El Campo Santo Cemetery: Walking Among Legends

Don Pio Pico (1801-1894) lived most of the 19th century and saw in his long lifetime astonishing changes in California and Los Angeles from the Spanish era to the Gilded Age.  A merchant, landowner and member of the legislature, Pico was the last governor of the Mexican era as well as a capitalist who built structures in Los Angeles during its first boom in the late 1860s and early 1870s, including the still-standing Pico House hotel.  Financial troubles, a raft of lawsuits and a swindle plagued his later years and he was evicted from his suburban ranch and died, seen as something of a relic of pre-American California at the Los Angeles home of a daughter.  In 1921, his descendants agreed to move the remains of the ex-governor and his wife Maria Ignacia Alvarado, sister of another governor, to a newly completed mausoleum in El Campo Santo at what is now the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in the City of Industry. A PowerPoint-illustrated talk about Pico and the Cemetery and a visit to the burial ground and the Pico crypt comprises the program, and visitors are encouraged to separately visit our historic houses: the Workman House and La Casa Nueva. 

Tours are offered on the hour at Noon, 1, 2 and 3 p.m.

Please Note: This program is given as part of the California Preservation Foundation's Doors Open 2024. The largest statewide celebration of historic places in California. Enthusiasts of historic architecture, design, and cultural heritage will have access to over 80 sites across the state on the weekends during the month of September 2024 all for a single $20 per person fee. Click HERE to register or visit the California Preservation Foundation to learn more.