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.
[Illustration: _Famous La Brea Pits and Ranch House, Now in Hancock
Park_]