Phillips Mansion
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Phillips Mansion
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Phillips Mansion, August 2008
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| Location | 2640 W. Pomona Blvd., Pomona, California |
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| Coordinates | 34°3′22″N 117°47′44″W / 34.05611°N 117.79556°WCoordinates: 34°3′22″N 117°47′44″W / 34.05611°N 117.79556°W |
| Built | 1875 |
| Architect | Unknown |
| Architectural style | Second Empire |
| NRHP Reference # | 74000525 |
| Added to NRHP | November 06, 1974 |
The Phillips Mansion is a Second Empire style historic house in Pomona, Los Angeles County, California. It was built in 1875 by Louis Phillips, who by the 1890s had become the wealthiest man in Los Angeles County. Situated along the Butterfield Stage route, the Phillips Mansion became a center of community activity in the Pomona and Spadra area. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, making it among the first 25 sites in Los Angeles County to be so designated (There are now more than 450).
The Phillips Mansion was built in 1875 by Louis Phillips (c. 1830 - 1900). Phillips was born Louis Galefsky to a Jewish family in Prussia (now Kempen, Poland) and moved to California in the early 1850s, changing his name to Phillips. He moved to Spadra (now part of Pomona) in 1862 and began engaging in sheep herding and cattle raising. In 1864, he purchased 12,000 acres (49 km2) of the old Rancho San Jose for $30,000. In 1867, he married Esther Blake, with whom he had three sons (Charles, George and Louis, Jr.) and two daughters (Mrs. Frank George and adopted daughter, Kate Cecil). He also acquired large land holdings in other parts of the county, including the Los Angeles business district where he owned the Phillips Block on Spring Street, a block on Los Angeles Street and another on Third Street. By 1892, the Los Angeles Times reported that Phillips, "who lives so quietly out at Spadra, near Pomona," was "the richest man in Los Angeles County." The Times noted that Phillips was worth "not a dollar less than $3,000,000" and stated that, in addition to his land holdings in Los Angeles, he had a ranch that produced wool, honey and wheat.
The Phillips Mansion was built in 1875 at a cost of over $20,000. It has been described as having been built in the "Second Empire" or "Classic Haunted Mansion architectural style." It was built with 3-foot-thick (0.91 m) walls, 16-foot (4.9 m) ceilings and six fireplaces. The bricks were made at the site by Joseph Mulally of Los Angeles. With its use of a mansard roof, some have described it as being "in the style of the New Orleans French homes." Another writer noted that it "looks as if it had been lifted bodily from the tree-lined street of a midwestern county seat," the "kind of house the banker of such a town would build for himself." The interior of the mansion is finished in cherry and maple wood that was hauled by horse and wagon from San Pedro. The mansion represented a number of firsts in the Pomona Valley, including the following:
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