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The Avila Adobe was built in 1818 by Francisco Avila and has the distinction of being the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles, California. It is located in the ''paseo'' of historical Olvera Street, a part of Los Angeles Plaza Historic District, a California State Historic Park. The building itself is registered as California Historical Landmark #145, while the entire historic district is both listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The Plaza is the third location of the original Spanish settlement El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Ángeles sobre el Río Porciúncula, the first two having been washed out by flooding from the swollen Río Porciúncula (Los Angeles River). The Avila Adobe was one of the settlement's first houses to share street frontage in the Pueblo de Los Angeles of Spanish colonial Alta California. The walls of the Avila Adobe are thick and are built from sun-baked adobe bricks. The original ceilings were high and supported by beams of cottonwood, which was available along the banks of the Los Angeles River. Though the roof appears slanted today, the original roof was flat. Tar (Spanish: ''brea'') was brought up from the La Brea Tar Pits, located near the north boundary line of Avila's Rancho Las Cienegas. The tar was mixed with rocks and horsehair, a common binder in exterior building material, and applied to beams of the roof as a sealant from inclement weather. The original floor of the Avila adobe was hard-as-concrete compacted earth. which was swept several times a day to keep the surface smooth and free from loose soil. (Dirt floors were common among most early adobes.) In later years, varnished wood planks were used as flooring. The original structure was nearly twice as long as it now appears and was "L"-shaped with a wing that extended nearly to the center of Olvera Street. The rear of the house had a long porch facing the patio. Francisco tended a garden and a vineyard in the rear courtyard. The nearby ''Zanja Madre'' (literally "Mother Ditch") was a main water aqueduct and irrigation ditch that brought water down to the Pueblo from the Los Angeles River and was close enough to the adobe for Francisco Avila to avail himself. Avila eventually added a wooden veranda and steps to the front of the adobe. ==Francisco Avila== Francisco Avila, a Californio and wealthy cattle rancher, was the grantee of Rancho Las Cienegas west of the pueblo (present day mid-Wilshire district). Avila spent his working time at the rancho where he resided during the week. On weekends, special feast days, or holidays, he came to the Pueblo where he could conduct trade business, entertain friends, families, or patrons; or prepare for services at the ''Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles Asistencia'' (church) across the plaza. The Avila Adobe was considered gracious in its day. It had a number of spacious rooms with an ample number of windows. It served many a social gathering with the Avilas hosting these events in the large ''sala'' (parlour). Francisco Avila would trade hides and tallow (a main ingredient in candles and soap) to acquire finer imported things from Mexico and beyond to furnish the house. French doors and window frames were ordered from Boston. These imports were brought to post-independence Mexican Alta California by ship over thousands of miles around the southern Cape Horn of South America. Avila wealth and goods to trade allowed the purchase of fine furnishings and goods from Mexico and New England, and Asia and Europe. Avila would also trade for household goods, from on merchant ships anchored in San Pedro Bay or San Diego pueblo's Mission Bay, which were carted inland by an ox-drawn ''carreta'', a wooden bullock cart of the era. The adobe was always ready to receive friends, family, and travelers, including the famous trailblazer, Jedediah Smith. Smith had led a group of fur trappers overland and across the Mojave Desert to southern California, and stayed at the adobe for a few days during January 1827. These were the first U.S. citizens to reach Alta California from the east via an overland route. Smith later recorded: "A few families are rich in cattle and horses and mules and among these Señor (Avila ) and his brother (Avila ) are perhaps the richest." Francisco Avila died on April 5, 1832. His widow, Encarnacion Avila, remained at the adobe until her death in 1855, though sometime after Francisco’s death she did remarry. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Avila Adobe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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