also had a well deserved reputation for extraordinary bravery and was Sheriff of Los Angeles County from 1860 to 1867, a period in which crime waves were permanent and the accepted order of the day.