68 HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



During the boom days of 1886-87, G. W. Glover, Sr., laid off hisland, which 

 included the site of the old Garfias hacienda, into town lots, and this made 

 it necessary to pull down all that remained of the heavy adobe walls and 

 grade the ground. This was done in November, 1888. Cottages have been 

 built on each side of it, but the lot where the historic old hacienda stood is 

 still vacant (1894) and now owned by Geo. W. Glover, Jr., editor of the 

 South Pasadenan. 



While engaged in building his ranch house, Senor Garfias made a 

 road up over the Arroyo hills nearly opposite the head of Colorado street, to 

 get timber from a fine sycamore grove which then grew on what is now 

 known as the Campbell-Johnson ranch. That old road was quite a con- 

 spicuous object, in plain view from Pasadena for nearly twenty years, and 

 had been facetiously dubbed " Fremont's Trail " by D. M. Berry, the col- 

 ony secretary ; the name stuck, and the majority of early Pasadenians really 

 believed that Gen. Fremont had made that road ; but Fremont never saw 

 nor heard of it. Garfias made it, and the rafters for his house and timbers 

 for the rear veranda, besides poles and posts for corrals and various other 

 uses were all hauled or dragged down that miscalled "Fremont's trail." 

 It is now (1895) almost entirely obliterated by the grading and improve- 

 ments made by Mr. J. W. Scoville on those Arroyo hills. As this " Garfias 

 adobe" was the one historic manor house of Pasadenaland, I quote here an- 

 other account of it published some years ago : 



"The wood work was mostly of Oregon pine. The posts which sup- 

 ported the projecting roof were of redwood. The interior was plastered and 

 nicely finished throughout. It was the finest country house in L,os Angeles 

 county, but it cost Garfias the ranch. When interest on the borrowed 

 money amounted to $1,000, and he saw no way to pay it, he went to Dr. 

 Grifiin and told him that if he would give him $2,000 more he would make 

 him a deed for the ranch. Griffin did not want the place,* and he would 

 never have foreclosed the mortgage ; but to oblige Garfias the $2,000 ad- 

 ditional was paid over, and the Doctor received the deed for the ranch, 

 which contained nearly 14,000 acres." 



Dr. Griffin informed me in July, 1895, that Garfias built his hacienda 

 in about 1853, and it was not till 1858 that he [Griffin] loaned Garfias 

 $8,000 (not $3,000 as has been commonly reported), taking security on the 

 land. And when the additional $2,000 was furnished Garfias, it was to pay 

 for the personal property — the farm implements, tools, work horses, oxen, 

 etc., that were then on the ranch. It was thought at the time by business 

 men of Los Angeles that he had paid a great price for the place. 



*Ex-Mayor Spence of Los Angeles in a public speech at Pasadena's great Citrus Fair in 18S5, said 

 that when he first rode over rancho San Pasqual in the early '6o's he would not have given twentj'-five 

 cents an acre for it~in fact he would have hesitated to take it as a free gift and agree to pay taxes "on it. 

 And in 1S74, when B. D. Wilson made a free gift to the Orange Grove colony of 1400 acres up where Al- 

 tadena now lies, the colony men generallv R^lt that they could not afford to accept it; but on learning 

 that the taxes were all paid they ventured to risk its acceptance. 



