Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum

We had a wonderful experience visiting the Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum, made even more special by our docent, Toni. Toni was incredibly knowledgeable and shared so much fascinating history about the site with great enthusiasm and patience. Her love for the place truly shone through in every story and detail she shared, making the tour feel personal and engaging. She took the time to answer all of our questions thoughtfully, and her passion helped bring the history of the Rancho to life. We left with a much deeper appreciation for the area's rich heritage, all thanks to Toni. Highly recommend visiting.

This a small museum that is TRUE look into California's development from the perspective of a Spanish family who was granted land as form of gratitude for years of service to King Carlos III

One of the earliest Adobes in California, this was a fun place to visit. The grounds have a rose and cactus garden, neither historic. The house is historic, but only open with a tour. no exploring on your own. The tour is great and well worth a visit. Free tour and parking with the tour lasting a bit over an hour and another 40 min to explore the park.

Went on a field trip with my son's 4th grade class. Such a beautiful peaceful place with a lot of history. The kids even participated in some activities that were done long ago. I was there to chaperone but had a great time. I think currently closed to public as we were the only school at this hidden gem. But they do have events like Rancho days coming up and I plan on taking my family.

Amazing Museum, our guide was very knowledgeable about all rooms. One thing for sure is that the halls can be narrow, not wheelchair accessible.

Beautiful historic place to visit...you will learn facts about the Mexican heritage in California...the beginning of this beautiful state and so on... whether you are visiting the State or you are a local resident give yourself the chance to enjoy this place...if you visit during the hot days of Summer bring light colored clothes because it can get hot and humid inside the museum-house and there's no AC...apart from that it is a quiet, beautiful, knowledgeable place to visit...

The Dominguez family may be the earliest family in Los Angeles. In 1784, he was awarded by the King of Spain, including 75,000 acres throughout the Port of Los Angeles and Orange County. It is estimated that their family is still the biggest landlord in Greater Los Angeles until today. Amazing family!!!

Beautiful grounds surrounded by beautiful groves of trees that offer many unique spaces for a wedding, reception, or event. We were hired by a lovely couple to provide an "All You Can Drink" Beverage Station for their baby shower. Given that it was a very hot day, their guests were able to fill up on limitless beverages. The adobe provides a picture perfect backdrop for any event Highly recommended venue!

This place is truly a hidden gem. Once you enter the gates, it's like a whole New World. There's beautiful plants everywhere and trees. The historic site really brings you back in time. I attended this event being held here with Spanish dancing, and the atmosphere really made the show or enjoyable. Walking around the grounds was very serene. It's like you're getting to experience a bit of history right in front of you. I have no idea at this place was here and will definitely be back to explore more of the museum they have available.

Very nice place to know the early history of LA! I am impressed with the original furniture and items donated by the family, they are in good condition. Also appreciate it for the volunteer who guided the tour!

Beautiful and peaceful place to visit. Full of some much history that few know of. The docent was very knowledgeable too! Definitely recommend this place to visit if your visiting or would like to take a step back into history.

Our visit was great! The lady that wide us was excellent. I want to go back again. Thank you very much Enio Barrientos

Another winner on the trail of the Passport 2 History. We went to the Carson area to learn about the Dominguez family, which was highly influential in this part of Los Angeles County. The original landholder, Juan Jose Dominguez, was a Spanish soldier who received Rancho San Pedro, a huge land grant from the crown for his service. He didn't have children, so his property passed to his nephew, Cristobal Dominguez. He held the property as a cattle ranch, but never lived there. It was his son, Manuel Dominguez, who began building on the property. Manuel and his wife had six daughters who survived to adulthood. Three of them married successful men and those unions spread the influence of the Dominguez family. The three marriages were to Mr. Carson, Mr. Watson, and Dr. Del Amo. All of those names are well known in the area, giving rise to the naming of the City of Carson, the Del Amo Mall, and the Watson Land Company. The family was successful in keeping the land; receiving a land patent from the United States after Mexico lost the Mexican-American War. This was no small feat, as many original land grants were lost due to lack of proper paperwork, let alone misfortunes like droughts and bad business decisions. All of this is celebrated and explained in guided tours of the Rancho adobe. I had done some reading about the family ahead of time, and learned a lot more from our docent. The adobe is in excellent condition, with rooms showcasing various eras in the history of the family. Three rooms are dedicated to Dolores, Susana, and Victoria, the sisters who married and expanded the family. We just might have to go back to experience their re-creation of the Battle of Dominguez Hill, with re-enactors showcasing the events. It's rare to have battles simulated on the land where original conflicts took place. Taking place in October, our guide highly recommended coming back for it. "The 1846 Battle of Dominguez Hills also know as the Battle of the Old Woman's Gun. In this two day event you will be able to experience the reenactment of the battle as well as the many aspects of life in Southern California during the 1800's and the Mexican-American War."

