Heritage Museum West Covina Near Me

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The Taylor House at Heritage Park (3510 Cameron Avenue) is a 1912 Craftsman style farmhouse that has been restored to its historical beauty in the community.

The original site of Taylor House, located north of Workman Avenue and Orange Avenue was part of lands acquired by John Rowland and William Workman from the Mission San Gabriel in 1852 and was known as the Ranch La Puente.

The Ranch was later divided by the partners with Workman taking that portion which now encompasses the western action of West Covina. In 1875, due to bankruptcy, his holdings went to Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin who held it until after the turn of the twentieth century when he began selling "subdivisions". The parcel of land which contained the House site was part of his "fourth subdivision".

By 1911 the land was owned by Emma L. Godfrey and her husband, F. A. Godfrey and on January 6th of that year they sold a portion of it to J.J. Conner. Conner and his wife, Kate, then sold the land to William F. Noyes and his wife, Stella, on October 18, 1912 and the mortgage was held by one Joseph Miller of Long Beach. On September 19, 1913, Mr. and Mrs. Noyes sold ten acres to Almo R. Taylor and his wife, Laura. It was they who built the Taylor House.

The Taylors, along with their neighbors, the Roots, Langs, and E. Machida, deeded portions of their lands on June 6, 1914 to Los Angeles County for "public road and highway purposes".

The next recorded incident concerning the land and house occurred on November 13, 1928 when the Superior Court of Los Angeles County terminated the Joint tenancy of Laura Taylor due to her death on June 28, 1928. Then on May 20, 1933, Almo Taylor put the title of the property in the name of his second wife, M. Genevieve Taylor.

On May 23, 1957 the Taylors finally sold all their remaining property to Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Morley who raised their family in the house for over thirty years and then gave the House to the City in 1992 when it was then moved to its present site in Heritage Garden Park.

The history of the parkland is more difficult to trace, but it is known that Leland Mekeel purchased it sometime in 1951 from a gentleman named Fredricks.

Horses were boarded on it for a number of years and in 1970 Mr. Mekeel sold the land to Covina Unified School District for a proposed middle school. Because the school district changed its plans the 15-acre site was sold to the City of West Covina in 1976.

The Taylor House, itself, is a Craftsman Style home, the architecture that was representative of the Arts and Craft Movement. This artistic movement dates from the 1880's in England as well as other parts of Europe and is a response to the Industrial Revolution and its machine-made goods and to the extremes of the gingerbread and fussiness of the Victorian era.

In the United States this style is variously known as Prairie, Mission or Craftsman Style and can be recognized by the sense of space and openness with an emphasis on horizontal line as opposed to the many storied homes of the past. Quality materials often found on site or native to the region were used in construction. The building was closely related to its site by the use of both design and location. A fireplace was central to the interior design, as the hearth was believed to be central to the heart of family life as was the dining room. Heavy dark woodwork that was square and rustic was to be found throughout the home.

The Arts and Craft Movement was embraced by all segments of society. The wealthy had their homes designed by such well-known architects as Frank Lloyd Wright of Greene and Greene. Low-income families could build their homes from kits purchased from Sears and Roebuck or Aladdin. The middle class turned to Gustav Stickley (1858 to 1942) and plans that were published by his magazine, The Craftsman. Those plans could be modified to meet particular requirements of the homeowner and be constructed by local builders with local materials.