The Jensen Alvarado Ranch is a historic park and museum in

Jurupa Valley, California Jurupa Valley ( Serrano: ''Hurumpa'') is a city in the northwest corner of Riverside County, California. It was the location of one of the earliest non-native settlements in the county, Rancho Jurupa. The Rancho was initially an outpost of the ...

, USA, and is operated by the Riverside County Regional Park and Open-Space District. It can be accessed from 4350 Riverview Drive, or 4307 Briggs Street. It was the first

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

-fired brick building built in

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Unit ...

, and is the oldest non-

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

structure in the

Inland Empire The Inland Empire (IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County to the west. It includes the cities o ...

History

The

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

sea captain

Cornelius Jensen Cornelius Boy Jensen (September 29, 1814 – December 12, 1886) was a Danish sea captain and Californian politician. Of the nine one-year terms that he served as county supervisor between 1856 and 1877, Jensen was the Chairman of the San Bernardin ...

settled in

Agua Mansa Agua Mansa ("gentle water") is a former settlement in an unincorporated area of San Bernardino County, near Colton, California, United States. Once the largest settlement in San Bernardino County, it is now a ghost town. Only the cemetery remain ...

around 1854 where he ran a store, and he married

Californio Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sinc ...

Mercedes Alvarado soon thereafter. After the

Great Flood of 1862 The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the very high elevations that began in ...

, most of the town was destroyed with the exception of the cemetery, the chapel, and Jensen's store. Some years later, Jensen bought a part of the

Rubidoux Rubidoux ( ) was a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Riverside County, California, until July 1, 2011, when it became a neighborhood of the newly formed city of Jurupa Valley. The city is located within Southern California's ...

ranch. Jensen and Alvarado bought land in Agua Mansa in 1865. They built their Danish vernacular style home between 1868 and 1870 on a ranch of . Jensen built his home on this land using traditional bricks, having learned from the 1862 flood that

bricks dissolve in water. Their home, which served as the area's general store, post office, and stage stop, was built next to the town's chapel. The ranch, valued at one time at approximately $30,000, was the second-most valuable in

Architecture

The home's architectural style, Danish vernacular, reflected Jensen's

Sylt Sylt (; da, Sild; Sylt North Frisian, Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian ...

birthplace, while also incorporating a front

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

, which reflected Mercedes' influence as a

. The house was the first kiln-fired brick building in the county. It was also one of California's first

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

brick buildings, and it used clay found on the ranch itself. The rock foundation and the lime used in the mortar were from a Jensen's quarry north of the house. The wood for the house beams came from the

San Bernardino Mountains The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at at San Gorgonio Mountain � ...

. The house has high ceilings, but only one

closet A closet (especially in North American usage) is an enclosed space, with a door, used for storage, particularly that of clothes. ''Fitted closets'' are built into the walls of the house so that they take up no apparent space in the room. Closet ...

. There are several other brick buildings on the ranch, including a winery, which now serves as a museum.

Agriculture

In addition to apricot and orange orchards, growing wheat, and raising sheep on the Agua Mansa ranch, the Jensens had another in

Temecula Temecula (; es, Temécula, ; Luiseño: ''Temeekunga'') is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The city had a population of 110,003 as of the 2020 census and was incorporated on December 1, 1989. The city is a t ...

. While

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...

was a

temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture *Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...

city, the Jensen's Agua Mansa ranch, on the other side of the

Santa Ana River The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, before cutting through ...

, had a vineyard; of wine were produced and sold each year.

Landmark

The ranch and home are part of the Jensen Alvarado Ranch Historic Park and Museum, an 1880s living history interpretive museum administered b
Riverside County Parks
Tourists are led by interpreters, dressed in period clothing, who demonstrate butter churning and cooking tortillas. The property is a registered

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

(Cornelius and Mercedes Jensen Ranch, No. 943) and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on September 6, 1979. It is notable for the architecture, and agricultural development of the time, as well as Jensen's settlement here, and his career in government.

References

External links