Such a nice location.......... but my 1 star is for the ridiculously high price of $500 they are asking just to take pictures at their location. I think they can lower that a bit.

It's a great experience to see and to learn about how we came to be. Many people of compton don't even know this museum is there. It took me many years to finally visit and learn of how some of these cities came to be. I recommend everyone to visit at least once and bring the little one's to learn. Loved it!!!

Looking for something to do on a laid back week end, then visit the Domingquez Rancho Adobe House. After living in the Los Angeles area for many years, I just became aware of this historical site. The Domingquez site is situated just off Alameda Street surrounded by a lovely green property. You cannot see it from the street and it is easy to miss but also easy to get back to. The house is very well maintained and nicely appointed. See website for times of tour. They are free! Our tour guides are very knowledgeable and well-informed and also patient enough to answer all of your questions. There was no rushing through the museum. It's the perfect thing to do on a relaxing day.

3.5 - 4 stars. A great piece of history that is more exciting and worth a visit when they are putting on an event; otherwise the house tour is somewhat limited during pandemic times. The part of the house made of adobo bricks is hotter than the rest of the house, so the best time to visit is fall-spring. Very friendly and informative staff. There is a donation collection box at the end of the tour or so it appears ways to donate online or over the phone. Free parking, free admission and free tour!

If you are trying to find a little family activity that helps teach about history and that is a little laid back, this is the place to be. The grounds of the property is really nice to see. Also, they provide tours that gives you additional info such as... ever wondered how streets names came about? Well, you learn quite a bit about the family names that helped to build our Los Angeles county.

I came here for a jazz concert, not the actual museum and was so surprised in a good way. The property is adjacent to the commercial railroads and one can hear the trains from the museum grounds. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I had no idea there was such a beautiful home, museum, and such great history here. The Dominquez Rancho Adobe Museum hosts various Garden classes, Nature Craft Classes, bird walk, Monarch Butterfly tracking classes, as well as outdoor live music concerts! My review will be about the great docent tour I had with Brian, the docent. He took us through each room, sharing the history from the beginning where the first Dominguez arrived in 1784 to Juan Jose Dominguez, 75, 000 acres to the 1930s where the descendants upgraded, changed the original adobe home to it's present museum state today. It was such a fascinating family history as well as a Southern California history. This homestead began as a place where cows and sheep grazed and hosting travelers for a place to rest on their journeys, to fighting for Mexican land, to California land to oil and aerospace industry. The southbay would not be here if it were not for the Dominguez, Del Amo, Watson, Carson families. Do these names sound familiar? I highly recommend this tour through this beautiful home.

We visited this location on a Saturday and we attended the 2pm tour. The tour lasted approximately 30 minutes. There are no fees to enter the ranch or for the tours. There is a gift shop at the end of the tour. The only way to enter the adobe is with a tour guide but you can walk the garden area freely. Very nice well kept adobe museum and very nice staff. Expect to spend approximately 1-2 hours at this location.

