About the Hathaway Ranch Museum

HRM is a Registered 501(c)3 Non-Profit Corporation

The Story Begins…

At the time of Jesse E. Hathaway’s initial 40-acre purchase, circa 1902, the Fulton Wells property would have been by today’s standards rather remote, with the main artery being the Anaheim-Telegraph Road, a section of which was used as part of the Banning Stagecoach route. The stagecoach regularly made a rest stop at Fulton Wells and would alternately deliver and/or pick up goods at the Koontz’s general store located on the southeast corner of Anaheim-Telegraph Road and Norwalk Boulevard. Today, this same now exceptionally busy intersection is known simply as Telegraph Road and Norwalk Blvd. But circa 1902, these two dusty, rutted dirt roads were anything but the impressive thoroughfares that we now see and experience.

Fortuitously, in 1900, Jesse Hathaway had made a down payment to a Mrs. Brown for 40-acres of land in the Fulton Wells area, which was to become the Hathaway Ranch some five years later. But in the meantime, Jesse was married to Lola Koontz on February 14, 1902, afterwards returning to a modest house in Los Angeles that Jesse had built on North Grand Avenue, Jesse continuing his work with Western Iron Works, which had expanded into the Western Engine Company. Then, in 1904, due to failing health, Jesse was advised to “quit and go to the country” to recuperate, and so by mid-1905 Jesse had become a rancher, moving lock, stock, and barrel to his 40-acre ranch site located in Fulton Wells. Jesse and Lola Hathaway piled their few belongings into a horse drawn wagon and moved into what Julian I. Hathaway, their youngest son, once described as “the box,” the only structure on the ranch property, which was adjacent to what is now Heritage Park. This already old three-room structure was basically said to be a square building with bat and board siding that “let the wind whistle through” when it was windy outside. At some point, probably within a few years of moving onto the ranch property, Jesse decided to move the house to a new location, one with better access, ultimately positioning it alongside Little Lake Road (now known as Florence Avenue). The old house was jacked up and placed on wooden rollers and then little by little drawn by horses to the new location, a slow, grueling process reportedly to have taken about two weeks to accomplish. As the house gradually moved from one side of the Hathaway Ranch to the other, Jesse, Lola, and their growing family continued to live in the house. Improved and enlarged over the intervening years, the house was again moved in the early 1930s, but this time it was a very short move, pushing the old home closer to Little Lake Road, so as to make room for the imposing 1933 Spanish-Mediterranean style ranch house people recognize as a landmark today.

It was from these meager and very humble beginnings the Hathaway Ranch was to grow and flourish as a prosperous ranching operation. Preserving and displaying vestiges of these early days is the main purpose and mission of the Hathaway Ranch and Oil Museum, which is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit corporation that has dedicated itself to the preservation and showcasing of the now gone eras of farming, ranching, and oil development once so prevalent in the early Fulton Wells area—an area now generally known as Santa Fe Springs, California.

Hathaway Spanish-Mediterranean style ranch house
The Iconic tower on the Hathaway Ranch Museum's
1933 Spanish-Mediterranean style ranch house.

The museum's predecessor was the Rancho Santa Gertrudes Historical Society, and was founded August 9, 1983. Then, about three years later, in October of 1986, the Hathaway Ranch Museum was incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Freda Nadine (Applegate) Hathaway was the driving force behind both the formation and successful daily operation of both the predecessor Santa Gertrudes Historical Society and the soon to follow Hathaway Ranch Museum. Nadine was enthusiastically involved in the daily activities of the Hathaway Ranch Museum up until late 2000, when failing health finally prevented any further strenuous daily participation. Nadine’s husband, Richard F. (Dick) Hathaway was also active alongside his wife, Nadine, supporting her various historical interests up until his passing in 1986, freely sharing his extensive historical knowledge of the area and his large collection of historic books, maps, photographs, and artifacts. The museum's five-acre site holds some one-hundred and forty years of Hathaway family and community history.

For many people, our most recognizable landmark focal point, visible from Florence Avenue, is the large two-story 1933 Spanish-Mediterranean style ranch house. Construction of the new ranch house was about halfway completed when the Long Beach earthquake of 1933 struck, leveling many of the small towns that dotted the area between Fulton Wells and Long Beach, California. The large half-built ranch house was essentially undamaged, its cement block and welded steel construction withstood the brute force of the earthquake with only minor disturbance. But the museum grounds have more to offer than just the grand old ranch house, with an original still operational flat-belt driven line-shaft machine shop, and myriad historic farm and ranching structures, plus oil industry equipment, and much more.

The Hathaway Ranch Museum is located about 15-miles east of downtown Los Angeles in Santa Fe Springs, at 11901 Florence Avenue, between Pioneer Boulevard and Norwalk Boulevard. All bounding streets are major four-lane access routes easily connecting with the Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5) or the San Gabriel Freeway (Interstate 605). The location is central to the City of Santa Fe Springs and is less than a mile from the Town Center area. Adjacent to the Northeast corner of the Museum is Heritage Park, which has a rich history of its own that predates that of the Hathaway Ranch.

The Hathaway Ranch and Oil Museum is maintained exclusively through donations from individuals and organizations, and through the dedication and labor of our docent volunteers. Although admission is free, please consider a donation per person.

Location and Mailing Address

Hathaway Ranch Museum
11901 Florence Avenue
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
On Site Office: (562) 777-3444