Restoration of the Girls' Bedroom (2012)

During the summer and fall of 2012, Rancho Los Alamitos restored one of the bedrooms in the historic ranch house. The “Girls’ Bedroom” on the ground floor was used by two of the Bixby daughters in the early decades of the last century. The restoration included the adobe-walled bedroom, as well as a wood-frame alcove addition added about 1909. The project restored the bedroom to an appearance and period consistent with the rest of the ranch house using photographs, historical records, oral histories, and scientific examination of materials. Funding was generously provided by the Long Beach Navy Memorial Heritage Association, the Evelyn M. Bauer Foundation, the Rotary Club of Lakewood, and the Rancho Los Alamitos Foundation, as well as in-kind services from America West Termite.

Some of the highlights of the bedroom restoration project include:
  • The accurate duplication and installation of the original bedroom wallpaper; and
  • The replication of the blue and white overshot coverlets by a master hand-weaver in Maine using an historic photograph of the original bedspreads.