While I can continually praise them for their free tours and their well-maintained historic beauty spot (for which they've earned this 5-star rating with flying colors), I'll go off-script and review their annual battle reenactment. The Dominguez Rancho was the site of the Mexican-American War battle, Battle of the Old Woman's Gun. The American Navy, in an effort to secure Los Angeles, tried to take the area; however, they encountered a small Mexican force at the rancho. The beauty of it was the Mexicans only had a small cannon, which they hitched to horses and ran it around the grounds, firing it here and there to make the Americans think they were surrounded. Fooled into believing they were facing a larger army, the Americans retreated with their wounded and dead back south. The battle reenactment takes place right on that same battlefield. For all the Civil War reenactments we've got in Southern California, you RARELY -- if EVER -- get to witness a reenactment ON THE SPOT the actual battle occurred. Now, to speak of the reenactment, it's not particularly big. It was about five or six "Mexicans" with about a dozen "Americans" (represented by kids in naval uniforms). The battle wasn't fought with immense ranks (the real battle was a score or so Mexicans versus a couple hundred Americans), so I suppose these small numbers are but a sampling. The Mexicans did fire off a cannon during the reenactment (photo: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/dominguez-rancho-adobe-museum-rancho-dominguez?select=Q4EjAXg0x6pEJZQ8TaKIaw#IDB8NrvzvsYiiTL7roUP7w), though it stayed in the same place throughout the battle. One of the men on their side kept shouting, "Go home, Yankee!" The kids didn't shoot any guns (photo: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/dominguez-rancho-adobe-museum-rancho-dominguez?select=Q4EjAXg0x6pEJZQ8TaKIaw#167w0LdjvWqtMoSZgQJILw), but just stood there with the occasional one falling down and pretending to be dead. Aside from the battle, there were different tents set up for vendors as well as reenactors for exhibiting life in the 1800s. There were also several activities for the kids, of which there were many as the event had many of the cadets from a local military academy. These little warriors lined the perimeter of the battlefield, keeping people from entering and asked for donations for the event in the parking lot. For the fact that you get to re-witness history right where it happened, I highly recommend checking this event out when it happens again in October.

We took a nice tour of this historic old Adobe home. A great place to learn about the history of California. The grounds are peaceful and very beautiful. They have a succulent garden as well.

****************************************** I've updated my review since...and although this is still a beautiful area with a beautiful history, the lack of competence of its leaders has brought this place down, down, down. I prefer Rancho Los Cerritos with its rich history and unique two-story adobe built by John Temple in 1844-1846. The founding family of Long Beach, the Bixby's, once ran and resided at the adobe many moons ago.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Adobe and learning about the history of the Southbay when I visited Saturday afternoon. Our docent was Brian and since my husband and I were the only ones there for the 2 pm tour it was especially nice. My opinion of the adobe is jaded by the fact that I visited the other adobes in Long Beach first and both of those are better maintained than Rancho San Pedro. The adobe itself is in good shape but the grounds could use some extra TLC. With that said it was still nice to learn about the history of the area and that there was an actual battle that was fought on the grounds in 1846 as part of the Mexican-American War. In the future I looked forward to attending one of their many monthly events.

A great place to find some local history. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and friendly. We enjoyed walking thru the house and looking at all the furniture, portraits, and artifacts. The house is in great shape, and it's definitely worth making a trip out here to check it out. Glad I did!

First off let me say this place is beautiful. It is an 11 acre property that is located 1/2 mile south of the 91 freeway. I want to mention that it is easy to pass by because of the abundance of shrubbery that surrounds the property. Once you enter the gates you see grass fields where there are reenactments of the Battle of Dominguez Hill. In addition there is day where their volunteers dress up as the Dominguez family and take you back to their time period. The museum holds various events on the weekends. I do not know if all events are free but the one I attended was (It was a a stained glass seminar, where you made a stained glass hot-air balloon). The tour of the house is also free. The days and hours of the tours are located on their website http://dominguezrancho.org. The tours are very educational especially since the family owned all of the South Bay and Carson. I enjoy my time there and plan to go back again for the battle reenactment. I would recommend going to this museum to anyone. You will not regret it.

I've passed by this place on the 91 freeway quite frequently and have always said that I would go check this place out since it's listed as a historical landmark. What prompted me to go this go round is that an event was posted via my friend on Facebook about a stained glass activity they were having on site. I decided to take my family (see Courtney's review that's my sister..woohoo) and check it out. I've always wanted to do stain glass and having done this activity has only renewed my interest to do more. After the activity, we stuck around for the tour and it was amazing. I've always liked the mission and adobe styles of buildings. I would highly recommend taking the opportunity to step back in time and learn about the history of how the South Bay (and Los Angeles too) came to be.

Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon! We (finally) took the docent led tour of this historical place and are very glad we did. Anita was quite knowledgeable but also interested in making her tour relative to each member of small group of 7 - with an aviation buff, an educator, a couple and even a 3rd grader. Lots of history to cover as it dates back to a Spanish land grant and Anita presented it well during the 1 1/2 hour tour of the house and grounds.

love this place,god created a place were u can chill low key,history is here, if u havent been hr ere you need to stop and vist dome history

Such a wonderful place full of history of the Dominguez family. So much history in are backyards . Went for an adventure walk with my 2 kids and hubby they had a great time. The tour guide was so nice and friendly .

