Banning House
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Banning House
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Banning House, August 2008
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| Location | 401 E. M St., Wilmington, Los Angeles, California |
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| Coordinates | 33°47′25″N 118°15′26″W / 33.79028°N 118.25722°WCoordinates: 33°47′25″N 118°15′26″W / 33.79028°N 118.25722°W |
| Built | 1863 |
| Architect | Phineas Banning |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival-Victorian |
| NRHP Reference # | 71000160 |
| CHISL # | 147 |
| LAHCM # | 25 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 6, 1971 |
| Designated CHISL | 1935 |
| Designated LAHCM | 1963 |
Banning House, also known as the General Phineas Banning Residence Museum, is a historic Greek Revival-Victorian home in the Wilmington section of Los Angeles, California. Built in 1863 by Phineas Banning near the original San Pedro Bay, it remained in the Banning family until 1925 and has been owned by the City of Los Angeles since 1927. The home, barn and gardens are now operated as a museum. The Banning House property, also known as Banning Park, has been designated as a city Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and state California Historical Landmark and has been federally listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Banning House was designed by Phineas Banning, and has been described as "one of the best examples of Greek Revival architecture in the west." It originally had 30 rooms, but some rooms have been combined, and the house now has 24 rooms. According to a history of the house written by its curator, Banning recruited help to build the house from shipwrights, blacksmiths, carpenters, and artisans employed on clipper ships visiting the Wilmington harbor. Banning was reported to have lavishly entertained the ships' captains while they were at Wilmington, encouraging them to stay in port and seal up leaks in their ships with tar from the La Brea Tar Pits. The story goes: "Strangely enough Banning repeated this warning (about leaky ships) over and over for about three years until his mansion was completed in 1864."
The house was a departure from the adobe haciendas that predominated in Southern California at the time and became a showplace. During Banning's life, the house was the site of parties, or "regales" as Banning called them, attended by United States senators, congressmen, governors, foreign dignitaries, ship captains, Army officers, and business leaders. It has been said that "no home in all California represents the horse and carriage era more fully than the Banning Mansion, where for decades Phineas entertained the elite of the social, economic, and political world." The house was also reportedly the site of "the first yachting party on the West Coast."
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