In 1927 part of this land was sold for a consideration of $7,000 an acre for the site of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company’s plant. Only the cluster of trees now shows where the great wooden house once stood while hundreds of workmen pass daily over the paths and gardens of the noble Don Vicente.
On other parts of the rancho have been built Huntington Park, Vernon, Walnut Park, South Gate and Lynwood, all prosperous communities. The original adobe house of Antonio Maria Lugo is yet standing on Baker Avenue opposite the Southern California Edison Company’s Power Station and near the Union Plant of the Consolidated Steel Corporation.
The Lugos builded well and both the hacienda and the city home on the plaza are still in good condition. Both should be landmarked and properly preserved—testimony to the finest in life and honor in the days of the Dons.
No Hacienda More Lovely Than That of the Lugos on the Rancho San Antonio
Rancho Los Felis
North of the Pueblo of Los Angeles and adjoining the Los Angeles River on the west is the Rancho Los Felis, 6,647 acres.
The rancho was granted in 1843 to Maria Ygnacia Verdugo but it is evident that she had been occupying the land for some time previous to that date as on February 17th, 1841, the City of Los Angeles, by the President of its Common Council, granted to her the “right to use the water from the river of Our Lady of Angels for cultivating the lands of Los Felis.” At that time there was so much water in the Los Angeles River in excess of what the pueblo inhabitants could use that the city felt free to dispose of part of it in this manner.
In 1853 Dona Verdugo, signing by mark, granted to her daughters parts of the rancho. These deeds recited that they were made for “the welfare and progress of my daughters.” But the daughters failed to progress and soon sold their respective parts for $1 per acre.
Antonio F. Coronel, famous pioneer of Los Angeles, purchased the rancho and subsequently he deeded it to James Lick, equally famous pioneer of San Francisco, by this “more or less” definite description: “Commencing at a point on Los Angeles River; thence Southerly 3,150 varas, more or less; thence Westerly 6,200 varas, more or less, to a napalera (prickly pear patch); thence Northerly 5,000 varas, more or less, to a calera (lime kiln) and thence Easterly following along the right bank of the Los Angeles River to the place of beginning 7,100 varas, more or less, containing more or less one and a half square leagues of land.”