I was impressed by the place. It is well taken care of, especially when you get up to the adobe house. It is a nice place to visit to gain some insight on California history. There are tours (everything free, tour entrance) that are well trained. The house i thought was very nice, especially since the adobe makes it cooler once your inside the house. There are several events throughout the year for both adults and children. If you live near by you should defintely stop by, but call first to make sure you can get a tour guide because you can't just walk into the adobe house.

I had to go here for a history project and I was astonished at all the history tucked away in what seems to be an industrial side of Compton/ Carson. This adobe home is on such beautiful grounds! I honestly really enjoyed myself and the tour guides were very knowledgeable and professional. They have tours available in English and in Spanish. Also it is free!!! The only 'downside' is that its hours are a little bit odd so you have to organize your day around it, other than that I loved going there and learning about the Dominguz family!

What a relaxing and informative day! We liked it even more than the zoo. It's a beautiful place, and we all learned a lot. The people at the museum were very helpful. I hope to return next year.

Rude Rip off!! I stopped by just to check it out and as I just left the parking lot I took a picture of a fountain which was barley working, but nice.. I was then notified that I needed to check in and pay for the tour before I was allowed to take pictures.. I agreed but informed I would pay but did not have the time to take any tour that day.. She then upped the price to a whopping FIFTY BUCKS!!! Just to take a few pictures.. Their out of their minds!!! This is history, supported by the tax payers and they want fifty bucks to take a simple picture of an old fountain and a broken down wagon.. Rude and Greedy.. Be smart and skip this place...Not worth the gas to get there and god forbid you take a picture to remember the place.. Beware ..... All of these other reviews must have been written by volunteers.. The place really sucks.

Mapquest gave me crazy directions! Its was hard to find! I think because of map quest telling me its on my right side (coming from long beach) and it was on my left all along... people that never been or not from around there look for the bushes once you get near the address its def.worth going very nice and lovley wish I should have taken my camera if you go def. worth going and make sure you take a camera! trust me when you there you'll want to... I went today to the Wagons, Trains and Planes: An Interactive Activity it was free and fun for the kids. =]

Lived near this rancho for years and never knew it was here. It is just down the street from the 91 frwy. It's a beautiful place with a lot of historical information regarding the Dominguez family. Whom, by the way, still run this museum. We went on Wednesday, when Jon the docent gave us our tour. There are three tours starting at 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00. Jon really knows his stuff! We had a great time!

Now this is my house! you are all welcome to come in... it's an awesome place to visit relax learn about the place and have fun during the special evens. beautiful landmark. like most of us you could've live around here for yrs and not know about this place because you could easily miss it driving down Alameda St. Don't miss it come on down...

I've been wanting to come here for years. Having passed by so many times I've pondered what lies tucked away within this industrial area. What a pleasant surprise it was. The grounds here are very nice. The docent led tour was good. The Adobe house was very cool inside, I mean like chilly. We learned a lot about the history of the South Bay. It's a nice place to relax on a Sunday afternoon.

I am a volunteer docent. The only one star review I read here says someone tried to charge $50 for the right to take pictures. Any docent should wear a badge and should be reported if they insist on a charge. All donations are voluntary and the museum does not depend on any taxpayer dollars. I love it here, that's why I continue to work for free. Check me out on you tube.

Such a gorgeous place to visit. My friend and I went on a tour or two and loved it. It is so peaceful and just breathtaking. Plenty of parking and the tour people where so nice and helpful. They took us around and made it fun. I would be returning for other events soon

This is a best kept secret in Rancho Dominguez! A very historical museum and an interesting story behind it. People that live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles should stop by and pay a visit because there is a lot to know about The Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum! They also give personal and school tours which is awesome because it can be a great learning field trip for the kids. I know that they also offer events, wedding, and gatherings on the premises but you should check with the office for availability. There are many events there also and I've attended the one of the Spring Mother's Day Tea event which is soo nice to share with your Mother and loved ones. They had a variety of tea, pastries, raffle, and also Flemenco dancing performances. It was beautiful!!! I definitely recommend people to go by and visit this museum, it's a great experience to learn about one of the earliest settlers of the Los Angeles County area :)