Avila Adobe050

The oldest house still standing in Los Angeles, the Avila Adobe is one of the attractions at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, site of the early Los Angeles pueblo, where forty-four settlers established a farming community in 1781.

Built in 1818, the Avila Adobe has been restored to the way it looked in the late 1840s, when the Avilas were a well-established ranchero family, farming and trading cowhides. Don Francisco de Avila served as mayor of Los Angeles in 1810, and raised his family in this adobe.

His descendants lived in the house into the 1860s, although it was occupied briefly by American soldiers under the command of Commodore Robert Stockton, who used the house as his headquarters in 1847, while negotiating the end of the Mexican-American War.

After falling into disrepair, the Adobe was restored and opened as a museum in the 1930s; millions of tourists have enjoyed a glimpse of early California life in the years since.

A typical ranch adobe of that era, the Avila Adobe is on one level, centered around a shaded courtyard. Visitors travel clockwise.

Look for Avila's prized saddles, on display in the Office, the gorgeous Chinese shawl draped on the bed of the Master bedroom, and the simple rag dolls in the Children's Room.

The enormous washtub, used for weekly baths in the Kitchen, provides a wonderful opportunity to remind your kids of the blessings of modern plumbing!

There are small - but modern - bathrooms for visitors' use inside the courtyard.