  For the inhabitants of the pueblo, later the City of Los Angeles, the Rancho La Brea has always been one of the most useful of the ranchos. The rancho derived its name from the La Brea Pits where the brea, or crude oil, oozed to the surface to catch prehistoric animals and preserve them for many thousands of years and to catch a few stray cattle in the Spanish days, and also to furnish excellent roofing for the adobes in the Pueblo of Los Angeles. The rancho was first granted January 6, 1828, by Jose Antonio Carrillo, Alcalde of the Pueblo of Los Angeles, to Antonio Jose Rocha, and comprised one square league of land. Early conveyances, however, provided that the owners of the rancho, while they were to have complete title, nevertheless were to allow the inhabitants of the pueblo unmolested right to take such brea as they might need for the roofs of their adobes. 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 |
|
