The Rancho Los Alamitos Foundation, the nonprofit that operates the historic Long Beach site, has purchased the home next door.
The property, 6390 E. Bixby Hill Road, inside the gated community of Bixby Hill, went on the market shortly before the end of the year. When it stayed on the market going into spring, the foundation’s Board of Trustees explored the possibility of buying it.
“It was too good an investment for the Rancho to pass up,” said board President Jeff Green. “It is now a part of the foundation’s investment portfolio. It is our intention to lease the house and review the arrangement periodically, as we do with all our investments, to insure that we are using it to the maximum benefit for the foundation.”
The house, built in 1966, is 4,618 square feet on a 10,147-square-foot lot, according to real estate records. It has four bedrooms and four baths. The purchase price is listed as $1.9 million. The property shares a property line along the west side of the rancho.
Pam Lee, the rancho’s executive director, pointed out that the city owns the rancho property while the foundation has purchased the home. While the house property — and all of the surrounding area — is part of the original 25,500-acre Rancho Los Alamitos once owned by Manuel Nieto, it was not part of the 7.5 acres Fred and Florence Bixby, the last private owners, donated to the city in 1968 to become a historic site.
“The rancho is in very good shape financially,” Lee said. “We have respectable operating reserves, and we have sound investments.”
The Bixby Hill Homeowners Association, Green said, has been notified of the purchase and plans to lease the home. The rancho and the association have worked together in recent years, with the rancho hosting association meetings.
A lease could run six months or a year. The house, Lee said, isn’t ready to lease yet — there are repairs to be made. Once it is available to lease, the rancho administrative staff will handle the process, at least initially, she said.
The Rancho Los Alamitos Foundation was formed in 1986 to operate and maintain the historic site, including renovating and restoring the property. The site includes a historic adobe home, award-winning gardens, barns, a blacksmith shop and more. Livestock, including horses, chickens and goats, are on-site, and the rancho conducts free educational tours to area third- and fourth-grade classes.
Documented history programs and exhibits reach back to when the Tongva people considered the hilltop sacred, calling it Povuu’ngna.
The rancho has reopened to the public, with hours from 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday. Admission is free. For more informationm, go to rancholosalamitos.com.
Editor’s note: Harry Saltzgaver is a board member for the Rancho Los Alamitos Foundation.
