La Casa Nueva (Temple Residence)
The Homestead Museum also includes 'La Casa Nueva' — a spectacular example of Spanish Colonial Revival style, built by the Temple family between 1922 and 1927. The family's own design was drawn up by the well-known Los Angeles architectural firm of Walker and Eisen, although in 1924, Beverly Hills-based architect Roy Selden Price was hired to reconfigure the design.
The structure is largely built of adobe bricks handmade by artisans led by Pablo Urzua of Guadalajara, Jalisco, while the supervising contractor was Sylvester Cook of Whititer. The home (9,000 square feet, as built, with 2,000 square feet (190 m2) of dormitory space constructed in 1930 for a military school using the home) contains twenty-six rooms, including nine bedrooms, six bathrooms, a barber shop, commercial size electric cold storage unit, basement with a late 1870s bank vault for storage, and other notable features. Lived in by the Temple family for only two full years (1928 and 1929) as a fully completed structure, the home was leased to Lawrence Lewis, who was headmaster of a boys' military academy, Raenford (later Golden State), which moved from Redondo Beach and operated at the 92-acre (370,000 m2) ranch from 1930 to 1935. The home and property were then owned by the California Bank and occupied by caretakers until purchased in October 1940 by Harry and Lois Brown, operators of El Encanto, a sanitarium moved to the site from Monrovia. The Brown family took excellent care of the house until it was sold to the City of Industry in 1975.
Restoration took place in subsequent years with the home opened as part of the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in May 1981. While most of the house was intact, some replication was done and the house was almost entirely furnished with acquired period pieces, though some original family furniture and artifacts have been donated by Temple descendants.
Read more about this topic: Workman And Temple Family Homestead Museum